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Calling All Papist Hippies

WHY RADICAL CATHOLICS AREN'T ORTHODOX

By Christopher Zehnder

"I would never accuse you of being orthodox," I said, half in earnest, half in jest; to which he replied (in the same spirit) "I take that as a compliment." It was last fall, and I was interviewing Jeff Dietrich of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community about their protest of Cardinal Mahony's groundbreaking ceremony for the new cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels. It was the first time I had heard such a forthright answer affirming what I had thought, not only about the Los Angeles Worker, but about other Catholics "of the left" who espouse a radical social critique: that they have abandoned Catholic orthodoxy.

Being an admirer of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, the founders of the Catholic Worker movement, I have wondered that so many of their present followers have left behind the orthodoxy their teachers so ardently espoused. Why is it that those who promote the "seamless garment" in life issues, pacifism in regards to war, and the "preferential option for the poor" should also call for, among other things, women's ordination, acceptance of homosexuality as an acceptable "lifestyle," and change in the teaching on artificial contraception. The problem becomes more confounding given, not only Day and Maurin, but such a figure as Cardinal Ottaviani, the "ultra-conservative" at the Second Vatican Council who came to believe that modern war was inherently unjust. John Paul II, too, while upholding orthodox doctrine, calls for an end to executions, for solidarity with the poor, for the avoidance of war. Given this "cloud of witnesses," why are a radical social critique and orthodoxy not more closely wed?

"Simple theological ignorance and miseducation," replied Jim Haninck, professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "One consideration might be that many such folks probably haven't read or thought in any careful way about the foundations of orthodoxy." Haninck, who is also associate editor of the journal, New Oxford Review, said another, "more flattering" explanation might be that many socially radical Catholics "are inclined to go against the grain and do some independent critical thinking." For them "anything that looks like an establishment must be an establishment." Haninck thinks that if someone has thought through the "military industrial complex," he will hold suspect anything he deems to be a "male hierarchical complex.," though in the case of the Church he has misapplied his critical instincts.

Haninck said he also thought a certain naivete lay at the root of much of the social radical Catholic rejection of orthodoxy. "Many such folks, I think," said Haninck, "are very limited in their understanding of the depth of evil. Because of that I don't think they appreciate why orthodoxy has what often looks like a pessimistic, sombre strain. It's kind of ironic, because you would think that pacifists would have a heightened sensitivity to evil -- some do, but I think some go in the opposite direction and have a limited sense of evil: they don't realize how profound it is." One expression of this is the radical's ascription of evil to structures when, says Haninck, "structures come from people."

The scandal of seeing otherwise orthodox Catholics supporting unjust wars or oppressive economic practices, agreed Haninck, leads the radical Catholic to the false association of advocacy of injustice with orthodoxy. Yet, he said, this scandal works in the opposite direction where "you have people who won't take seriously questions about non-violence because they always associate it with flaky hippies in vans."

While Haninck allowed that some on the left abandon orthodoxy because they have personal problems with Catholic sexual ethics, he indicated he thought it perhaps a stereotype. Because the "right-wing" Catholic thinks the left are all promiscuous, he rejects their social criticism. Too, because the radical Catholic thinks the "right are all puritanical and repressive," he rejects their orthodoxy.

In May I called Jeff Dietrich again and asked him why he found the epithet "unorthodox" complimentary. Dietrich said he was not uncomfortable describing himself as orthodox. "I certainly feel that I'm in the same Church as Cardinal Mahony," he said, "and I feel that I'm pretty close -- not too far -- from the pope! So, if that's orthodoxy, that's fine. If the pope is orthodox, I guess I'm orthodox! I'm pretty close! I'm pretty excited that the pope came out saying, we're got to stop the death penalty, and the cardinal came out on Good Friday saying the same thing. I have issues with all of them, but I do feel that I am in the same church, and if that's orthodoxy, then
perhaps I am orthodox. So, when I was saying I was not orthodox, I was speaking specifically to my sense of your own [the Mission's] perspective, which I see as, frankly, to the right of center."

To Dietrich, the Mission is "right of center" on "liturgy;" about other issues, he said he would have "to think about it." "I certainly am very supportive of your position on abortion," he continued. "Obviously, it's not my forefront issue, but it's on my agenda. We all have different takes on this. I certainly am opposed to abortion; I'm opposed to euthanasia, too, and I probably should do a little more on it; but I would call on you guys to do little more to stop the war in Kosovo, and to stop the death penalty." On the issue of artificial contraception, Dietrich said "I'm a little more flexible. We try to deal with the issues of AIDS and the spread of the disease. We are supportive of giving out condoms and needles."

"I am deeply in love with the sacramental Church," said Dietrich, "but I do feel at times -- at a lot of times -- that it becomes idolatrous, that the symbols become an end in themselves. I don't think that was what Jesus was about. I would say that I try to raise issues, unfortunately -- you might say, rhetorically -- just to kind of like shake people up a bit; because I do love the Church and I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the Church and it weren't for Dorothy Day and if it weren't for Sister Mary Rosary, my eighth grade teacher, for God's sake! The Church is my mother. Spiritually she is my mother -- and financially. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Catholics who support me in the work that we do.

