Editorial

Who is a ‘real’ Catholic?

We doubt that it will come as a shock when we say that not all Catholics think alike when it comes to politics. And that’s OK. Nevertheless, we think that Catholic social teachings should be borne in mind when making political decisions.

However, as we reported in an editorial in our May 4 issue, a comprehensive survey of U.S. Catholic women, commissioned by America magazine, found that only 12 percent of them say that they use Catholic social teachings to help them decide how to vote. Of those who attend Mass weekly, that increases to 25 percent.

Kerry Weber, America’s executive editor, has written that conversations about the survey on social media usually argue that the women polled are not “real” Catholics because the results showed that only 24 percent of them attend Mass weekly or more often.

That begs the questions: Who is a Catholic? Can you ever stop being a Catholic? How much of Catholic teachings must one accept to be a Catholic?

The first question is easy enough to answer: A Catholic is someone who has been baptized into the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation” (#1272).

Since this is an indelible mark, the saying is, “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.” So yes, those people who self-identify themselves as Catholics are “real” Catholics, and the Church has an obligation to minister to them.

There is the possibility of “defecting from the Catholic Church by a formal act,” including the acceptance of that act by a competent ecclesiastical authority. But someone has to be really angry with the Church to do that. It’s not what people usually do when they stop practicing Catholicism.

The fact is that 76 percent of those women who were surveyed, and said that they were Catholics, don’t attend Mass weekly or more often. And 53 percent of them attend Mass only a few times a year or never. And we think the statistics may paint an even more disheartening situation for men, since this was a survey of Catholic women and women usually practice their faith more than men.

So how much of Catholic teachings must people accept and still consider themselves Catholic? The Church teaches that there is a hierarchy of truths, and it defines three levels.

At the top level are doctrines divinely revealed and acknowledged, either by a solemn pronouncement by the pope or an ecumenical council. Some examples are the articles in the Nicene Creed recited at weekend Masses, defined dogmas about Christ and the Virgin Mary (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, for example), the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the infallibility of the pope when he teaches doctrine, and the immorality of abortion.

In the second category are teachings that have a link with revealed truth either historically or logically. The Church teaches these doctrines definitively, and anyone who denies them should consider himself or herself no longer in full communion with the Church. The rejection of the Church’s teachings about sexual activity outside of marriage would fall in this category.

The third level includes teachings on faith and morals that are not proposed infallibly or definitively, but are authentic teachings of the pope or bishops. Examples are pastoral letters on social doctrine and economics, and the U.S. bishops’ positions on political issues.

The Church also makes a distinction between believing a doctrine and holding and accepting a doctrine. Even if we can’t believe in something the Church teaches, Catholics should accept and hold its teachings.

There’s not much the Church can do about ordinary people who reject certain teachings but continue to call themselves Catholics. And, technically, they’re right, even if they don’t practice the faith.

When it comes to politics, we know that neither party in the United States fully embraces the teachings of the Catholic Church. As Catholics, we should be concerned about the unborn as well as those who suffer from racism, sexual harassment, threats of deportation, poverty and gun violence.

—John F. Fink