conservativism in catholicism?

[MC Just]

My priest told me Ratzinger was once a liberal.

[Era Might]

[quote][Ratzinger] is a man, then, wholly rooted in a religious life. And it is only by viewing things from his standpoint that one will really understand the meaning of what he says. From that perspective, all those schematic formulations [i]conservative/progressive[/i], [i]right/left[/i] which stem from an altogether different sphere, namely, that of political ideologies, lose their meaning. Hence, they are not transferable to the religious perspective which, to speak with Pascal, 'is of another order which surpasses all the rest in depth and height.'

--Vittorio Messori, "The Ratzinger Report", pg. 12[/quote]

Edited December 15, 2005 by Era Might

[zealousrap]

a professor at Franciscan U told me to never be conservative or liberal, but always be orthodox

[argent_paladin]

One distinction of Catholicism is that it has a central authority and Catholics are obedient to the teaching authority of the Church. American liberals are much less comfortable with the notion of authority than are conservatives (I don't count libertarians as conservatives). The 1960's, the defining era for liberals, was an era of lack of trust in authority and a desire to undermine traditions. Liberalism today also tends toward a denegration of Western Culture, which is nearly synonymous with Catholic culture.
I would say, also, that there is a clear empirical correlation between conservative politics and orthodox Catholicism in America. Those Catholics who attend mass weekly are about 2/3rds Republican. About 80% of those who attend daily mass vote Republican. I would be willing to bet that if you surveyed those who agree with the teachings of the Church on its dogmas and moral teaching, the overwhelming majority would consider themselves politically conservative.

One big reason for this is that the Catholic vision of womanhood is fundamentally at odds with modern feminism, which is very powerful in the liberal movement. Related to this is the liberal view of sex, which is for premarital sex, same-sex marriage, abortion, contraception, etc. If you consider that monarchy (or feudalism) would be the most conservative government and communism the most "progressive", it is clear that conservative government is not at odds with Catholicism, but progressive governmetn fundamentally is. This is a fair comparison because left and right, and the very idea of progressive politics came from Hegel and then from Marx, who believed that religion, especially Catholicism would become obsolete.
Indeed, that is a common theme of liberal politics, that we are progressing towards a stage when there will be no more need of religion. Consevatism, in contrast, usually sees a place for religion in the proper functioning of society.

[infinitelord1]

[quote name='argent_paladin' date='Dec 14 2005, 11:05 PM']One distinction of Catholicism is that it has a central authority and Catholics are obedient to the teaching authority of the Church. American liberals are much less comfortable with the notion of authority than are conservatives (I don't count libertarians as conservatives). The 1960's, the defining era for liberals, was an era of lack of trust in authority and a desire to undermine traditions. Liberalism today also tends toward a denegration of Western Culture, which is nearly synonymous with Catholic culture.
I would say, also, that there is a clear empirical correlation between conservative politics and orthodox Catholicism in America. Those Catholics who attend mass weekly are about 2/3rds Republican. About 80% of those who attend daily mass vote Republican. I would be willing to bet that if you surveyed those who agree with the teachings of the Church on its dogmas and moral teaching, the overwhelming majority would consider themselves politically conservative.

One big reason for this is that the Catholic vision of womanhood is fundamentally at odds with modern feminism, which is very powerful in the liberal movement. Related to this is the liberal view of sex, which is for premarital sex, same-sex marriage, abortion, contraception, etc. If you consider that monarchy (or feudalism) would be the most conservative government and communism the most  "progressive", it is clear that conservative government is not at odds with Catholicism, but progressive governmetn fundamentally is. This is a fair comparison because left and right, and the very idea of progressive politics came from Hegel and then from Marx, who believed that religion, especially Catholicism would become obsolete.
Indeed, that is a common theme of liberal politics, that we are progressing towards a stage when there will be no more need of religion. Consevatism, in contrast, usually sees a place for religion in the proper functioning of society.
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can you give a source on these stats?