The Angelic Doctor, after reading Professor Kaveny's article. Though he looks more miffed than shocked.

Cathleen Kaveny, whom the Cardinal Newman Society points out is the the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law and Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Law School, wrote a column over at Commonweal that does not befit someone of her education and position.

She took note of the analogy used by Bishop Lori when he testified before Congress on the HHS mandate. Bishop Lori likened the mandate to forcing a kosher Jewish deli to sell ham. A suitable analogy for its intended usage, but like all analogies it isn’t a perfect one-to-one comparison. It breaks down when looked at from a given angle. That’s a known, unavoidable phenomenon of analogies: they all break down from an angle or two from which they were not intended to be used.

Professor Kaveny either missed that fact of how analogies function or chose to ignore it when she took an area where the analogy breaks down and made it the feature.

This part is a little pedantic, but regrettably necessary if one as educated as Professor Kaveny can miss the point so massively. See, Bishop Lori’s analogy had to do with the effect of federal law on the practice of one’s faith. He was saying that federal laws forcing Catholic institutions to subsidize the purchase of abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilization is a violation of the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, just as forcing Jewish delis to sell ham would be.

He was not saying Catholic opposition to contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization is based on the same moral code or logical/societal/cultural/religious construction as Jewish laws of kashrut. His analogy concerned the effect of external forces on people practicing their faith, not the internal workings of how the practice of the faith works.

Professor Kaveny didn’t work with that obvious-to-most understanding of the analogy. No, she took his analogy to indicate a likeness between the Catholic rationale for opposition to abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilization and the Jewish rationale for laws of kashrut. Since the latter are very much about Jewish cultural identity and not at all intended to be universal moral norms (that is, rules that ought to be observed by everyone, regardless of whether they are Jewish), she argues, Lori is clearly indicating that he thinks the Catholic proscription of abortion, contraception, and sterilization is also becoming more of a Catholic cultural thing, to be observed only by those who self-identify as Catholics, and can no longer be defended as a universal moral norm.

She helpfully explains: “I was surprised that a bishop would make this comparison—and certain that Aquinas would have been shocked.”

Indeed. We’ll see.

Moving on, she doesn’t stop with Bishop Lori’s analogy. She also targets Catholic families that eschew artificial contraception and embrace the practices of Natural Family Planning with her uncareful analysis. I usually don’t like doing the paragraph-by-paragraph-response blogging style, but the next part of her writing demands it.

Thanks to John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” a small but dedicated group of Catholics appears to be structuring their family lives around the prohibition of contraception. In treating that prohibition as the linchpin of a faithful Catholic life, including faithfulness to divinely ordained gender roles, they are transforming the prohibition into a religious identity marker. If their blogs are any indication, Catholics who publicize their commitment to this church teaching tend to see those who don’t follow it as inauthentic Catholics. That is more akin to a cultic judgment than a moral one…

Methinks the lady doth protest too much. This reads like she is trying to justify her own possible dissent on the matter by ascribing a negative characteristic to those simply trying to live according to authentic Catholic morality. In a culture such as ours where contracepting is the norm, those who do not and are unafraid to speak about the beauty of authentic, unrestricted, unhindered lovemaking will, in fact stand out. If this practice is largely limited to Catholics that is a tragedy for others, not an indictment of the Catholics.

Moreover, those who publicize their dissent from this, or any other clear and firm teaching of the Church, have indicated by their own actions and words that they are inauthentic Catholics, and possibly guilty of scandal to boot. Calling them out for it, in charity and humility, is the Christian thing to do. If doing so is a cultic judgment it is, at least in part, because those who strive to live by the clear, unequivocal teachings of the Church on sexual ethics would prefer not to be undermined (especially those raising children) by other “Catholics” who dissent on this matter. If you’re Catholic, believe like it, act like it, teach like it. If you cannot do one of the three, please do the rest of us the favor of either not calling yourself Catholic or quiet yourself until such time as you can see and imbibe the Truth of the Church as your own.

…Significantly, no one talks about the prohibitions against stealing, lying, or murdering this way. Someone who commits murder would be labeled a sinner or a bad Catholic—not an inauthentic one.

“Significantly” in her own head, perhaps. There is nothing culturally odd about failing to murder* or steal**—though there are those who, contra Professor Kaveny, think lying is a-okay in many circumstances. So this actually bolsters my point more than hers: in a culture-at-large where contraception is the norm but murder and thievery still merit scorn those who morally oppose contraception will ipso facto stick out while those who morally oppose murder and thievery will fit in, even if the Catholic refrains from all three explicitly because of his Catholic faith and for no other reason. See: the categorization of the “others” as “cultic” comes because of the norms of the culture at large not the norms of the faithful few.

