Krueger: Moral Relativism and Commencement Politics: Cardinal O'Malley's Boycott of a Prime Minister

[UrbScotty]

For Catholics it has become a rite of spring in the past decade: the commencement speaker controversy involving a U.S Catholic bishop and a prominent Catholic political figure upon whom an honorary degree will be bestowed by a Catholic college. The controversy is a result of the bishop's judgment that the speaker lacks a sufficient degree of Catholic worthiness based upon the speaker's position on a narrow range of partisan political issues. Their diocesan authority aside, Catholic bishops certainly have the right to boycott the ceremony. Their right to censor the college's choice is another matter. In either case, let's not be mistaken -- this is a public action and display of their authority with a public end in mind. The message is clear although inevitably counterproductive -- be warned, this person is a bad Catholic. And the long-term, adverse consequences for both the Church and our democratic process can already be seen. It marks a new moral relativism within the Catholic hierarchy, a shift in priorities related more to politics than pastoral care.

...

While the moral principles of the Catholic Church have not changed, the U.S. bishops' worldview, focus and behavior, representing their attitudes and values, have gradually changed in the past 15 years. This change has given effect to their own hierarchical brand of moral relativism that has emerged at the expense of a diminished role as pastors. Unfortunately, it has also reduced the advancement of the core of the Catholic Social Justice Tradition in the hearts of lay Catholics: helping the poor. It is attributable to a confluence of overlapping Church and politically related factors including: the elevation of more conservative priests to bishops, beginning under John Paul II; the emergence of the not-so-subtle Evangelical-Catholic (bishops)-Republican alliance starting in the mid 1990s; and the need of the U.S. bishops to regain their moral authority squandered as a result of, and too often in response to, the clergy sexual abuse crisis. To this last point, it is a notable coincidence that the U.S. bishops' assertion of their authority over Catholics in political life followed the news cycle of the crisis.

In the context of this hierarchical moral relativism, Cardinal O'Malley's boycott of the Boston College commencement can be viewed as a reflection of a collective mindset that entraps too many of the U.S. bishops today.

I sympathize with many of the good Catholic bishops within our Church and count Cardinal O'Malley among those. However, what the Catholic Church needs today is love -- not more enforcement. Perhaps if we all asked ourselves why the selection of Pope Francis has, by all accounts, animated the hearts and imagination of Catholics, and people of good will throughout the world, we might find a consensus direction for building the culture of a more caring Church and society that will put the matter of both politicizing the Eucharist and boycotting ceremonies of such venerable Catholic institutions as Boston College behind us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-a-krueger/moral-relativism-and-commencement-politics-cardinal-omalley-boycott-prime-minister-enda-kenny-boston-college_b_3300342.html?utm_hp_ref=tw