Stephen Prothero writes a spectacularly wrong headed piece for CNN in which he asks and answers the musical question, “Can Catholics abide a saint who had an abortion?”
He is speaking here of Servant of God Dorothy Day, who had an abortion as a young woman and went on to become one of the most profoundly converted Catholic converts of the 20th century. The assumption that lies at the back of the piece is spelled out by Prothero in terms that are alive to the yakkery of the Culture Wars, but stone deaf to Catholic teaching and theology:
Can you be a saint if you have committed the original sin of contemporary Catholicism?
He answers, Yes. But his answer is a travesty of Catholic thought:
Partly that is because of the Christian teaching of forgiveness. But mostly it is because of the tendency of Catholics to diverge from the official party line on questions such as homosexuality, birth control and abortion.
This, being translated, means “Day will be accepted as a saint by those Catholics who don’t think abortion is a big deal, while those who do regard it as a sin will have to choke it down as best they may.” In other words, by Prothero’s lights, the real reason Day will be accepted as a saint is because of Catholics who excuse abortion, not because of Catholics who forgive it. Indeed, the subtext is that Catholics who regard abortion as a monstrous crime—people such as, oh, Dorothy Day—can’t “abide” the thought of welcoming saints with gravely sinful pasts.
One wonders where Prothero has been all these years. Has he never heard of the enormous popularity of the cult of Mary Magdalene, popularly regarded as a reformed prostitute? Has he never heard of the celebrated baptism of Norma McCorvey (aka “Roe” of Roe v. Wade) by Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life? Does he know nothing of the huge welcomes and celebrations given such figures as Abby Johnson or Carol Everett, former “abortion providers” who repented and have become lionesses of the pro-life movement? Has he never heard of the various post-abortive ministries run by gung ho pro-lifers who spend all their time rejoicing over the one sheep who returns more than the ninety and nine who were not lost? I cannot think of a single group of people more likely to celebrate a post-abortive saint than orthodox Catholic pro-lifers.
But the reason they will do so is that, like Dorothy Day, they recognize the reality of both sin and forgiveness. They believe that Jesus came to forgive sin and rejoice of this, while those indifferent to sin see very little point to celebrating Dorothy Day—or anybody else—as a saint since we’re all good and the whole forgiveness of sin thing is a guilt trip. When everybody is automatically a saint and there are no sins to forgive (that’s judgemental doncha know) there’s no particular reason to elevate a Dorothy Day or anybody else. In fact, it’s “elitist” and makes people feel “judged” and “unequal.”
Bottom line: A culture that perpetually excuses sin is a culture that cannot, when push comes to shove, forgive it. Paradoxically, a culture that bites the bullet of acknowledging the reality of sin is a culture that carries within it the possibility of accepting forgiveness for sin. Dorothy Day had the moxie to acknowledge the sin of her abortion. Because of that, she was able to receive the grace of forgiveness for it. She was and remains a sign of contradiction and hope to the dictatorship of relativism. “Abide” her as a saint? I will applaud the day the Church raises her to the altar and thank the God who forgive her that sin as he has forgiven billions of other sins.
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Great article. Re: St. Augustine: was he really that bad? I have the idea that he was a pretty naturally virtuous guy. Surely he never wantonly committed ‘every sin in the book’? He was deeply affected by his sinfulness, and so he became a saint, but was he actually a particularly grievous sinner?
Nice try Steven; a real “friends Romans Countrymen” speech on behalf of the 5th Column. The, I do not condemn the moral vacuity of Prothero but not continuing to borrow 42 cents from China on EVERY dollar you propose to spend from now till the cows come home is “Treason”, tone is a really new and really wrong twist. First it attempts to deflect this blog from the most serious questions facing this country which are the MORAL ones with a series of false charges and fears. Your broad brush smear job on all and sundry in the “Tea Party and it’s ilk” is not just wrong it is actually a sin (check the catechism). You then manage to weave together every single argument for the borrow, borrow, borrow, and the heck with tomorrow politicians who got us in this mess in the first place.
