Identity Catholicism
“Identity Catholicism” or Identitarian Catholicism is a poorly defined pejorative expression, which appeared in the 1980s to describe a movement of Catholicism, supposedly in opposition to an “open Catholicism”.[1] It was particularly after “La Manif pour tous” that this expression became common.
Attempt at definition[edit]
For Erwan Le Morhedec,[2] some Catholics would be tempted to attach themselves more to the ritual and cultural markers of Catholicism rather than to their own faith. “Within the temptation of identity, it is politics which takes precedence over faith, it is the submission of faith to politics." For the author, identitarianism would be an ideology, an individual imprisonment, even a spiritual mystification.[1][3]
Origin of the expression[edit]
According to Guillaume Cuchet, this vocabulary comes mainly from the Socialist Party and the columns of the newspaper Le Monde.[1]
Ambiguity of the opposition between “identity” and “openness”[edit]
Guillaume Cuchet believes that the distinction between “identity” and “openness”, attributed to Philippe Portier, does not work well, because the terms do not really correspond: “in the tandem, “identity” and “openness” do not exactly refer to the same thing. On the one hand, it is about self-definition; on the other, the attitude towards the modern world. Now, let us know, Catholics of "openness" also have an "identity", even if they do not like the word very much, except without doubt saying that their "identity" is precisely their "openness".[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Guillaume Cuchet (February 2017). "Identité et ouverture dans le catholicisme français". Études (in French). pp. 65–76.
- ^ Erwan Le Morhedec. Éditions du Cerf (ed.). Identitaire. Le mauvais génie du christianisme. p. 304.
- ^ "Les catholiques dans le piège de l'identité ?". France Culture. 17 January 2017.