clarity
clarity
P  R  E  S  S,   I  N  C  .

THE NEO-CATHOLICS
Implementing Christian Nationalism in America
by Betty Clermont

ISBN: 978-0932863638 351 pp. $19.95   2009







see below for
SYNOPSIS   AUTHOR  TABLE OF CONTENTS

    SYNOPSIS

    Volumes have been written about the role the Religious Right played in achieving its
    ultimate goal - the presidency of George W. Bush. But few know the primary and
    essential role played by Catholics in instituting and directing the Religious Right as
    the means for the neoconservative takeover of the U.S. government, a group the
    author calls neo-Catholics. The first neoconservatives - Irving Kristol, Allan Bloom,
    and Francis Fukuyama - were proponents of the philosopher Leo Strauss who
    considered the ideal state as one ruled by an intellectual elite with religion used to
    mollify and intimidate the masses into obedience.

    Not only did Catholic leaders have a millennium of experience in propping up
    monarchs and dictators, but also Catholics were the largest denomination in the U.
    S. Neoconservative Catholics were ready, willing and able to implement the
    American brand of church/state unification:  Christian Nationalism.

    This book examines how hawks and neo-conservatives in the Republican Party
    forged a nexus with powerful right wing Catholics that would change the face of
    American Catholicism, the structuring of social policy in the United States, and the
    American agenda in the world.   

    At the start of the 1980s, the Church’s social justice agenda had been committed to
    alleviating poverty, to demilitarization, to affirmative action,and to ending capital
    punishment—an agenda antipathetic to the Republican platform. By the end of the
    nineties, its justice agenda was marginalized, and political action was mobilized
    around concern for the dying and the unborn.

    Clermont's rigorous and extensively documented research examines how it was
    done.

    AUTHOR

    BETTY CLERMONT has previously reported for Atlanta Progressive News,
    contributed editorials to Atlanta Latino and written for Voice of the Faithful on the sex-
    abuse scandal.i  As a holder of a certificate in theological studies and a former
    employee of  the Archdiocese of Atlanta, she has had an opportunity to view the
    Catholic Church from the inside out.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    CHAPTER ONE:
    1968 - “NEOCONSERVATISM” BEGINS

    CHAPTER TWO:
    CATHOLICISM:  THE NEOCONSERVATIVE RELIGION OF CHOICE
    The Knights of Malta
    Opus Dei
    Opus Dei in America
    The Vatican Bank
    The Papacy: “A Perfect Vehicle”

    CHAPTER THREE:
    HAWKS AND NEOCONS ALIGN
    Ronald Reagan Materialized Out of Nowhere
    The Nixon/Ford Administration
    The Heritage Foundation

    CHAPTER FOUR:
    FORMATION OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT
    The Moral Majority
    The National Conservative Political Action Committee
    The Conservative Caucus
    Building an American Nationalist Christian Theology
    Abortion
    Support for Israel

    CHAPTER FIVE:
    TWO POPES NAMED JOHN PAUL
    John Paul I  
    And the Winner Is…Woytyla!

    CHAPTER SIX:
    JOHN PAUL II AND LATIN AMERICA
    Liberation Theology
    Right-wing Retrenchment Under John Paul II
    The Neoconservatives Confront Liberation Theology
    John Paul II Tours Latin America

    CHAPTER SEVEN:  
    MAKING MOVIE ACTOR REAGAN “GOD’S MAN”  
    The 1980 Presidential Campaign
    Foreign Backers
    The Iran Hostage Crisis
    Infesting the Reagan Administration
    Deploying the Papacy Against the USSR
    The US and the Holy See: Government to Government
    Finding “Parallelism” on Abortion, Star Wars and Latin America  

    CHAPTER EIGHT:
    POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE MEDIA
    The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
    Fatima
    Joaquin Navarro-Valls
            
    CHAPTER NINE:
    THE NEO-CATHOLIC CHURCH
    “Reform” of the Episcopate
    The Last Hurrah for Progressive Prelates
    The Neo-Catholic Papacy
    Obedience
    Homosexuality
    Education
    The Neo-Catholic Episcopate
    The 1996 Presidential Campaign

    CHAPTER TEN:
    NEO-CATHOLIC PROTAGONISTS
    Michael Novak
    George Weigel
    Rev. Richard John Neuhaus
    Rev. C. John McCloskey III
    Rev. Frank Pavone
    Rick Santorum

    CHAPTER ELEVEN:
    THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
    The Catholic Task Force
    The Neo-Catholic Campaign
    Looking Ahead to 2004: Goodbye Evangelicals, Hello Catholics

    CHAPTER TWELVE:  
    POLITICAL PATRONAGE IN THE GUISE OF CHARITY
    Charitable Choice
    The Faith-Based and Community Initiative
    Faith-based Legislation
    Faith-based Discrimination in Hiring
    Primary Purposes and End Goals

    CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
    THE SEX ABUSE SCANDAL
    The Philadelphia Grand Jury Report
    History of the scandal
    Republican and Vatican Responses
    Neo-Catholic Responses
    Targeting Boston’s Liberal Catholics
    The John Jay Report
    Anything But Mea Culpa
    Blaming Predation on Homosexuality
    An American (or Boston) “Problem”
    Abuse Caused by “Culture of Dissent”
    Clerical Sexual Abuse is “History”
    Victims Are In This For The Money
    And Besides, Social Programs Will Suffer
    Targeting Priests But Not Other Professions
    But NOT Celibacy
    Officially, Homosexuals Are the Scapegoats

    CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
    THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
    The War in Iraq
    The US Neo-Catholics Tout “Just War” Doctrine  
    The Pope Strives Tirelessly for Peace
    The Neo-Catholics:  War Is Beyond the Competence of Religious Authority
    Purging the Vatican Doves
    The Neo-Catholic 2004 Campaign
    The Attack on John Kerry
    The Vatican intervenes for Bush
    Republican Catholic Outreach  
    Deal Hudson: The “Most Influential” Catholic in Washington
    Vatican Grants Knighthood to Pro-choice Official
    Countdown to Election Day
    Kerry Wins …
    Bush Wins the Catholic Vote
    Neo-Catholics on Torture

    CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
    POPE BENEDICT XVI
    From “God’s Rottweiler” to Opus Dei’s Pope
    The Heart of the Matter: Money
    Relations With Other Religions
    Jews
    Muslims
    Europe as Christendom, and Vice Versa
    A Singular Status at the UN
    Vatican Overtures to Russia and China
    The Church’s Relation With Italy

    CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
    BENEDICT XVI VISITS THE US
    US Donations to the Vatican
    Navigating the Diplomatic Thicket
    Hosting the Vicar of Christ
    Addressing Sex Abuse and Immigration
    Assessments of Benedict’s Visit

    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
    THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
    Summation of the Bush Presidency
    Iraq
    Torture and Deaths of Detainees
    Deaths on the Border
    The New Poverty
    Abortions
    The Campaign Begins
    Bush Visits Benedict—Again
    Communion Denial Strikes Again
    Putting Abortion Back On Center Stage
    The National Conventions
    Sarah Palin
    Christian National Initiatives
    The Post-Convention Campaign
    The Catholic Vote Proves To Be Elusive

    EPILOGUE
    Mission Accomplished
    Christian National Failures
    A New US/Vatican Relationship
    The Poisoning of US Religion
    The Future

    POINTS OF INTEREST

    • Catholics are 24% of the
    American population, almost
    three times the number of the
    second largest religious
    group, Southern Baptists. They
    are a significant force in the
    US educational system, with
    150,000 Catholic school
    teachers teaching 2.7 million
    students. ( A third of the US
    population was raised
    Catholic. Only a fourth will still
    self-identify themselves as
    such.)

    • There is no other book which
    traces the history of the
    alliance between the GOP and
    the Holy See and weaves their
    mutual ambitions for power
    and money into the narrative.

    • While much has been written
    about the neo-conservatives
    and the Christian
    fundamentalists, there is little
    material on the pivotal role
    played by individual powerful
    Catholics and American
    Catholicism in establishing
    this alliance

    • This book addresses the
    profound shift in Catholic
    social concerns which the neo-
    Catholics were able to
    establish, and as such should
    be of great interest to socially
    concerned Catholics and their
    numerous organizations.
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    REVIEWS

    "Neo-Catholics and Neo-Cons:  An Unholy Alliance (Satire)"
    by William Hughes, Media Monitors Network

    "Betty Clermont helps us recall, in excruciating detail, a history of the U.S. Catholic
    right and its tremendous influence in the U.S. government since Ronald Reagan
    began forging ties with the Vatican. In vivid scene after scene, Ms. Clermont lets the
    documented facts tell the story, of how the American bishops diverted our money
    (not theirs) away from programs promoting social justice into political action that
    could only make Republicans smile. A darn well written study in the abuse of power
    by lordly bishops who rest assured because they rest assured."

     ROBERT BLAIR KAISER covered Vatican II for Time magazine.
    He is the author of Cardinal Mahony: A Novel.

    "Betty Clermont's The Neo Catholics tracks the links of Republican politics, big
    money and Catholic ideologues with a muckraker's zeal. Even those who do not
    share Clermont's every position will be pulled along by her relentless scrutiny of
    how the pro-life agenda turned into a hothouse for war-mongering and the endless
    money-hunt."

    JASON BERRY, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II
    and Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children

    "Now a new book lets us place the attack on CCHD in the larger context of a
    conspiracy by historic conservative lay groups within the Catholic Church, their allies
    in the Catholic hierarchy, and conservative Catholic business elites to defeat the
    welfare state, strengthen corporate power, and align public policy with socially
    conservative, individual morality theology.  Author Betty Clermont, herself a lay
    Catholic and former employee of the Atlanta Diocese, makes this case in the Neo-
    Catholics:  Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.  It is well worth
    reading..."

    MIKE MILLER, Social Policy
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