'Cafeteria Catholicism' doesn't work
A Rabbi speaks out!
"A common trend today is 'cafeteria religion.' Many spiritually sensitive people simply pick and choose a medley of beliefs that attract them from their own or other faiths, leaving behind on the spiritual steam table the beliefs that don't please their palates. This is what you're suggesting, and I think it's both wrong and destructive of the noble goal you embrace: strengthening the bonds between Catholics and the Church. Here are the reasons why Cafeteria Catholicism has no future and is a bad idea: First, in the cafeteria, you could leave behind the beliefs you most need to move closer to Christ and to the Church. You've actually done that in your selections. Abortion, for example, which you've left off your plate, is wrong not just because it's condemned by Catholic teachings. It's wrong because it is the taking of a human life, and that life is sacred; its claim trumps even the most agonizing sacrifices of the mother in helping bring a child into the world. Leaving behind this teaching (and others that disturb you) happens when you place your own personal judgments over the inherited wisdom of the Church. Would you say a slave-owner should have the right to construct his orher own personal brand of Catholicism in a way that allowed slavery? Sometimes the best reason to struggle with a moral teaching of one's faith is that it contradicts the conventional wisdom of secular society or of your own personal desires. You need the Church not to pander to you but to challenge you. Cafeteria Catholicism cannot challenge you."
"A common trend today is 'cafeteria religion.' Many spiritually sensitive people simply pick and choose a medley of beliefs that attract them from their own or other faiths, leaving behind on the spiritual steam table the beliefs that don't please their palates. This is what you're suggesting, and I think it's both wrong and destructive of the noble goal you embrace: strengthening the bonds between Catholics and the Church. Here are the reasons why Cafeteria Catholicism has no future and is a bad idea: First, in the cafeteria, you could leave behind the beliefs you most need to move closer to Christ and to the Church. You've actually done that in your selections. Abortion, for example, which you've left off your plate, is wrong not just because it's condemned by Catholic teachings. It's wrong because it is the taking of a human life, and that life is sacred; its claim trumps even the most agonizing sacrifices of the mother in helping bring a child into the world. Leaving behind this teaching (and others that disturb you) happens when you place your own personal judgments over the inherited wisdom of the Church. Would you say a slave-owner should have the right to construct his orher own personal brand of Catholicism in a way that allowed slavery? Sometimes the best reason to struggle with a moral teaching of one's faith is that it contradicts the conventional wisdom of secular society or of your own personal desires. You need the Church not to pander to you but to challenge you. Cafeteria Catholicism cannot challenge you."
.jpeg)
Comments
It is indeed ironic that non-Catholics seem to understand the situation better than some within the Church. And to reflect further, how could you really pass Cafeteria Catholicism on to your children? They would just continue to jettison things they didn't like, just as their parents did. After a few generations of this kind of treatment of the Faith, it would be diluted beyond recognition.