Fr. James Martin is now referring to Catholics who oppose what he wrote in his latest book as “alt-right Catholics.”

Honest to goodness, I have no idea what that even means. I didn’t really have a firm understanding what “alt-right” meant when it referred to politics but I definitely don’t understand what it means in reference to Catholics.

Is it just the new “fundamentalist” which pretty much meant “a Christian I don’t like because he actually believes that stuff.”

Politically, the alt-right moniker seems to be a way of calling someone racist or a Nazi without calling them a Nazi racist. So it’s like a skirting of Godwin’s law. But in Catholicism, it seems to mean someone who actually believes the Church teaching on sex and gender. But (and I’m not being obtuse for humor reasons here) I’m honestly not sure what the heck it means.

Maybe, they should call it “alt-rite” in Catholic circles just to give it that Catholicy feel.