The Church will hold to its own doctrine, but it must do so in a world that is mostly non-Catholic. Catholics may have to abandon the idea that the state owes us funding for services, because such funding inevitably entails state controls. We might work from the ground-up to change public attitudes as we did with abortion. We might rethink the theological opinions that condition Catholic cooperation upon secular agreement with our doctrines (the “Hawaii Model” allows this). What we can’t do is argue that government treating everyone the same constitutes anti-Catholic discrimination.
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Anthony Stevens-Arroyo. “A Catholic Nullification Doctrine?” The Washington Post. Amen. This is a tough point to articulate, risking trampling religious rights while also refusing to allow well-meaning people the right to help out social services. Stevens-Arroyo does a great job of not only placing it in context but also arguing to Catholics why they need to accept this. |
