Some Catholics have abandoned Catholic social action initiatives for pluralistic social action initiatives based on tolerance, compromise and government solutions to social problems.
For example, Network, a National Catholic social justice lobby, favors a distinctly pluralistic identity. In contrast the Knights of Columbus favors a distinctly Catholic identity.
Pope Benedict XVI made it clear in “Charity in Truth” that solidarity and subsidiarity are both underlying principles of the church’s social doctrine. An initiative that emphasizes one of these and neglects the other can result in the kind of problematic situations we now have – Catholics ignoring the teaching authority of the church on some very fundamental issues.
Furthermore, it appears that many social justice initiatives focus only on the corporal works of mercy to the exclusion of the spiritual works of mercy. As a result we seem to be losing ground to a strictly secular attitude toward charity.