The Progressives Plot to Change Catholicism

The e-mail leaks are disturbing.

By C. C. Pecknold October 14, 2016

here has been much talk of a Post-Christian America lately. All these wonderful Pew

studies keep the theme of Christian decline ever before us. One thing these studies often raise
is the problem of religious switching, which always builds in some instability and a certain
cloud of uncertainty about how long the trends they are seeing will hold. And what if they are
missing something important? For all Pews interest in Evangelicals and Catholics, what if
the studies are missing the most powerful religious voice in politics today? What if some of
the most important tectonic shifts have been towards Progressivism, as chief contender to be
Americas new civil religion?
Thats the question that occurred to me immediately upon reading the leaked e-mails
from 201112 between Hillary Clintons campaign chair, John Podesta, and three other
senior operatives Clintons communications director, Jennifer Palmieri; Barack
Obamas friend and former boss, Sandy Newman, of Voices for Progress; and John
Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
The first set of e-mails between Podesta, Halpin, and Palmieri was predictable. They
joked about backwards Catholics who read Saint Thomas Aquinas and who talk
about subsidiarity, the principle of Catholic social thought that wisely observes that
problems are best solved closest to where they are happening. The horror! To think that
not all decisions should be made by the Administrative State! Unsurprising, too, was the
vitriol concerning backwards Catholics who seem to them to live under a medieval
dictatorship. They demonstrate a certain level of disdain, but also near-total ignorance
of the faith that they ridicule. A real Thomist would intellectually wipe the floor with
them.
But the e-mail soon turned darker, speculating on why some of their more influential peers
had become Catholic. Podesta speculates that they must be attracted to the systematic
thought and severely backwards gender relations. The immediate reply from Palmieri is that

they must want a form of religion thats socially acceptable to their rich friends, so they
become Catholic rather than Evangelical. To be clear, our progressive betters are quite
happy to embrace any form of religion just as long as it is acceptable to them. They seek to
understand the backwards Catholics not through a consultation of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, nor through an appreciation of the Churchs common teacher, Saint
Thomas Aquinas, nor through the prayers they say, but through that very simple lens of class
and elite consensus. It is the sort of dismissal that characterizes middle-school Marxism.
The amazing thing is that it never once occurs to Podesta, Palmieri, Newman, or Halpin that
people would become Catholic out of sincere belief. It never occurs to them that people
become Catholic because they discover that the faith is true. Most important, it never occurs
to them that they live in a country founded on religious freedom. It never occurs to them that
they should respect the integrity of the Catholic faith, rather than try to manipulate and
transform it, as Napoleon, Bismarck, and countless other tyrants have tried to do before
them. Thats breathtaking. But it makes sense if we understand that they really arent
interested in respecting the Catholic faith, but in reforming it. John Halpin writes, its an
amazing bastardization of the faith. And suddenly we know that these progressives believe
theirs is the one true faith to which all others must conform.
The second Podesta e-mail was far more explosive.
Voices for Progress activist Sandy Newman wrote to Podesta about the then-raging HHSmandate fight with the Catholic Church: This whole controversy with the bishops opposing
contraceptive coverage even though 98% of Catholic women (and their conjugal spouses)
has me thinking. . . . There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves
demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and
respect for gender equality in the Catholic church.
John Podesta immediately replied: We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
to organize for a moment like this. These were activist organizations that Podesta had a
hand in establishing as far back as 2005 to influence the Catholic vote in the run-up to
Obamas 2008 presidential bid. He complains that leadership has been lacking in these
groups, and that the change they want is going to have to be worked from the bottom up.

If medieval dictatorship sums up their ignorance about medieval history, dictatorship, and
Catholicism, then the analogy to an Arab Spring sums up their fundamental intentions.
Catholics and Muslims alike need to be liberated from their Middle Ages dictatorship. Our
progressive pastors teach an enlightened faith, intended to politically transform Catholicism
from within, just as they hope to transform Islam. They want a liberalized, secularized,
compatible-with-progressivism Catholicism. And they are willing to spend massive amounts
of political capital to achieve this. Witness their costly war with the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Podesta and Newmans exchanges pose an interesting question. They ask, how could
Catholics be so ignorant of Christian Democracy? As if the Catholic Church hasnt had a
much longer and more thoughtful engagement with a greater variety of political regimes than
they have had. But their question gave me pause. They think that progressivism itself is the
true standard bearer for Christian democracy which brings me back to those Pew studies,
and all the post-Christian declensions. They dont see their progressive project as postChristian. They see it as a kind of secular form of Christian religion, a form that is the one
true champion of progress, equality, democracy, and yes, liberation, salvation.
The e-mails give us a special window onto this esoteric form of religion, which is rarely
spoken about. Progressivism a secularized, and in these writers view purified, form of
progressive Protestant Christianity is the one true faith. This kind of liberalism is parasitic
upon true Christianity, but it holds it in utter disdain. And it follows that the most ancient
form of Christianity, Catholicism, should become its very special target.
Keep in mind that everything Obama has done, and the messianism that has gone with it, has
been done from this understanding of progressive Christianity, which is in their view
synonymous with Christianity, democracy, and freedom itself. This is why the president lit
up the White House in the rainbow an act of religious observance, a triumph for progress,
and yes, in his view a triumph for Christian democracy, equality, and liberty. This is why
Obama used full executive powers to coerce the Little Sisters of the Poor to submit to the
HHS mandate against their conscience.
The progressive Christian democrat sees none of these acts as vicious. They see these as
socially and religiously liberating acts. They see themselves as paternally breaking the chains
of inequality: When they go low, we go high. Their well-suited liberalism hides their

deeply pietistic and puritanical roots, which are both disciplinarian and anti-Catholic at their
core.
The objection will be raised that while Obama reads Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hillary Clinton
is a progressive Methodist, John Podesta and Tim Kaine are baptized Catholics. But the fact
that a Catholic is baptized doesnt mean that his beliefs have been substantively formed by
the Catholic Church. Going to Georgetown, or taking a trip to Honduras, does not guarantee
that a Catholic will be formed with an adequate understanding of his faith, nor that he will
live in accord with it. And if they have been badly catechized in the faith, they will be very
vulnerable to substitutions for the content of the faith. Progressivism provides a powerful
substitute.
In some ways, the Investiture Controversies of the 12th and 13th centuries never ended.
Kings continue to want to bring the Church under their control. In the 16th century, kings
such as Henry VIII introduced something new into the Western political dynamic: The state
takes an interest in advancing a religion that competes with the Catholic Church. Modern
progressivism inherited this seed of revolution. It became more or less detached from
Christianity in the 19th century, especially through G. W. F. Hegel, who saw God revealing
Himself to us through our ever-evolving experiences through history. Democracy is the
dialectical unfolding of Gods own voice, which is why the progressives have the idea that
they should transform Catholicism from the ground up. Vox populi, vox Dei.
No wonder, then, that they want a grassroots Catholic Spring. This view isnt the special
purview of the Podestas of this world. It is widespread. ABC News political analyst Matthew
Dowd tweeted after the leaks: My fellow Catholics, you are aware that a majority of
Catholics are pro-choice and pro gay marriage, right? Mr. Dowd perfectly illustrates how
the progressive faith is a kind of ideological colonization that seeks to transform the one,
true, Catholic faith. The tragedy is that what Catholics like Dowd, Podesta, and Kainedo not
seem to understand is that the Holy Catholic Church has survived 2,000 years not by
receiving truth from below, but by receiving it from above.
C. C. Pecknold is an associate professor of theology at the Catholic University of America
in Washington, D.C.