The frosting on the fuzzy logic cake has to be your last statement “The Church has never countenance (sic) views like Prothero’s on abortion, planned parenthood. That’s a given. But here’s another thing the Church teaches against; TREASON when there is no identifiable dictatorship to revolt against, etc.” Your charge of “TREASON” is so outside of reality that it needs no answer; that must have been some glass of kool-aid.
However Steven, I do have to agree with you on this point: It is very true that in it’s moral teachings the Church has consistently condemned Abortion and Homosexual “marriage” etc. as Moral outrages and abominations; that being so Steven how then do YOU account for the fact that so many so called “Catholic” politicians have turned their legislative weapons, their votes and their vetoes, and consistently year in and year out, battlefield after battlefield, fired off these legislative rounds 180 degrees in the wrong direction? Why have the Gov. Browns, the Leahy’s, the Kucinich’s, the Drinan’s, the Durbin’s, the Casey (Jr.)‘s, the Mitchell’s, the Sebelius’s, the Cuomo’s (father & son), the Kennedy’s, the Kerry’s et alia consistently year after year, decade after decade voted cajoled and advanced these same Moral Abominations while still claiming Catholicity and the largest share of the Catholic Moral high ground?
They have done so for multiple reasons; ONE of those reasons is because of the duplicitous moral double speak of folks like Prothero whose, to borrow your phrase “ilk” always come out of the wood work to seek to divide Catholics whenever anything appears on the horizon that might threaten these abominations; in this particular case it is the fact that we might just get a Saint of the caliber of blessed Dorothy Day; a Saint who would help bring together Catholics in many ways but first and most importantly in opposition to the grave evil of Abortion. As a Catholic I look forward to the day that the blessed Dorothy Day is officially identified by the Church as a Saint because I believe that she already is one. Please pray for us Blessed Dorothy Day.
Veritas, you couldn’t have found a worse time to paint the Tea Party and its ilk given what it’s pulled this past week during the debt ceiling battle on Capitol Hill. Is it important to tackle our nation’s debt? Yes. But where’s the urgency?
How about honoring God’s commandment against stealing? Wouldn’t you consider NOT paying your bills, which is all raising the debt ceiling allows the nation to do, another means of theft? By not raising the ceiling, we won’t be able to pay all our debts to our men and women serving stateside and overseas, many of whom are in harm’s way. By not raising our debt ceiling, we aren’t able to fulfill already signed contractural agreements between the government and its creditors it’s signed to perform construction tasks on certain programs. I won’t even get into social security because it’s a lot more independently stable than most people realize and owns a huge number of T-Bills. When the government has to decide who gets the disbursements if we should default, social security recipients will have one of the premier claims. (Besides, if the President invokes the 14th Amendment, all debts will be paid, much ado will be (albeit temporarily viewed) about nothing. But who will dare to seriously impeach the President for taking action and doing his job? Let the House, but it only takes 51 votes for an acquittal and the Democrats have that stage locked up.
What’s this all about: ideological posturing, plain and simple. The ideologues have decided to push the entire populace to the wall just to make its case; whilst in the meantime, people who lost their shirts 3 years ago in their 401k’s. Oh, the more extreme radicals in the GOP/TP making $174K a year and their even better paid ideological puppet-masters in the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute and the various fronts operating for Koch Industries won’t be hurt. They’ll make out like even bigger bandits than they are now when the interest on their bank accounts rise, and all their like-minded ditto-headed doltish ilk begin to skyrocket as well. Oh, but their credit card rates will rise. Hell’s bells, for what they’re going to rake in from a default, they won’t need credit cards. Yet these are the people jamming things up on Capitol Hill.
All to make President Obama easy to beat. And what do you get from his defeat? “Happy Days are Here Again” with Mitt? Think again. He Massachusetts’ worst governor in recent times when it came to job creation (47th). China will love him. You betcha!
Has anybody ever given thought to calling out the GOP for the crime it’s committing; TREASON, as in economic treason. Pulling down our nation’s economic strength to weaken and eventually defeat one man is TREASONOUS.
The Church has never countenance views like Prothero’s on abortion, planned parenthood. That’s a given. But here’s another thing the Church teaches against; TREASON when there is no identifiable dictatorship to revolt against, etc.
