"I Am Catholic"

The splendid Stuart Reid writes:

Things are not looking too good for Labour right now, but I take little comfort in the prospect of a Tory government - and I speak as a lifelong Tory voter. There is scarcely anything conservative about the David Cameron's Conservative Party. Like Mrs Thatcher's, it is a party mainly for liberals and libertarians, thought it still hopes to keep the support of the hangers and bashers and Little Englanders in the suburbs.

It's getting so bad that young Right-wingers are these days to be heard praising Ayn Rand, the Russian-American atheist capitalist novelist and radical individualist, who believed in "the virtue of selfishness" and that market should be allowed to operate without interference from government... and, wey-ho, look at us now.

In these circumstances it is getting very difficult to place oneself anywhere on the political/ideological spectrum. A good friend of mine in the United States, Chris Check, who writes for the admirably reactionary Chronicles magazine, told me some years ago that when asked whether he is Left or Right, liberal or conservative, he had taken to replying, simply: "I am Catholic."

I am beginning to wonder whether this solution might not also work in a religious context, especially at a time when people are getting very het up about the liturgy. So, to the question: "Are you a traditionalist or a postconciliarist?" the best answer might be: "Neither. I am a Catholic." It is, anyway, important to remember that there were no traditionalists before the Council.