“What the philosophers and theologians have to say, relevant to the matter in hand, can be given only in resumé. That man has the duty not only of individual but also of social worship, is elementary Catholic doctrine . . . even the state, qua state, not simply ‘society’ but the politically organized community, civil society as such, is bound to profess religion, the true religion; to worship God in the way He wills to be worshipped; and is so bound by the natural law.”>
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Appreciating the Danger of American Liberalism
Before presenting the careful analysis of Fr. George Shea, later named a Monsignor, who is the focus of this essay, we must introduce the context and influence of the man whose ideas he was critiquing. The same man whose views on Church-state relations dominated the American church in the lead-up to the Second Vatican Council, none other than Fr. John Courtney Murray. A Jesuit theologian who, while in Italy in 1950, met with Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini (later to become Paul VI) and found sympathy for his “orientations”, and whom Fr. Murray reported as wanting “his hand to be strengthened.”1
Originally published in The Journal of American Reform. Read original article