A Sound of Sheer Silence

"Don't do it," I hear you telling me.  "You don't want to be That Guy," you wisely suggest.  " Everyone  has praised the Pope's new encyclical.  The only people who have a problem with Laudato Si' are Republican Presidential candidates and Rorate-Caeli  readers .  Do you want to be lumped in with that lot?" You're right, you're right.  I shouldn't do it. But. . . I have ambivalent feelings about  Laudato Si'.   I'm not sure if this encyclical will, in the long run, be a good thing for the Catholic Church.  In fact, I think the encyclical is, in some dimensions, a step backward.  There, I said it. Let's talk first about the substance of the encyclical, and then move to my bigger concern, which is the philosophical and ecclesiastical vision that informs the way the encyclical approaches and presents that substance. On the substance, everyone is focusing on climate change part, where he says that human activity ...

Happy Environmental Encyclical Day !  Or, as it is known in some circles, liberal Catholic Schadenfreude Day.  I recognize that I should probably take a measured tone and not rejoice in watching our conservative and traditionalist brothers and sisters squirm.  And I think with this post I have succeeded.  Sort of. You will hear in the days to come the word "cafeteria Catholic" thrown around, and perhaps you are not familiar with that term.  Well, the ever-zealous folks at Catholic Answers  say "[a] cafeteria Catholic is typically defined as one who picks and chooses what Catholic teaching he wants to believe. Catholics are not free to choose which teachings (on faith and morals) to obey."  Hmm, interesting. Sounds like some folks are bellying up to the cafeteria line, as can be seen here and here and of course here . As a frequent and long-term diner at the cafeteria, I would point out that there are two kinds of folks that are grouped into th...