Progressive Caesaropapism
24th May 2022
For progressives, “separation of church and state” means that religious believers must forgo all attempts to influence what the state does. Secular believers have no corresponding duty to refrain from demanding that the church submit to their preferences. Accordingly, leftists are loudly condemning the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, the Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, for directing the priests in his diocese to refuse the sacrament of communion to Nancy Pelosi. Whoopi Goldberg, whose theological expertise derives from playing a nun in the movies, said of the Archbishop’s action, “This is not your job, dude.” Other progressive voices were less calm and restrained.
The San Francisco Examiner forthrightly demanded that Pope Francis sack the archbishop for holding and propagating opinions that deviate from progressive orthodoxy. The church, it declares, ought to be “a place that welcomes people of all political backgrounds and all faiths” (emphasis added).