When Vox Nova was launched over a year ago, one of the first complaints received was that it was insufficiently diverse in terms of representing the fullgamut of Catholic opinion. Persistent critics called for more “conservative” voices, when what they really wanted was more of the same in terms of Catholic blogs–in other words, the tired old Republican talking points masquerading as authentic faith in action. That brand of opinion can indeed be made compatible with orthodox Catholicism under certain conditions, and here I exclude those who made excuses for the Iraq war and torture. But we should see the church as the global phenomenon that it is, and let’s face it– the narrow Americanist pseudo-conservative agenda that dominates the discourse on the Catholic blogosphere does not represent the Church. It does not even represent the church in the United States, for that matter. But according to this view, the Church must follow the secular partisan divide, and only one party is worth supporting.
Over a year later, we are still facing the same attacks, when we clearly have a broader range of orthodox Catholic opinion than any other blog I can think of. It would appear that the latest critic yet again fails to see beyond the dualism of the American political system, which in itself is a Protestant way of thinking (that’s de Lubac, by the way). While not fitting neatly into the Republican box (the form of the less sophisticated critic), he nonetheless seems to have problems with contributors who challenge the nostrums of modern nationalism, and point out the highly conflicted views of the Church fathers on the role of Christians in the military. You see, these topics are off the table in secular discourse, and so should also be in Catholic discourse. Divisions must fall neatly along the secular partisan divide– anything else is simply impolite.
I find little criticism of other group Catholic blogs that offer no diversity of opinion whatsoever. Consider Catholics in the Public Square, which is basically a site dedicated to rallying Catholic support for the Republican party. One contributor has a blog called “Catholics for Bush” (a bit out of date but we get the message) while the incomparable Oswald Sobrino adopts the most strident pro-war pro-military pro-American tone and reads Jeremiah as somwhow predicting the messiah McCain! And yet, we are the ones singled out? Talk about bizarro-world.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In