The title of this blog is intended to be descriptive.  But it is possible that some will misinterpret the title, thinking that the term “American” someone how qualifies the term “Catholic”.  Father Richard John Neuhaus speaks of this problem in his recent book Catholic Matters:

“the great thing to discover is not what it means to be an American Catholic but what it means to be a Catholic American. One might think the noun is more important than the adjective, but that is not necessarily so.  The adjective qualifies and, in qualifying, controls.  To say that I want to be an American Catholic assumes that I know what it means to be an American but am uncertain about the Catholic part of ‘American Catholic.’  The goal, rather, is to be a Catholic American; to be a person who knows what it means to be Catholic and is working on what it means to be Catholic in America.” (pp. 166)

Fr. Neuhaus is right.  We are first Catholics, disciples of Jesus Christ.  Our political ideas are not our faith.  Rather, when we are at our best, our political ideas are informed by our faith. And that is perhaps the primary goal of this website: to express clearly and persuasively the influence our Catholicism has on our political life in America. Despite protestations to the contrary, this website is not about the American influence on Catholicism, but the influence Catholics ought to have on America.

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