This is but the latest 5th Column notion of Stephen Prothero. He has consistently attacked any movement towards unity among Christians and others to stem the tide of Secularization of America and always ended up in the camp seeking to further weaken the religious values in the public square and strengthen the hands of those who support Abortion, Homosexuality, Stem-Cell research etc. His last attack was more frontal excoriating the Tea Party folk as nothing more than an “incarnation of the Religious Right” and partisans with the same cultural agenda. Moreover he accused Tea Party folk of proceeding with “stealth” (He should know) by attaching God forbid riders defunding “Planned Parenthood, National Public Radio and the Environmental Protection Agency”. Prothero defended deficit funding of Planned Parenthood asserting that ‘“fewer than half” of its centers offer abortion services which as all now know is a damnable lie. Just one example of his perfidy is the fact that in his defense of Planned Parenthood in it’s time of need Prothero disingenuously identified the $330,000,000 subsidy of Planned Parenthood as representing “a whopping 45 cents per year” for “the median American household”. Let’s see there are 330 millions of men women and “Survivors” for such an honest Prothero should call the children in America who have survived running the gauntlet of Planned Parenthood and its minions. So by the simplest arithmetic the subsidy to Planned Parenthood is $1 for each man women and survivor making the cost of the median household $4 not 45 cents. Gee whiz Stephen with those kinds of budget skills YOU should run for Congress. Go ahead you will fit in. You even had the temerity to quote scripture in your defense of Planned Parenthood and “its founder Margaret Sanger” as having “nothing to do with money” quoting Ecclesiastes and claiming that “there is a time and a place for everything”. Well guess what Stephen Planned Parenthood is not just about Eugenics and the suppression of the Black and the Mexican it is and always has been about money; If the budget agreement goes forth we are looking at only $1 Billion in savings in the next years spending; the Feds are spending $1 Billion each and every hour ! So guess what Prothero the defunding of Planned Parenthood alone would allow Congress to meet a full one third of the goal. You have a right to worry that Americans of all Faith’s will finally wake up to what you revile as the “culture wars” because we are sick of our tax dollars being spent to coarsen and degrade what was in theory at least and more often than not a real reflection of historic Judeo-Christian values. This Country was founded by and still overwhelminglyh peopled by folks that know in their inmost being that if you first get right with God in your actions and your Institutions that every other blessing will follow. So Prothero stick to your Boston ivory tower; if you are selling “stupid” you can look elsewhere we are “full-up” out here in the real world.
Oops made a mistake by saying “The bottom line in every church and temple is the teaching of Jesus”. After I submitted my post and reread it I saw my mistake…DUH! I apologize if I offended any one. I should of said “The bottom line in every church and temple is the teaching of the word of God…..so sorry!
As Catholics we are taught to forgive…right? We all can make a wrong a right. We all can repent and be sorrowful for sins we committed and be forgiven. Any Catholic that would turn their back on Ms. Day is a hypocrite, which is common among the so called “holy ones” and I’m not just taking about Catholics. Before St. Paul he was Saul and he committed murder. Once Jesus spoke loudly to him and blinded him his conversion began…slowly. Three years in the desert. Forgiveness is one of God’s law. Shouldn’t we concentrate on the word of God that is preached to us each and every day? It’s a known fact that before some were sainted they committed all kinds of sins. Whether the priest, minister or rabbi is immoral is not our concern at the time. What our concern should be the word of God they preach to us. Didn’t Jesus say Listen and do as the Scribes and Pharisees teach, but don’t do what they do, for they are good teaches but they do not do as they teach. They were a bunch of hypocrites. The bottom line in every church and temple is the teaching of Jesus. The Father’s word is what Jesus taught us. As Catholics we must remember that Jesus is the body of the church. We have to stop damaging talk about the church and learn to embrace that it’s all about the word of God. Listen, I’m no holy roller or think I’m holier than thou, I’m far from it. But I believe in forgiveness and I believe in the word of God and that’s why I go to church is to listen to the priest and participate in all the beautiful rituals and hear the passion the priest has, as he delivers his homily.
