Tradinista!

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Tradinista! was a group of young Roman Catholics devoted to a synthesis of Marxist and traditional Roman Catholic critiques of political and economic leftism, and to the promotion of a socialism that would be compatible with Catholic social teaching. [1]

Contents

The name Tradinista! is a portmanteau of traditionalist and Sandinista. [2] The symbol used by the group on its website was a pelican wounding its breast to feed its young – a symbol of Christ. [3]

History

Tradinista! began in 2016, gathering on a private online discussion group known as the "Papal Octopus" and promoting their ideas on Twitter. [1] In September 2016, they launched a website with a manifesto sketching their main aims, and other articles explaining the manifesto in detail. [3] The authors used pseudonyms on their site, [4] but some of them identified themselves in discussing their group on other sites. [5] [6] The Tradinista! website was taken offline in 2017, but it later went online again as "an archival website maintaining the materials published as part of the Tradinista project." [7]

Positions

Tradinista! held that political authorities ought to promote the teachings of the Catholic Church and the virtue of the people. [8] It held that the economic system should be ordered to the common good of the whole society and that capitalism should be abolished. [8] It considered racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia to be structural injustices that ought to be eradicated. [9] It was pro-life and pro-immigration. [8] Tradinista! can be seen as a form of political Catholicism and of Christian socialism.

Media attention and criticism

The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat brought Tradinista! up in a column, claiming that part of the younger generation of Roman Catholics were drawn either to a revived Catholic Integralism, or to the Tradinista!, and arguing that Tradinista!'s affirmation of the social kingship of Christ "attacks the modern liberal order at the root." [10] The First Things literary editor Matthew Schmitz wrote that he was "not contra" the Tradinista! [1]

The right-wing Catholic writer John Zmirak criticized the group, which he argued "rejects important moral truths and embraces crude economic errors." [2] The left-wing Catholic writer Dean Dettloff, on the other hand, criticized the group for not being sincerely progressive. [9]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Schmitz, Matthew (September 29, 2016). "I Think I'm Not a Contra". First Things. New York: Institute on Religion and Public Life. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Zmirak, John (October 1, 2016). "Tradinistas: Angry, Churchy Millennials Who Scorn Freedom and Demand a Guaranteed Income for Breathing". The Stream. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Padusniak, Chase (September 29, 2016). "An Orthodox Catholic Socialism?". Jappers and Janglers. Patheos. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  4. Mills, David (October 3, 2016). "We Need the Tradinista! – Or Something Like Them". Ethika Politika. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  5. Thomas, Sam (February 28, 2017). "A Catholicism for the Twenty-First Century: An Interview with a Tradinista". Diginativ. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  6. Mena, Jose (October 10, 2016). "Yes, Tradinistas Are Left-Wing Radicals – But That Doesn't Make Us Any Less Catholic". The Catholic Herald. London. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  7. "Tradinista Website" . Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 Milco, Elliot (October 10, 2016). "A Close Reading of the 'Tradinista Manifesto'". The Josias. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  9. 1 2 Dettloff, Dean (September 30, 2016). "The Tradinista Manifesto is Not a Document of Leftist Liberation". Medium. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  10. Douthat, Ross (October 9, 2016). "Among the Post-Liberals". The New York Times. p. SR11. Retrieved March 6, 2018.