The Psychological Makeup of the Catholic Liberal, by Dr. Gavin Ashenden

History has brought us to a crossroads in the life of the Catholic Church. As one papacy ends and the prayers and the collective mind of the church give more thought to what the right relationship between the Catholic Church and the world ought to look like, what has become a civil war in the Church between progressive and traditionalists, between liberals and conservatives plays an ever more important role.

In theological as well as psychological and political terms, it’s easy to confuse prophecy and appeasement. Appeasement takes place when values central to the secular culture are celebrated as legitimate moral developments purportedly common to both Christianity and the zeitgeist, usually in terms of sexual or political ethics. “Forward” thinking voices from within the faith confuse development with prophecy. There is the assumption that all development, all change must be for the good. In fact, baptizing with Christian approbation what, as we look back, turns out to have been either sterile or corrupt, becomes an act of appeasement towards what has increasingly been shown to be a culture hostile to the values of Christendom. …

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