Against Quasi-Catholicism

There is a trend amongst academic theologians to valorize Roman Catholicism while remaining a Protestant. This valorization often focuses on the strength of Roman Catholic tradition with its strong central authority in the office of the Pope, the quasi-but-never-quite-there-Socialism, the aesthetic beauty of its churches and cathedrals, and its theology (though often this means simply Early and Medieval Christian theology). What this often assumes, quite wrongly, is that all of these add up to a coherent identity that may be called Roman Catholic. The fact is that the quasi-Socialism of the Roman church is always held in check by the reactionary and conservative office of the Pope and the Magisterium. The aesthetic beauty of its churches and cathedrals owes to a long history of Rome’s sordid history as a proto- and quasi-Capitalist economic body. And its theology, well, what is left for the task of theology except to become a kind of fan-fiction paying homage to the real theology that has already been written and found in the Creeds, the Fathers, and Aquinas?

The idea that somehow Roman Catholicism is better or more radical in political terms than any other mainstream Christian denomination is extremely naive and lacks anything like an empirical (which is not to be confused with a particular social science) investigation into the question. In so far as minority groups within Roman Catholicism have often been radical they have always been the poor in their wider community. One finds similar radicalism amongst other denominations and one may even make the case that whole denominations like the Mennonites represent a far more radical institution, only lacking in numbers and the aesthetic beauty of the Roman churches. Here the Mennonites are far preferable to the quasi-Catholics. Their asceticism owes to the rejection of the very relationship which allowed the Roman church to build beautiful churches and cathedrals. One should not confuse my own mere reporting of this fact with a condemnation of the relationship between Rome and Capital. There are always compromises one must make and there is a strong sense of the importance of beauty of a certain kind (abundant and witnessed to through opulance) that is important to the history of the faith and that is, at its best, shared in common amongst the faithful, and the core of that people as the poor.

One finds amongst the quasi-Catholics a spirit of the convert. The convert rarely takes up the spirit found amongst many who are born into Roman Catholicism. They don’t dare to criticize the Pope, the many reactionary dogmas, the lack of consistency regarding Capitalism, or much (many will often express some trepidation about Mary). A friend of mine rightly said that it is foolish when one has a fundamental faith commitment to leave a church for another one based on one issue. We add that it is also foolish to remain quiet within that church merely because one won’t leave it. The Pope should be condemned when he speaks out of both sides of his mouth, saying one thing about war and capitalism but then telling American bishops they may ignore him on such matters in order to focus on the “problem” of homosexuality. Roman Catholics who hold reactionary positions should be opposed when they attempt and succeed to silence theological positions that are pro-women and not in the service of an ideology of family values. Those who rightly remain within the Roman Catholic church should fight to and use the resources there to forge a new world out of this one. The quasi-Catholics can’t do this. Instead, everywhere they look, they only see Roman Catholics being radical and beyond Right and Left. One must name what this is – fetishistic bullshit.

Because of the poor reading skills of quasi-Catholics I feel I must explicitly say that this is not an anti-Roman Catholic position. I respect many things about the Roman Catholic church and affirm, true to my childhood Weslyanism, a strong sense of a catholic spirit. It is this very catholic spirit which kept me from converting to the Roman church when I left the Nazarene one (and I left it as the Nazarene church, not for one reason). It is this catholic spirit which allows me to recognize the very failure of Christianity (to say nothing of other religions).