And think of the construct she’s setting up: more of those who identify as Catholic are also, in larger numbers, identifying as those who oppose contraception (if they feel the need to publicly disclose anything on this subject). So more who self-identify as “Catholic” live according to authentic Catholic moral norms than any other demographic. Isn’t that definitional? Can’t the same be said for any group of people who self-identify their membership and have a set of rules to live by? Where’s the problem?

The problem Professor Kaveny really seems to have is with Catholics who actually, really seem to believe all that stuff the priests and Bishops are saying these days, especially as a result of Theology of the Body. Her problem seems to be with what Catholicism looks like rather than with what the people who take Catholicism to heart look like. Her problem seems to be that more priests and Bishops are preaching Humanae Vitae as something to be believed rather than ignored. This is a change from a decade or so ago, to be sure, but a return to authentic Catholic morality is a good thing, not a sign of problems.

The similarities go further. Conformity to cultic norms generally takes a great deal of thought and vigilance, and Natural Family Planning demands ongoing vigilance in ways analogous to keeping kosher. Just as there are competing rabbinical schools, there exist NFP experts, as well as study groups and manuals, to address technical questions.

Another logical fallacy: coincidence does not equal correlation. Fantasy baseball takes a heckuva lot of planning and vigilance, too. There are magazines, websites, mutual-help groups, professional scouts, and statistical analysis services dedicated to helping people do fantasy baseball well, and people pay for these. But no one would argue that it is akin to laws of kashrut.

Not surprisingly, enterprising adherents to both Jewish dietary prohibitions and the Catholic ban on contraception have invented smartphone apps to make conformity easier.

There are apps for fantasy baseball as well.

In contrast, I’m not aware of an app for “not killing”—or “not stealing,” for that matter. That’s because most people don’t spend too much time thinking about whether and how to conform to basic moral prohibitions.”

Did you see what she did there? A little sleight of hand. She used “following NFP” as a replacement for “not contracepting” and then said those who use the “following NFP” apps are using them to avoid contracepting. Bull hooey.

Following the proscription against killing and stealing is fairly simple: don’t do it. Similarly, following the proscription against adultery, fornication, and even contraception is also simple: don’t do it.

Those using NFP apps are not using them to avoid using contraception—that is, they’re not using them to avoid going foul of the moral code. They could do that by simply refraining from sex outside marriage and not contracepting within marriage. Those using the NFP apps use them to monitor their fertility and space conceptions. If they mess up following NFP, no big deal morally, but there might be conception. Great! There is nothing sinful in failing to follow NFP perfectly.

There is, however, something sinful in failing to refrain from artificial contraception. Therefore, practicing NFP is a massively different thing than following laws of kashrut, so Professor Kaveny’s argument is utterly off-base here, and her sleight of hand did not save it.

And her conclusion:

A hundred years from now, no one will remember the political skirmishes around religious liberty during the 2012 presidential campaign. But some future historians of Catholic moral theology might point to Bishop Lori’s testimony as a turning point, marking the moment when the church’s official teachers began to concede that the prohibition against contraception could plausibly be defended no longer as a matter of a universal moral law, but only as a cultic precept binding on Catholics. Four decades after Humanae vitae, that prohibition looks increasingly like a form of Catholic kashrut.

First, I very much disagree that no one will remember the present skirmishes around religious liberty in 100 years. This is one of the most significant epochs in our national history: the executive branch, empowered by the legislature, is attempting to directly and comprehensively smash the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment. If this is allowed to stand then there is nothing the federal government cannot regulate in the personal lives of each and every American, all in the name of “health care.”

But beyond that, her conclusion just doesn’t pass the laugh test. She presents no evidence apart from her strained interpretation of a single analogy for such a sweeping conclusion. The Church will never abandon the belief that our moral norms are and ought to be universal because our anthropology demands that belief—our morality treats the human person and how the human person ought to act, with no distinction among Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Christian, secularist, or any other “-ist” you can mention. Our morality is based in seeing the Imago Dei in each and every person and calling him to be the child of God whom he was made and loved into existence to be. We do not impose our morality on anyone, but we offer it to all. But most especially in this current fight we simply demand the continuation of the Constitutionally protected liberty to keep living according to the Catholic norms according to which we freely choose to live.

