Originally published at National Catholic Register
COMMENTARY: ‘Anyone who is so progressive,’ says the Second Epistle of John, ‘as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.’
“Hello, this is your captain. To update you, we are traveling at 25,000 feet and moving at 500 miles per hour. We do not expect any turbulence. However, we are lost!”
Or, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “As enunciated today, progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.” Long before he became president, actor Ronald Reagan served as a pitchman for General Electric. He reminded his audience that, “At General Electric, you know, progress is our most important product.”
Progress is slippery. Nonetheless, it has become the unofficial motto of the modern world. Progress is seemingly everywhere: in the automobile industry, in medicine, in communications, in travel, in food production and in the exploration of space. Inevitably, the question arises: Should the Catholic Church also be progressive?
Not being progressive invites unattractive labels: static, stagnant, rigid, conservative and not being up-to-date. In the 1970s there was much talk about a Catholic/Marxist synthesis. It was said that the