"I try to focus on the issues of discipleship, and service, and for me the issues of sexuality and condoms and gay people are not at the forefront of that. When you read the gospels, Jesus isn't coming out hard core against those people. In fact, it is those people that he is reaching out to. I think we have a tendency in the Church to be a little -- no, to be too righteous! And to be too pietistic and dogmatic. I don't think that's where Jesus was coming from. I think He was moving fast, and He was reaching out to the most broken in our society, and He was asking us to give up everything and follow Him. You know, He wasn't asking us to figure out the entire right way to do it. God can work through all the brokenness to bring about redemption. God has chosen to work through this circuitous and secret way to redeem our brokenness. I do feel that I'm looking at what I feel are those large social issues where people are hurting and broken by the power structure and trying to heal those wounds and trying to address the injustices that cause those wounds. Now, I could be wrong, and I may not be focusing on all of the right things. I don't focus on what I often think of as the Church's direction towards our personal sinfulness, because I think it oftentimes blinds us to the level at which we tolerate the immorality of the larger structures, and we just let go the fact that thousands of people are hungry and have been dropped off of welfare, that we're not doing what Scripture asks us to do by inviting in the immigrant, the poor and the homeless. To me, if we focus on those, the other stuff will follow. But, I could be wrong."

If Dietrich's adherence to orthodoxy is, at best, tentative, the same is not true of Mark and Louise Zwick, who direct the Catholic Worker house, Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality, in Houston, Texas. Casa Juan Diego takes in immigrants from Latin America helping them with food and clothing and shelter. The house's bilingual paper, the Houston Catholic Worker/Trabajador Catolico de Houston, carries articles promoting the magisterium and tradition of the Catholic Church. When I asked Mark Zwick, a Catholic Worker of over twenty years standing, why so many social radical Catholics abandon orthodoxy, he answered: "Because our present culture is anti-Catholic. I think that political correctness has replaced [the Faith]. It's difficult for people to be other than politically correct, where diversity is sort of a buzz word for accepting everyone except Catholics."

Zwick thinks, however, that our culture affects not only Catholics of the left. "The cafeteria theology, the cafeteria spirituality, is so prevalent," he said. "You find some people who accept everything except the economic teachings of our Holy Father. So, there is that mentality. There is that document Testem Benevolentiae [of Pope Leo XIII] that underscored Americanism -- I think we have an epidemic of Americanism, where we draw our values from the culture, rather than vice versa."

Zwick recognizes that many Catholic Workers have wandered from orthodoxy, but he said he does not attack them, but tries to influence them through his paper. "Our paper," said Zwick, "makes it very clear that you cannot separate Dorothy Day from her Catholicism; if you do, you don't have Dorothy Day, period, because she really referenced her values and approach and her economics in the light of Church teaching and the lives of the saints."

The same dissension in the Church as a whole, said Zwick, was already present in the Catholic Worker during Dorothy Day's lifetime. "She was very upset," he said, "on various levels. You know, the hippies drove her crazy; she really believed in sexual morality. And the people going wild on liturgy -- you know, a good liturgy is fine, and Dorothy was very Benedictine, but you don't have to have this special little service and have your own special little way of doing things. She was already beginning to question the Mass as a private concern of people, rather than celebrating it in the local parish. She really went to church with the masses; you know, went to Mass, went to confession in her parish. She thought it was nice to be able to make the Mass meaningful, but this idea of making it sort of your own sacred enclave of celebration and the latest twist... One time there was no chalice [at the Catholic Worker in New York], and so they used a cup from the kitchen. Right after Mass, Dorothy went and got the cup and buried it deep in the ground so it would never be used again."

"I'm not even sure I agree with the question," said John Popiden when I asked him why radical Catholic radicals tend to reject orthodoxy. Popiden, a professor of moral theology at Loyola Marymount University, said he thought that there is a "wide range of opinion" among Catholics involved in peace and justice issues. "I don't know if that's a typical response of those who are involved with peace and justice, not agreeing with the pope on those things," said Popiden; "I just don't find that to be true. There are certain people who certainly [dissent from papal teaching], sure; and I know why certain people do; but I'm not sure if that's even where most people involved in peace and justice are."

For Popiden, dissent from Catholic orthodoxy is not exclusively a "left-wing" phenomenon -- because the "right wing," too, is liberal. "When I talk about liberalism," said Popiden, "I say, Americans are liberals; our whole society is a liberal society. That's how we've been formed. The basic documents and the organization of society is in the liberal tradition. That puts it at odds" with the Church, with inherited tradition. "Most American Catholics," continued Popiden, "don't go with the pope on contraception, whether they are liberal or conservative, whether they are for peace and justice or not.

"My understanding, in general, of Catholics in America is that conservatives (like Bill Buckley) like some of the teachings of the Church on some things, and then want to follow them on other things. Liberal Catholics, like, say, Mario Cuomo, tend to follow the pope on exactly the opposite issues from Bill Buckley, and exactly where Buckley would disagree with the pope. Americans tend to be more, our culture teaches us to be a little bit more, separate from just accepting the whole range of Church teaching, whatever it happens to be. So the conservatives will reject the liberal teachings of the pope, and the liberals will reject the conservative teachings -- at least according to what they see as liberal and conservative according to their own political philosophy. The pope is involved in preserving the tradition, which makes him, in that sense, not a liberal."

The identity for all American Catholics, said Popiden, "tends to be more an American identity than a Catholic identity. I think that's a big change from, say, 80 years ago. Then, the typical Catholic in America was an immigrant and they had a close association of Catholicism with their cultural heritage -- you can't say that if you're an American."

However, while "conservative" Catholics in America will tend to invoke the pope in, for instance, the pro-life debate, "liberal" Catholics will not "use the pope," said Popiden, "when he supports their causes. They tend not to want to call him in as a supporter of, say, anti-capital punishment, when they really should!" While conservative Catholics have a sense of tradition (though, said Popiden, "they get angry and upset every time the pope says something bad about capitalism"), the left tends to eschew tradition. The pope, then, becomes an encumbrance to them -- because of the allies they form in their political struggles.

"I think it has to do with who your allies are," said Popiden. It strikes me that the politics are such that if you bring the pope in, then your other friends start to wonder about your purity, shall we say? Your devotion to the cause."

-- from the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, September 1999

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