What's a Liberal Catholic???

For my homily last week I referred to two of the Vatican II documents, The Church in the Modern World, and the Pastoral Constitution of the Church.  At the time these were quite radical and far reaching documents.  These envisioned a Church which was proactive in the needs and concerns of the culture, in addition to being prophetic in its message and preaching.  The Council saw the Church as being a challenge to the culture at large.

Now this past week, as there was the Right to Life rally in Washington D.C., there were commentaries and blogs covering the event.  Some of the comments that struck me were the one's proclaiming they were 'liberal' catholics.  In their mind that seems to mean that areas such as abortion, sexual morals, end of life issues, celibacy, marriage, and other like issues, are fairly much subjective and based on popularity, rather than a spiritual or moral foundation.

If taken seriously, a 'liberal' or 'radical' catholic would live their faith fully and publicly.  People would know that they were catholic because of their refusal to be swayed by arguments of the popular culture, and instead would be in solidarity with the poor, anawim, abused, and dejected.  They would be scandalized if they perceived the Church as not involved more in matters of social justice.

Even more so, the 'liberal' catholic would pray, fast, and be actively engaged in works of charity.  This individual would know the teachings of the Church, and be able to reference the sacred scriptures as well.  Our faith, by virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, calls us to be counter-cultural.  Our Church can never fit in nicely with society whereas everyone is happy and glad.

A better phrase for a 'liberal' catholic would be inactive.  A catholic engages their faith fully and makes known what they hold sacred by the lifestyle they live.  To b sure this is scary.  But to live ones faith means we take the risk and embrace the cross.