About the Ultra-Catholic
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Por: P. Fernando Pascual, L.C | Fuente: Catholic.net

The qualifier "ultra-Catholic" appears in some debates and before some people or groups, so it is advisable to reflect on it for a moment. The word uses the prefix "ultra", which gives a nuance of exaggeration to the term it accompanies. Sometimes, it also has the sense of dangerous, fanatical, exaggerated.

Its use in politics (Ultra-right, Ultra-left, ultra-liberal, etc.) often serves to disqualify the extremes of the political range. Why does "ultra" has a more or less strong nuance of extremist. The other part of the word is "Catholic". It indicates to a member of the Catholic Church, whether because of their "sociological" belonging, in a more concrete way, by their personal convictions.

So, how to understand the word "ultra-Catholic"? Various possibilities could be raised:

1. Someone who overthinks his Catholic faith 

2. Someone who lives their Catholicism fanatically.

3. Someone who is more a papist than the Pope.

4. Someone who takes Catholicism as a flag to despise other positions or even other people.

5. Someone who engages in fundamentalism from his Catholic beliefs.

6. Someone who seeks to impose Catholicism as a religion of state.

In general, the list refers to ways of thinking and acting that, seen as negative, are easily condemnable in the modern world. What seems wrong is to use that term to whomever the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, or whoever thinks that sin offends God, or who claims that there will be a trial after death.

Because these beliefs are an integral part of the Catholic faith, these would make all true Catholics "ultra-Catholic" people. Those who do not accept these truths, even if they say they pray to Our Lady or applaud the Pope, would not be Catholic.

Another aspect is that the term ultra-Catholic is often used as an attack on people who go against abortion or euthanasia, as if defending the life of the unborn child or who suffers enormously was something unique to Catholicism, when it’s simply part of justice.

An attack thus tares the dialogue and generates tensions. If one that goes against abortion is crossed out as an ultra-Catholic, should not it be answered that the one who defends abortion is an ultralibertie who is in favor of the elimination of human beings before being born?

A good public debate avoids using denigrating adjectives that seek to silence those who think otherwise, to listen to the reasoning and seriously address them. For the same reason, in the face of those who abuse the term "ultra": let us put aside disqualifications, respect people, and go, thoroughly, to the issues on which the lives of thousands of humans.