Of course, rank-and-file Catholics do not decide who is declared a saint. But they decide who will be revered as one. And in this case, I believe, they will forgive Day’s sin in part because, in their heart of hearts, many of them don’t consider it all that much of a sin in the first place.
No, in their heart of hearts such types don’t (nor does this author it would appear) understand what “saint” means. Another thing .... does it say anywhere in stone that no “saint” ever spends even a minute in purgatory? Perhaps the long waiting period might just point to a never discussed portion in that limited popular definition.
Perhaps just the thrill of it all makes the ultimate decision:
In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need to repent.”
The main purpose of it all in “what’s it (trouble) all for in the end?”
@PeterTW, I agree with Mark. Granted I might’ve come off above as a starchy “right wing traditionalist” and my apologies to anybody I gave this mistaken impression to. There’s a time and place for each Catholic to handle topics we might simply have difficulty understanding why the Church takes A, B, or C position on and not X Y and Z. But to go out and publicly trash the Church either by giving snarky interviews (mostly for the sake of using one’s position of academic/political or even “celebrity power” authority (LOL on the last one indeed!)...that smacks of disrespectful elitist posturing to say the least.
And yes, conservative Catholics, especially so many “fiscal conservative” celebrity columnist/pundits, some of whom fairly recently converted to the Church, have done their share of pulling what Prothero’s doing now with Dorothy Day. That’s cherry picking, plain and simple. These writers and talking heads know what’s in the Church’s Tradition on Social/Economic Justice; but apparently they’d rather stay tighter with Fox News and some very archy-starchy higher-than-high-brow-and-more-Catholic-than-the-entire-Magisterium—including-the-Pope. Just take a look at what’s pumped out from the so-called “Accuracy In Media.”
I write from personal experience because during the Eighties, I was pretty harsh on our liberal (American) members of the hierarchy for their stands on arms control and economic/social justice. But there’s a big fat line dividing the rules of respectful criticism and downright ideological demononizing these men. Sad to say most conservative hard-line right wingers haven’t the eyes to see the thickness in this line. Take it from somebody who learned the hard way after much soul-searching; ideological blindness, fueled by pride of position, lineage, and the crowd one picks to run with (especially within the Beltway) tends to lead people to making thickheaded false conclusions…and worse, spreading them through the print and electronic media. In this case it might not be too extreme to say this is doubly worse for this kind of pride-fueled ideological cherry picking (on any side of the political realm) that leads any self-professed so-called “devout Catholic” to openly challenge the Church’s authority to teach on a given subject runs the risk of diminishing the faith of countless others who have watched these choosy media-savvy+hungry dissidents on the tube, heard them on the radio or read their publications.
If only they could even bring themselves to say, “Before I say anything” or “Before you read any further .... I have to say, I’m only speaking for myself because my views do not fall in line with the Church’s stand, and by no means am I sharing them with you in order to undermine the Church’s authority.” Even getting that much from our privileged and ever so self-beknighted illustrious members of the chattering class, would be like Manna from Heaven these days.
PeterTW:
Amen to that!
The Church is not a right wing nationalist tradition either!
Excellent work, Mark!
It’s a little staggering to read pieces like Prothero’s. And it’s even more staggering to see how Dorothy Day is commonly approached when her own writings cut so dramatically against the popular stereotypes and political manipulations of her legacy.
http://attheturnofthetide.blogspot.com/search/label/dorothy day
The future Patron Saint of Postabortive women everywhere - and there are millions.
I believe it was Jesus Christ who first said, I have not come to save the righteous, but to save sinners.
Mr. Shea, that was an Excellent article and clearly spoke what many of us were thinking but found hard to verbalize. Thank you very much. God bless your future endeavors.
My friends, just take a glance at Mr. Prothero’s own website, starting at the top with the description of his appearance with Stephen Colbert.
http://www.stephenprothero.com/
A well-trained academic mind is a terrible thing to sacrifice to Baal on the latter’s altar of celebrityhood. He’s just one of a different line of scholars ... situating themselves WELL apart from genuine lights such as C.S. Lewis, Tolkein and Thomas Howard, Scott Hahn, et al, who’ve put their talents to better use so as to shine their light on God’s truth and illumine the paths of those who truly want to obtain that “pearl of a great price” Jesus spoke of.