Since Aquinas would appreciate the modern movement back in the direction of authentic Catholic morality I imagine his shock would be with Professor Kaveny’s analysis, not Bishop Lori’s analogy.

————–

* Abortion notwithstanding, for sake of argument.

** Same for confiscatory taxation.

—————-

Tom Crowe is a writer and the web content editor at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Views expressed are exclusively his own and do not represent the thinking of any other person or institution.

In a special investigative report released today, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) provides evidence of “a well-orchestrated attempt to undermine the Church’s doctrine and its stand against homosexual ‘marriage’” at a series of conferences co-sponsored by two Jesuit universities and funded by a radical foundation.

The presidents of Fordham and Fairfield Universities had promised New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Bridgeport Bishop William Lori that the “More Than a Monologue” conference series would “not be a vehicle for dissent,” according to the New York Archdiocese.  However, Newman Society reporters found evidence of dissent, sacrilege and opposition to the bishops’ efforts to protect marriage.

[Continue reading Press Release] [Click here for the full report]

I began to expose the efforts by one gay-advocacy organization, the Arcus foundation, to undermine Church teaching earlier this year when I wrote:

this [research] is a smoking gun – $100,000 given by Arcus to Fairfield University is the sole and single reason why four universities – including Catholic ones – will hold forums this year to further undermine the Church’s teaching on these issues.

Fast-forward to the present day, where the Cardinal Newman Society’s report confirms what I predicted would happen:

The report also looks at the Arcus Foundation, which paid $100,000 for the “More Than a Monologue” conferences, and its web of support for efforts that could be fairly described as designed to undermine Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

… In addition to the two conferences at Fordham and Fairfield, two other conferences were held in the series at Yale Divinity School and Union Theological Seminary, which included a fake Mass without a celebrant which organizers called a “CatholiQ Eucharist” (the “Q” apparently means “queer”).

I think, in the interest of transparency, the presidents of Fordham and Fairfield should reveal their correspondence with Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Lori and explain how this happened on their watch. Did they, for instance, make any serious effort to supervise the planned content of the events and review the speaker list?

It is, after all, a very serious matter that these presidents of Catholic universities promised the bishops that these conferences would not violate their responsibilities and then failed to follow-through on that promise.

As I’ve written before, there’s a very clear project underway which, financed by well-moneyed gay rights activists, seeks to undermine the Church’s teaching on these issues from within, by sponsoring events such as the “CatholiQ Eucharist” and “More than a Monologue” conference and by funding Catholic organizations that allow their name and institutions to be co-opted by this agenda.

Catholic laypeople who care about the identity of our Catholic institutions ought to work with the bishops to demand a response from the administration of these two schools and to see that proper reparations are made.

Issuing a formal apology, promising not to allow this to happen again, and sponsoring a second round of conferences where the Church’s teaching on these issues is articulated and defended properly are all good places to start.

I’ll be following this story closely in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, I urge you to inform yourself by reading the complete report issued by the Cardinal Newman Society.

On immigration, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, urges conservatives to tone down harsh rhetoric. http://cvote.to/8b

As Obamacare heads to the Supreme Court, more Americans favor full repeal than those who favor keeping it in place. http://cvote.to/8c

Not quite at 99%. Only 33% of Americans say they are supportive of the goals of Occupy Wall Street. http://cvote.to/8d

LIFE’s 1965 cover featuring photo of a child in the womb makes list of 75 Best LIFE covers. http://cvote.to/8W

The Postal Service announces $5 billion annual loss. http://cvote.to/8f

Geron, the California company that got FDA approval for human trials with cells derived from embryonic stem cells has decided to shut down the trial and leave embryonic stem cells behind. http://cvote.to/8g

The USCCB website moved Bishop Lori’s religious liberty speech after I linked to it. Here’s an updated link. http://cvote.to/8a

U.S. Bishops approve feast for Blessed John Paul II for October 22. http://cvote.to/8e

Another triumph for the aggressive secularist state: Catholic dioceses in IL drop lawsuit, will no longer provide foster care. http://cvote.to/8O

Catholics have a duty to fight against pornography and its devastating spiritual and societal consequences, says family activist Patrick Trueman. http://cvote.to/8P

Obama has turned his back on Catholics, Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post. http://cvote.to/8Q

Video of Herman Cain’s stumble on Libya gets 156,000 views in 18 hours. Watch. http://cvote.to/8U

Rick Perry calls for a part-time Congress an end to lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court in favor of 18-year terms. http://cvote.to/8R

Cain, Gingrich, Romney and Paul are in a four-way tie in Iowa. http://cvote.to/8S

Read the letter 27 senators sent to the Obama admin challenging its denial of a grant based on abortion. PDF. http://cvote.to/8T

Full text of Bishop Lori’s “stemwinder” speech on religious liberty yesterday. http://cvote.to/8V

Matthew Warner, with the Quote of the Day: “If you really were the 99%, the only thing you’d need to ‘occupy’ is the voting booth.”

