Paula asks:
I hear Catholic Democrats wanting to tell the world that our church, though it is religiously conservative, is politically liberal. In this it is unlike the Religious Right which is both religiously and politically conservative. Am I correct in this? My question is: why bother to defend the Catholic Church on this point? Mainstream Protestant denominations, Jews, Muslim, Humanists, garden variety atheists all have traditions of political liberalism. It is embarrassing to me when Catholics speak of "Catholic social teaching" as if they had never heard of the humanitarian traditions of other religions. Leo XIII came to his understanding of the social gospel right along with the rest of humanity/Christianity if not after they did. Are the majority of Catholics distinguishable from their non-Catholic neighbors in their responsibility for the marginalized? I don't think we are any better or worse than the general run of U.S. citizens on that score. We could all get better, but I don't think that telling the world that Catholics also have a social conscience is as effective as just pitching in with others as Citizen Democrats to get the job done.