In my mind, therefore, the task is less to try to forge a Catholic-American consensus, than it is to articulate why Catholicism offers a richer, more vibrant, more stable set of moral and political principles than the liberal theory of the American founding.
Catholicism cannot complement liberalism; it can only critique it. Catholicism is not liberalism’s ally, but its rival. This is because the political, legal and regulatory structures in the U.S. are built upon the foundation of a false moral anthropology.
American politics starts with the theory that we are all enemies of one another in our respective assertions of individual rights claims. It cannot be surprising that such a foundation has resulted in a polarizing — even violent — political culture.
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