Should Republicans Be Allowed in Catholic RCIA Classes?

One gets the indication at times we GOP folks are the greatest threat to the Church since Martin Luther, the attempted Islamic conquest of Europe, and the sacking of Rome.


If you have the misfortune to be a Neo-Con (THE GREATEST EVIL EVER KNOWN) your entry into Holy Mother Church might be stopped because you will not repent of supposed unjust war , your support for Israel , and other vast sins.

Thankfully we do not live in that Universe though I would not be shocked that in some Parishes people might be getting the cold shoulder.

You see this dynamic on the political left and the political right (people on the right have a bad habit of throwing around the word socialism a tad too much) in Catholic circles but it does seem this year that Catholic Republicans are really getting it.

However Republican , and other various Conservative Catholics do have something to say on these issues and it should be met with dialogue.

Again going back to one of the best election quotes I saw last year at Mirrors of Justice from Prof Rick Garnett. Just change the names of the characters with people from the past or put in hypothetical people for the future in place of Obama and McCain. Rinse Wash Repeat its a lot like the movie Groundhog Day.

It seems to be a premise of many of these "for whom should Catholics vote?" discussions that "on every issue that matters, other than abortion, the election of Sen. Obama will actually yield meaningful policy actions that are edifyingly in concert with the Church's social teaching, while the election of Sen. McCain will actually yield meaningful policy actions that are distressingly in conflict with the Church's social teaching." But, this premise is false. It is false because it ignores, or at least downplays, the political, social, cultural and economic realities that will almost certainly prevent dramatic changes with respect to most matters, and so it overestimates the "good" stuff about an Obama administration that, it is proposed, outweighs the "bad" stuff.

It is also false because Sen. McCain's views (or, more precisely, the policies likely to be pursued by his administration) on a number of matters -- not just abortion -- are, in terms of consonance with the Church's social teaching, preferable to Sen. Obama's. Or, so a faithful, reasonable, informed, non-duped, non-Republican-hack, Commonweal-and-First Things-reading Catholic could conclude. It's a sad thought, but . . . I'm not sure that productive conversations -- even among friends -- are possible so long as this false premise is assumed.