Blessed Father McGivney’s version is a group that I encourage all Practical Catholic Gentlemen (his words) to join: http://www.kofc.org , the Knights of Columbus, which started out (and still has some elements of) as a mutual aid society, and has turned into an insurance company and a service organization.

Blessed Dorthy Day’s version was the Catholic Workers of America union, which runs Birthright Houses for unwed mothers and Dorthy Day houses for the homeless nationwide.

GK Chesterton’s version was largely imaginary, in his works of fiction, but basically brought the right to own the means of production back to the individual worker, rather than the corporation.

All are within Pope Leo’s Reum Novarum- his answer to Marxism.

I still struggle with some aspects of church teaching- as a distributionist, for instance, I’m not at all sure that supporting the human right to migrate for work doesn’t do more harm than good. But I’m willing to accept, and be humble, that greater men than I are wrestling and have wrestled with the topic.

I’d say the failure for the USofA has more to do with our fanatical devotion to the liberal, autonomous individual over and above the community. I think this leads to tyranny, ironically, both in the church and in the state, and in society in general. We each think we’re more important than anyone else, and so do they. Whomever gets a little bit of power ends up using it to impose their individual ideas on everyone else. We’ve forgotten to rally behind the collective (the congress, the parish, the municipal community) to keep individuals from being tyrants. We find comfort, ironically, in The Strong Man.

Part of re-joining the RCC, for me, was being willing to accept that I didn’t like 100% of the Church’s positions on topics and that had to be OK. I had to learn to live in that tension and accept that the collective was more important than I am.

To be clear, I’m not advocating socialism over capitalism, just a touch of Confucianism over our Rational Enlightenment.

The Reformation had people running away from tyrannical, corrupt Bishops and Priests. The American Revolution was running away from tyrannical, corrupt Kings and Queens. But both eventually failed, and just ended up creating new tyrannies.

And yes, I agree, returning to the RCC is a big part of the solution, one that most Protestants refuse to even consider. It is what I did 12 years ago and every time I re-evaluate the decision I feel better about it.

I guess I’m just not comfortable calling our differences “sin”, which is why I hesitate to talk about forgiveness and would rather focus on unity through Love.

And the “differences” that matter, do require forgiveness. Sin harms man as well as God; that’s what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is all about.

Jonathan- it’s not about everybody being the same, it never was. The Catholic Church is a meta culture, not a cult. It’s about asking people to be better than they have been- and then giving them the chance to do it. The way to fix the 500 years of bigotry is simple- rejoin the Church.

Love is learning that differences don’t require forgiveness. Because we are not called to be identical. We are called to love.