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Members of a family

Mark Shea is, in my teeny weeny mind, the best Catholic apologist in the blogosphere.
Family, family, family. Not the individual. Not the state. Not the corporation. Family. That's the key. And that, of course, is because the Trinity is at the core of the Church's teaching. Scott Hahn once remarked to me that "Calvinism is monotheism come of age. But Catholic faith is *Trinitarianism* come of age." That more or less summarizes the difference between the American vision of society, which is rooted in a sort of quasi-Calvinist vision of the Individual made in the image of One Ruggedly Individual God of Hosts, and the Catholic vision, which sees the Person (who is always in relationship) made (along with the Family) in the image of the Trinity of Love. On both left and right, the vision of the Individual, fighting to be free of the intrusions of Church, State, and Society, dominates the American psyche. But Catholic teaching sees us not as Darwinian Individuals in atomized isolation, but as members of a family made in the image of God who is himself a sort of Holy Family.

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