Education Quote by Roger Mahony

Mahony’s line lands like a pastoral sigh that doubles as a power move. On the surface, it’s catechetical concern: Catholics “simply don’t know” what the Church teaches, so they wander into positions they assume are permitted. Underneath, it’s a disciplined way to reframe dissent as ignorance rather than conviction. If the problem is knowledge, not conscience, then the remedy isn’t debate or reform; it’s instruction, correction, and renewed deference to authority.

The repetition of “simply” does quiet work here. It softens the accusation, making it sound charitable, even regretful, while also stripping complexity from the laity’s moral reasoning. People aren’t wrestling with teachings on sexuality, contraception, divorce, women’s roles, or political life because the teachings feel misaligned with lived reality; they’re confused children who missed the lesson. That rhetorical choice protects the institution from admitting that many Catholics understand the rules and still reject them.

Context matters: Mahony’s career sits inside decades of post-Vatican II churn in American Catholicism, where “cultural Catholic” identity often outpaces doctrinal compliance. The quote reads like an attempt to pull a widening base back toward a center defined by Rome, especially as public opinion among Catholics diverges sharply from official stances on hot-button issues. It’s also a preemptive defense against scandal-driven credibility loss: when trust erodes, leaders often pivot to “education” as the fix, because it sounds constructive without requiring institutional self-critique.

In one sentence, Mahony sketches a hierarchy of legitimacy: teaching is coherent and settled; the laity’s deviation is the anomaly. That’s the intent - to reassert the Church’s interpretive monopoly while keeping the tone pastoral enough to avoid sounding like a scold.