Are Liberalism and Catholicism incompatible

Answer 1

Based on the nature of Catholicism and the proclamations of the Holy Fathers, Liberalism and Catholicism are bitterly incompatible. One, however, might not get that impression from the practices of the Catholic Church today.

Liberalism is basically the idea that one religion is good as another. Traditional Catholic doctrine claims this as a damnable error; such a stance quickly translates into an attitude of tepidity, which is often masked as tolerance.

Catholic popes and leaders claim the Protestant Revolution is the modern origin of Liberalism because of its introduction of private interpretation of The Bible. This removed legitimate authority from religion and inverted the natural hierarchy, putting the individual over the Church. This spirit of rebellion has since taken root in modern man so well it is practically seen as a virtue to be rebellious against order. If a person has the right to decide for him/herself what the Bible means, this entails that they can decide what to believe is truth and what to believe is not. In fact, they are deciding on the substance of truth itself. If truth is theirs to decide, then all objectivity in truth is lost. The Protestant position insists that God, speaking through Scripture, is their authority, however, since God can't contradict Himself, it would seem unlikely He is directly inspiring the literally millions of minds that ponder scripture and somehow come to such different conclusions that there are literally thousands of loosely knit Christian sects, all differing in points of even the most basic doctrine.

The Catholic Church believes all truths necessary for salvation were communicated by Christ and preserved and set forth in Tradition and Scripture. Catholicism by its nature is traditional, containing the deposit of Christian truths. While each person is free to make a choice on whether to accept or reject this deposit of truth, they are not free to reinvent truths or to pick and choose which ones they will believe and which they will discard. Catholicism does not teach that other religions are good, in fact, it intolerantly teaches that there is no salvation outside of the Church. This declaration makes brutal sense if approached from the point of view of truth; truth is intolerant by its nature, allowing only that which conforms to reality to have the seal of authenticity. While many may disagree with the Church's claim, they cannot argue that it is not logical. To proclaim there is exclusive truth is the antithesis of Liberalism.

The above all comes from Church teaching and the popes, who, seeing the trend that emerged from the time of the Protestant Revolution, have warned of Liberalism and its impact if not checked. Pope Pius IX's "Syllabus of Errors" attacked Liberalism and its inroads, declaring it a grave evil. Pius the X in his encyclical "Pascendi" was prophetic in his warnings against Liberalism and what would come of it in the Church and the world. The book, "Liberalism is a Sin" by Fr. Felix Sarda Y Salvany was lauded by Pope Leo XIII when it came out, much to the chagrin of the Liberals who had sent it to him in order that he might condemn it. An abridged version of it is still available in English today from Tan Books. All saw Liberalism as the great evil of the modern age.

Churchmen, however, turned away from the warnings against Liberalism. Many insist this is because Liberals themselves began taking positions of power high in the Church and silenced resistance to their ideas. Whatever the case, a stark contrast is evident in the few decades between Pius X and Vatican II. Vatican II saw the open emergence of Liberalism; in its spirit, Churchmen sought to soften the hard medieval edges and intolerant doctrines of the Catholic Church to better allow the Church to be welcomed and integrated with the modern world. The proposition was that if the Church modernized, people would flock to it. The statistics prove otherwise: Liberalism has been a disaster for the Church with attendance and vocations drying up, another very real proof of Liberalism and Catholicism failing to meld unto success. Many would call Vatican II the council that allowed Liberalism to take hold of the Church, destroy its traditions and reputation and leave it as an impotent mockery of its former self. Some, however, see Vatican II's vision as a slow if not misunderstood process, with this only being a bad beginning to something that will develop well into the future. Time will tell. Liberalism's advance in the Church is no more evident than in the Church's policy of ecumenism. Ecumenism used to be the teaching that all peoples where to become united through membership in the Catholic Church and the truths of Christ. Liberalism has softened this over the decades until it has morphed into an interfaith movement that seeks to unite not only all Christians, but all religions, in a sort of comfortable limbo of interfaith dialogue and interaction that seeks mutual understanding and respect. It sounds very noble, but it is ultimately a network of human relations, independent of the rights of God or His truths, very much the human respect warned about by Christ.

This question is a highly disputed point between Modern and Conservative forces in the Catholic Church today. Perhaps the easiest answer is to simply say, "by their fruits you shall know them" and leave the reader to their observations and conclusions.