I have less a problem with a Catholic writer, academic or politician who takes a stance on an important issue of our times SO long as the person is open, not disrespectful, demanding full equal treatment at the altar rail, is not coy, playing word games and/or worse ... using his/her job as a bully pulpit to demagogue the issue (or more) for the sake of personal career advancement.
Is it really too much to ask of some of these celebrity-status seeking profs/pols, et al, those-ever-ready-to-interview-experts-for-sound-quips-and-the-latest-dissident-talking-points—to just SHUT up and contemplate first the possible damage they can be doing to the faith of others and the efforts of the Catholic, or any other Christian branch seeking to teach their catechism to people seeking to become new members or bolster their existing faith?
While I might not agree with every conservative or orthodox Catholic or Protestant scholars, politicians, writers, et al on matters of faith as they can be applied to our present day issues…they sure as hell aren’t as predictably boring as their liberal colleagues.
He also drew similarities to Mother Theresa of Calcutta and I had to wonder if this man just conveniently forgot his great deal of knowledge. Prof Prothero is a fabulous religious scholar and he’s one of the few in contemporary, secular religious studies who rejects the notion that “all religions are the same.” As such, it would seem he’d understand that the Catholic Church has accepted hundreds of saints whose mistakes and sins led them to a deeper faith. While it is all too common for Champagne Liberals to at once say there is no sin while pointing out the sins of the holy, most faithful of any religion know that redemption and holiness go hand in hand.
One credits an unnamed priest’s homily. Another credits C.S. Lewis. But it was the master himself. For example:
Luke 5:31-32
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
A classic case of “made ya’ look”. Print anything outrageous enough to get a response and traffic and increase your ad revenue.
A great post by Mr Shea shedding light over the disastrous article of Protero, who is a clear example of those so called “religion experts” who have absolutely no idea of what they’re talking about
“We have to touch such men, not with a bargepole, but with a benediction,” he said. “We have to say the word that will save them from hell. We alone are left to deliver them from despair when your human charity deserts them. Go on your own primrose path pardoning all your favourite vices and being generous to your fashionable crimes; and leave us in the darkness, vampires of the night, to console those who really need consolation; who do things really indefensible, things that neither the world nor they themselves can defend; and none but a priest will pardon. Leave us with the men who commit the mean and revolting and real crimes; mean as St. Peter when the cock crew, and yet the dawn came.” –G.K. Chesterton, speaking through Father Brown
Apparently this man is also unfamiliar with the conversion of St. Paul.
Has he ever heard of St. Augustine? The man committed every sin in the book, as well as a few I’m sure were included afterwards based on his inspiration, and he’s not only a saint but a doctor of the Church!
What Prothero doesn’t get is that the saints are examples of people who were REPENTANT of their sins and grew in holiness as they worked to atone.
Riffing off Ed S.‘s observation, it sounds like Prothero is talking about politics, not theology. I wonder whether he knows the difference. Isn’t he the author of that book about religious illiteracy? It’s disappointing that the author of that type of book apparently never got the basic underpinning of the Christian faith.
I wholeheartedly agree and will also be applauding on the day that Ms. Day is canonized (if it should happen, and I hope it will!).
How can any Catholic who has used birth control judge? They may have aborted an embryo and don’t even know it.
It is almost as if Prothero sees saints more as Catholic Celebrities than examples of holiness. To him, the question isn’t whether Day was holy, but whether other Catholics will recognize her.
I believe it was CS Lewis that penned Our church is not a club for saints, but a hospital for sinners.
Don’t forget Bernard Nathanson. A priest said recently, in his homily, the Catholic Church is not a showcase for saints. It’s a shelter for sinners. Beautiful and true. The Bernard’s and Dorothy’s and Magdalene’s of the world will tell you that the only reason they were able to become Saints is that the Church offered them shelter…from themselves. The Church is filthy with sinners. Fr. Corapi, pedophile priests, women who have had abortions and those that have performed them…all need to run, not walk, to their nearest Catholic Church. Those who are perfect and sinless, need not apply.
Good grief, what would St. Augustine say to Mr. Prothero???
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