In America the Catholic Church is very much a mirror image of the nation being divided between two separate ideologies. It does not have a blue and red breakdown as our country but the separation within the church is just as great. It isn’t even a separation between the so-called pro-life groups and pro-choice groups. The pro-life group being against abortions but advocating the death penalty while the pro-choice group includes those opposed to abortion but who are unwilling to make it a blanket opposition willing to consider factors like incest, rape, and danger to the mother among other things, to believe breathing life must be treasured as much as that of a fetus, and oppose the death penalty and have a reluctant nor to force others to follow their beliefs.
As I see it the breakdown is between those who seek to have others follow their beliefs and conform the laws and customs to them who I call the Adamantines and those who recognize and accept that others beliefs must be respected in the same manner as they expect their beliefs to be respected who I call the Eveites.
The Adamantines come from a long tradition in the Catholic Church which often sought to impose its beliefs on others going back to Tomas de Torquemada and beyond. They perfected the system of protecting the membership by preventing those folk in the Catholic Church from being infected with ideas that the Church finds alien or otherwise contradicts its beliefs. Up until the middle of the 20th century there was the Index of Books Catholics were forbidden to read unless given specific permission. For a long time books on heliocentric were forbidden but that was not specifically an Adamantine position but held by other religious leaders such as John Calvin and Martin Luther.
The Eveites like Eve are less restricted to the doings and thoughts of the past. They question and inquire. They are open to the ideas of others recognizing that they too have beliefs and customs which have been gained through thought and experience that are worthy of consideration. Of course, the Adamantines think back on the Biblical story of The Garden of Eden and suggest that like Eve the Eveite’s’ openness is making them fall into the arms of the Devil.
Obviously from their names one imports the idea of a battle of the sexes, the male Adam on one side, the female Eve on the other. The Catholic Church is male controlled which gives comfort to the Adamantines. Yet we find in the new pope, Pope Francis, a willingness to slowly lean toward the Eveites driving the Adamantines to fits.
I would hope there would be more willingness to move toward the positions of the Eveites. The Adamantine position has allowed the church to be mired in scandal with the endless stories of priests sexually abusing and driving folk away from the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church. We need the fresh air the Eveite women can bring to the stale air of the present stodgy American Adamantine leadership,
wa-llahi! Atheism in the public space guarantees the existence of religion in the private space. Disagree?
Let’s hope both Adamantines and Eveites would stand together (as do many Republicans and non-radical Democrats) in opposition to such folly as critical race theory. This sort of nonsense has infected schools and colleges everywhere, including a certain school on the boulevard familiar to many Matt of Boston readers. I can’t believe this garbage is compatible with Jesuit and Catholic teachings.
GOK:
You mention “many Republicans and non-radical Democrats.” I suppose you are not bothered by the radical Republicans (Trump folk) as you are by the radical Democrats. How then can a non-radical Democrat get together with a radical Republican.
As for getting together I suggest the Adamantines and Eveites are going their separate ways at least in America. A friend I was recently talking about worries that there will soon be required hard decisions from the Supreme Court over whether the canon law or the laws of the republic take precedent.