Hooray! Supreme Court to hear challenge to Obamacare. http://cvote.to/8I

Everyone in the political world is talking about this explosive 60 Minutes story about Congressmen making money on insider trading. The corruption will make your blood boil. http://cvote.to/8G

Jay Newton-Small of TIME magazine says there are five reasons why Rick Perry will survive for now. http://cvote.to/8H

Kudos to the Cardinal Newman Society! Siena College cancels anti-Catholic speaker after the watchdog group called out the college. http://cvote.to/8J

From the U.S. Bishops’ General Assembly: Religious freedom surfaces as a key issue. http://cvote.to/8K

New CNN poll shows Herman Cain dropped from 25% to 14%, now in 3rd. Mitt Romney on top at 24%, Newt Gingrich jumps from 8% in October to 22%. http://cvote.to/8N

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.: “Make no mistake…  aggressive secularism is also a system of belief.”

Bishops are calling attention to new "Catholics Need Not Apply" signs.

The Church is raising the alarm: Our religious liberty is under attack.

Cardinal Francis George was prophetic in 2009 when he said the White House had taken “the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism.” That was when President Obama broke the promise he made to Catholics at Notre Dame and made the decision to strip conscience rights from Catholic health care professionals, a ruling that could force them to either perform abortions or lose their jobs.

Now, Bishop Lori has testified to Congress that the march toward despotism continues.

“The Bishops of the United States have watched with increasing alarm as this great national legacy of religious liberty … has been subject to ever more frequent assault and ever more rapid erosion,” he said.

Bishop Lori counted the ways:

Forced Contraception. Health and Human Service has issued a regulation mandating contraceptive coverage from almost all private health insurance plans. “There is an exception for certain religious employers,” said Lori, “but to borrow from Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association, it is so incredibly narrow that it would cover only the ‘parish housekeeper.’”

Federal “Catholics Need Not Apply” Signs. It was bad enough when local businesses barred Catholics from certain jobs in the early 20th century. Now the White House has put “Catholics Need Not Apply” signs up in two key places:

–Last Spring, Health and Human Services issued a rule that bars the Church from help refugee and human trafficking victims who are kids separated from their parents. The regulation says to work with them you have to be willing to perform abortions on them to be allowed to help them.

– The State Department’s USAID bars Catholic groups from feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the sick overseas unless they promise to give them condoms, too.

Government Regulating Ministers. Lori also cited the test of the “ministerial exception” now before the Supreme Court. The exception recognizes the primacy of freedom of religion by exempting churches from federal oversight in the hiring and firing of ministers.

Catholics Officially Bigots. Said Lori, “The federal Department of Justice (DoJ) has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by mischaracterizing it as an act of bigotry,” said Lori. So now, according to the Department of Justice, Christian (and Jewish, and Muslim) belief about marriage amounts to bigotry.  Lori cited several examples:

– “In New York, county clerks face legal action for refusing to participate in same-sex unions, and gay rights advocates boast how little religious freedom protection individuals and groups will enjoy under the new law.”

–  In Illinois, Catholic Charities has been driven out of the adoption and foster care business, because it recognizes the unique value of man-woman marriage for the well-being of children.”

“Religious liberty is not merely a privilege that the government grants us and so may take away at will,” he said. “Religious liberty is prior to the state itself.”

In First Things, Los Angeles Archishop Jose Gomez made the connection between Catholic rights and American freedom:

“America’s founders understood that our democracy depends on Americans’ being moral and virtuous. They knew the best guarantee for this is a civil society in which individuals and religious institutions were free to live, act, and vote according to their values and principles. …  At stake are not just our liberties but also the future character of our democracy. ”

In other words: In the debate over religious freedom, the real question America is asking is: Do we want to be a democracy, or a despotism?

Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., where he teaches in the Journalism and Mass Communications department and edits the college’s Catholic identity speech digest, The Gregorian.