Overview

The first neoconservatives--Irving Kristol, Allan Bloom, and Francis Fukuyama--were proponents of the philosopher Leo Strauss, an émigré from Nazi Germany. Strauss considered the ideal state as one ruled by an intellectual elite with religion used to mollify and control the masses. The Roman Catholic Church already had centuries of experience preaching docility of the population to civil leaders willing to support the Church's preeminent position in society. They were natural partners, albeit with differing pet interests. Applying this concept in the US, however, had its difficulties. While Catholics were the largest single denomination, they did not constitute a majority. In order to establish a ""national christianity""--the union of church and state, of naturally conservative fundamentalists and evangelicals, was numerically necessary in order to form the ""religious right."" Paul Weyrich, once referred to as the most powerful man in America, and fellow Catholics Terry Dolan and Richard Viguerie, along with Howard Phillips, a Jew who had converted to evangelical Christianity, established the Moral Majority, to be led by televangelist Jerry Falwell, to energize their Christian base into political activism and get out the vote. Weyrich, along with Catholic Edwin J. Feulner Jr., also founded the Heritage Foundation, the prototype of the right-wing think tank, to produce intellectual propaganda for the movement. Funding to pay religious leaders along with think tanks, journals and media outlets, came through Knights of Malta William Simon, Nixon's Treasury Secretary, and William Casey, Reagan's CIA Director. The Knights were members of a clandestine international group who, along with the CIA, perpetrated acts of terrorism and the overthrow of legitimate governments justified as defense against the Soviet Union and Red China but, in fact, protected their own wealth and power. Opus Dei-backed Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI lent moral authority to neo-conservative mendacity, and by new appointments, filled the ranks with like-minded prelates. Neo-Catholic journalists Michael Novak, Fr. John Richard Neuhaus and George Weigel rationalized immoral projects with religious rectitude. Their vocabulary and formulations were amplified through the neo-con network and repeated by other religious leaders and politicians. It would change not just the face of American Catholicism, but the face of social policy in the United States as it exists to this day.

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Reviews

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, author of 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 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, author of 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 Offers a well-documented thesis that you have an explosive mixture when you mix a powerful hierarchical church with political neo-conservatism's elitist view that the rich and powerful always know what is best. This is what [Clermont] chronicles early in the work, explaining that fundamentalist theological leanings and ultra-conservative political ideology combined to create a Catholic Movement which was at ease working with rightwing Protestants. This coalition virtually created Ronald Reagan and set itself up as a bulwark against the purported liberalism, relativism and moral excess of liberals in the 1960s... These players were instrumental in finding common ground with the Protestant Religious Right, which was then assimilated into what Clermont calls a common religious discourse, political sympathy and sense of priorities. This analysis is largely ignored in other works and represents the first eye-opener for even those who think they are well attuned to the machinations of right-wing dogmatists. A second major contribution is the extraordinarily detailed description of how the Catholic hierarchy, in Rome and in the United States, became deeply involved in the past three presidential campaigns...A third topic rarely covered in detail before is the strong neo-Catholic support for--and benefits received from--President Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives, his effort to give religious charities and even local churches federal dollars for their ostensibly secular programs dealing with hunger, homelessness, addiction and other social crises... The Neo-Catholics is a fine resource for persons interested and concerned about the unsettling union of church and state which always seems poised to enter the neighborhood--any neighborhood. She uses a dazzling array of sources and the endnotes are an invitation to further reading in this area. --Barry Lynn, Director of American United for the Separation of Church and State, reviewed in Conscience Magazine, September 2010 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, 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, author of 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

Author Information

Betty Clermont is the holder of a theological studies in the employ of the Archdiocese institutions from the inside out. Progressive News, an editorial contributor articles for Voice of the Faithful, sex-abuse scandal.

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