The Problem With Outside Interference in Catholicism and Our Politics

When I was a kid, there was a movement to route Federal tax dollars to parochial schools. The essential idea went something like this: parents (say Catholic) make a specific choice to enroll their children in parochial school. Those parents paid tuition for their children to attend Catholic school (mine among them... I was a student of Catholic schools -- all the way through Catholic college). Yet those parents also had to pay taxes (usually property taxes) to fund public schools. Essentially, it was felt that parents of parochial school students were unfairly taxed to pay for public schools while also paying out-of-pocket for parochial school tuition. It was considered only fair, then, that parents paying school taxes should have the option to route some of those tax dollars to the parochial schools where their own children are attending. Rudolph Giuliani is revisiting that issue in his Presidential campaign.

While that debate was going on during my childhood, some very conservative Catholic activists were going around to the different Catholic churches in the area I grew up in arguing that the Catholic community should absolutely not take any government money to support our schools. Their argument was that, should the government get involved in funding Catholic schools, they could also get involved in over-regulating those schools to the detriment of Catholic education. To demonstrate the argument, these oppponents of government funding for parochial schools pointed out what happened to Catholic colleges and universities that received government funding. Sometime in the 1970's, Federal legislation was passed severely regulating all educational institutions receiving Federal dollars, including Federal tuition assistance programs. The effective result of that legislation (legislation which has since been repealed) was to strip Catholic colleges and universities of their uniquely Catholic identities. Even the boards of those schools had to diversify to include non-Catholic and secular membership.

That was a very real scenario. In 1996, I had the opportunity to hear from the President of Sienna College in Albany, NY who described to me their very intentional efforts at restoring Sienna College's uniquely Catholic and Franciscan identity after a few decades of government legislation regulating their identity. Imagine that. A Catholic institution was deprived, by Federal legislation, of its identity as a Catholic institution for nearly two decades! Sienna College deserves tremendous kudos for their intentional efforts at restoring their Catholic -- and Franciscan -- identity. But hearing that account from the President of Sienna College reinforced what I heard in my childhood. Government has no business meddling in Catholic institutions -- or anyone else's institutions, for that matter. I am philosophically opposed, then, to any such concept as school vouchers. I do believe our Catholic schools -- grade schools, high schools, and colleges and universities -- deserve a lot more moral and financial support than they receive. But I believe that support needs to come from the Catholic community, not from government. I also believe that students of Catholic educational institutions -- especially poorer students -- deserve a lot more tuition assistance support. But, again, I am philosophically adamant that such support must come from the Catholic community; not from government. When people outside of the Catholic community begin to have a hand in funding or supporting our institutions, they also gain a hand in defining our institutions.

My concern, here, is not solely one about government funding of parochial schools. That is only an example of a much broader concern I have. What happens when so-called "Catholic" institutions, organizations, coalitions and movements rely on financial and moral support originating from outside of the Catholic community. Ultimately, if those institutions, organizations, coalitions and movements want to sustain outside support, those who provide the outside support have a tremendous opportunity to define who they are. I think we see that, today, in terms of the real political participation of so many so-called "Catholic" political action committees and non-profits; not to mention some new academic institutions.

Here I think specifically of Catholic League, Ave Maria Law School and Beck Institute, among others. All three have noble agendas; at least on paper. But all three were founded and sustain their missions at the behest and support of ideologically conservative political foundations. While it is true that very much of Catholic positioning can be considered "conservative," very much is also considered "progressive." But those three institutions, among many others I could name, are not free to support the so-called "progressive" agenda of the Catholic community because they cannot bite the hand that feeds them. But I think it goes much deeper than that. The founders, or the current leadership, of each of those promoted the ideologically conservative agenda. That is why they were able to get the funding they got from outside sources. Isn't it telling, though, that most of their funding did not come from among the Catholic community?

This tells me a few things. First, we as Catholics have to be much more critical of those who profess to speak and educate in our name without turning to us for support. The tell-tell sign should first be when those institutions challenge our Bishops; whether directly, by challenging our bishops' commitment to faith, indirectly, by challenging particular policy initiatives of our Bishops, or subversively, by claiming a position so important that it overrides the counsel of our bishops. I do not know how many times, in online Catholic forums and websites, I see so-called Catholics opposing our Bishops while calling themselves conservative and authentic Catholics. That is absolutely not possible. Our bishops participate in the magisterium of the Church. While everyone has the right to ask from and advise their particular bishop about a policy issue, no Catholic has the right to publicly challenge their bishop or the bishops as a collective body. Those organizations who do, while daring to call themselves conservative Catholics, do so outside of the Catholic community. They do not speak for us. It is also not true that you can challenge your local bishop or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, arguing that the bishops state their position outside of the position of Rome. First of all, that argument is usually raised about positions of the USCCB when USCCB's arguments oppose particular conservative agendas. It is usually argued that Rome has not spoken on that matter. So the USCCB speaking on the matter is not necessarily a Roman position on that matter. That is complete and utter b.s. (don't make me have to spell out those initials; this is a Catholic forum, after all). Rome recognizes the collegiality of the bishops; and so relies on American bishops to address American issues in solidarity with Rome. That is what USCCB does. And the bishops, as successors of the Apostles, have full authority to do so. And we, as Catholics, are religiously obliged to respect them and to heed their teaching regarding American domestic and foreign policy matters So-called "Catholic" organizations, with funding from outside the Catholic community, would, of course, have us believe otherwise. Moreover, those who, while receiving their funding and support from outside the Catholic community, argue that position don't bother to share what Rome did actually say regarding the respective issues, and it usually turns out that what the USCCB is saying is absolutely consistent with what Rome is saying; however inconvenient that is to those leveraging to polarize Catholics.

Second, we, as Catholics have to own up to our own responsibility to support institutions and organizations that promote an authentically Catholic world view. This is a challenge. First, we have to really know what our world view, as Catholics, is; and that involves constant catechesis. We should never assume that, because we are grown up and because we are "educated," we know what the Catholic world view is. I was educated in Catholic Seminary-College (I meant to be a priest); but do not assume I know everything about what our Church teaches. I am always open to learn more, without assuming I know everything. We should all be humble enough to not assume we are experts on everything that comprises the full teaching of our faith. We need to constantly pursue education, through our parishes, through self-education and through applying personal and social experience to our faith life, to try to ascertain what our Church teaches. We also need to be willing to have personal ideologies challenged. And we must break out of isolated world views. In evaluating whether so-called Catholic institutions and organizations are authentically representing the Catholic world view, we have to be exceptionally objective and non-committed. At the same time, we must have serious grounding: grounding in faith, not in politics. And we have to be willing to look at whether institutions or organizations have "agendas"; and what the source of those "agendas" are.

Third, we are in dire need of real Catholic socio-political leaders. I am astounded at the degree to which our Catholic community is manipulated to support non-Catholic politicians who do not necessarily support our agenda to ensure a consummate relationship between the Kingdom of God and the secular political world. We, as Catholics, know we have something to say about promoting a just and beneficial society. We know what is right and what is wrong. We know what will benefit human dignity. What we very often abandon all that to the propaganda of ideologues who manipulate the rhetoric of our Christ-inspired perspective to promote their agendas. Politics in America has fallen apart. I really think that if we, as Catholics, are going to help rebuild democracy, we must come up with our own leaders. Where are they? I am not sure I know. But they need to rise. But they need to arise from among grassroots Catholics and with the support of grassroots Catholics, not from among monied machines who pay to manipulate the Catholic position.