Stacy, You May Be a Jet...

But I'm a Shark, along with Cusack, Rao, JPII (and a whole bunch of others who are WAAAYYYY beyond my paygrade.)

Regrettably, I must begin by affirming Cusack's remark that the Prots are "on the side of the Revolution." He's right, you know...once Marty Luther started swingin' that hammer, the Frence Revolution was only a matter of time, and then its children, such as 'dolf of Austria and Joe of Ukraine...

Back to the topic. You posit further:

Yet there are many other Catholics who have grasped some other part of the elephant and declare that the Church is an irresistible force of Progress which, were it not for the obstructive ways of bigoted reactionaries like Mr. Cusack, would vanquish each injustice and every inequality, including those obsolete superstitions about the celibate all-male priesthood, abortion, divorce, homosexuality, etc

And every one of them is wrong, Stacy; as wrong as Schlitz was when they decided to change their world-beating beer formula in the 1970's. THEY have eaten the apple of the Revolution, core, seeds, and all; they have determined that the unseen Paradise is........ummmmmhhhhhh........a bit too unseen, indeed.

Speaking strictly as a Protestant layman, it seems to me that Catholic leadership has for more than a century tried to steer a middle course between secular Left and Right, seeking to preserve social conservatism while steadily ceding political ground to statist economic collectivism

You wouldn't mind telling us exactly how you arrived at that "ceding political ground..." stuff, would you? Because you would be the first guy on Earth to have discovered that John Paul II was comfy with the Totalitarians. You DO recall who visited Poland to buck up the Solidarity movement, Stacy? (Hint: it was not the Iron Lady, nor Ron Reagan...)

We strive, or at least should strive, for honesty and fairness in matters of business. Yet when we attempt to reason upward, as it were, from the level of individual morality to the question of “social justice,” the One True Way becomes increasingly less obvious. Thoughtful minds see that this is a utopian mission, an effort toward universalistic one-size-fits-all prescription, with some central authority dictating down to the minutest level what is prohibited and what is required

You are absolutely correct. Two suggestions: 1) take a quick look at the "law of subsidiarity" which is RC foundation for politics, and 2) take a solid look at what ALL RC 'social doctrine' begins with: the dignity of each and every man under God. The Church never proposed 'top-down/one-size-fits-all' solutions. Ever. Not her job. Her job is saving souls, not providing warm and dry housing with flush toilets.

The church DOES propose more or less precisely what YOU offer in the first sentence quoted above---"honesty and fairness..." So if you'd dress that up in Latin, it's possible that you'll get some credit should B-16 do a social encyclical.

And, please, Stacy--don't throw Cdl. Mahony in our faces, or we'll start yapping about certain Southern Prot menfolk who have wives with far too much makeup and like telethons...you know, coughcough...

Gee, Officer Krupke--Krup YOU!!