Tradinista!
Tradinista! was a group of young Roman Catholics devoted to a synthesis of Marxist and traditional Roman Catholic critiques of political and economic liberalism, and to the promotion of a socialism that would be compatible with Catholic social teaching.[1]
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
References
- 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.
- 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.
- Padusniak, Chase (September 29, 2016). "An Orthodox Catholic Socialism?". Jappers and Janglers. Patheos. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- Mills, David (October 3, 2016). "We Need the Tradinista! – Or Something Like Them". Ethika Politika. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- Thomas, Sam (February 28, 2017). "A Catholicism for the Twenty-First Century: An Interview with a Tradinista". Diginativ. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- 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.
- "Tradinista Website". Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- Milco, Elliot (October 10, 2016). "A Close Reading of the 'Tradinista Manifesto'". The Josias. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- Dettloff, Dean (September 30, 2016). "The Tradinista Manifesto is Not a Document of Leftist Liberation". Medium. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- Douthat, Ross (October 9, 2016). "Among the Post-Liberals". The New York Times. p. SR11. Retrieved March 6, 2018.