WHY CATHOLICISM IS NEEDED IN THE SOCIAL JUSTICE DEBATE

 

(From the left bank of Underwood Creek, Wauwatosa, WI)

Matthew Walter, editor of the Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributing editor of the American Conservative, wrote an essay entitled, This is Why America Needs Catholicism.  Walter is concerned about ‘the soulless tyranny of secular liberalism.’  Wait a minute!  Lincoln did not need Pius IX to dictate to him the Gettysburg address, especially since the Roman Catholic Church has a history of supporting slavery.  But social justice is a political issue and support is needed from all including the institutional Catholic Church.  Aquinas writes, ‘Every truth without exception and whoever may utter it is from the Holy Spirit.’

Advice from the Faith Community is essential.  Let’s look at some examples: 

The Warrior Prophet:  In his Commentary on Jeremiah, Thomas Aquinas explains, ‘A prophet has been consecrated to overturn, root up, destroy, and again to build and renew.’  

The Mystic:  A seer who focuses on the path of justice, respects science and becomes aware without the restrictions of place, space and time.  Sharing of revelation can be through music - a mode of expressing truth.

(Caution: Aquinas was condemned by the Church as a materialist in 1277; He was later canonized by Avignon Pope John XXII in 1323.)