The Logic of Belief
I heard recently about a woman who went to an RCIA class who, upon being told that the Catholic Church taught abortion is wrong, promptly left, announcing: “I can’t believe the Church prohibits abortion.” One suspects there are other, more fundamental teachings she likely couldn’t “believe” either. Abortion is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait till she gets to the Resurrection of the Body.
One reaction to this story would be to argue that, if the Church’s insistence on opposing abortion alienates people, perhaps it would be better to de-emphasize that teaching since it is no longer in harmony with “the spirit of our age.” If you run a store that sells a certain style of clothing, and no one likes that style anymore, you stop offering it. In business, you offer what attracts customers and avoid things that alienate them.
Except the Church isn’t a business. That will seem laughably naive to some, but let’s just say, the Church, in its essence, is not a business. And the laity are not “consumers,” buying a product.
Yes, the Church accepts money because the Church needs money to keep its operations going. But consider another institution that needs and accepts money: a school. What would we say about a school that said, “Kids don’t like math, so let’s just stop offering math”? Don’t we assume the school has a responsibility to teach its students things they might not “like”? Perhaps, then, we should admit the Church has an analogous responsibility: to teach and to do what is in the best interests of her members, even if they don’t always “like” it – and even if it doesn’t always make her “popular.”
But there is something deeper involved here as well because the Church’s opposition to abortion is based on divine revelation and the Church’s view of the human person as revealed in and through Jesus Christ. Understood this way, to say, “I can’t believe what the Church teaches about abortion” is to say, “I can’t believe the Church’s teaching about the human person based on divine revelation.” That’s fine, but then you’ve defined yourself as “not Catholic.”
If that seems too radical, consider the case of someone who says any of the following. “I can’t believe that the Church teaches: (a) that Jesus was (is) the Son of God Incarnate; and/or (b) that an Incarnate God could die; and/or (c) that Jesus rose bodily from the dead; and/or (d) that the faithful, after they die, also rise bodily from the dead. Plenty of people throughout history haven’t been able to accept these teachings, but the Church has generally understood that it would make no sense to identify itself with “the Body of Christ” if it stopped insisting on these things.
