CATHOLIC RADICALS!
What is the necessary meaning of Catholic Radicals, to which we allude in our title and which we now find essential in this secular and post Christian age?  First, the word itself is a clue. Radix is the Latin word for "Root."  A radical is one who moves beyond the liberal and conservative branches of an institution and goes back to the fundamental questioning. The dictionary says a radical is one who goes back to the root, the source, the fundamentals. This is very different from a modernist or liberal who wants to update or accommodate to the present situation. There's a place for such reform, but that is not the primary concern of a true radical. Neither is a radical the same as a traditionalist or conservative, who usually does not go back far enough. A radical Catholic will at times look like both of these types, yet is neither of them at all.
   The questions and concerns of radicals would under-cut all self-interest. ideology, and institutions. In this case, they ask: What does our humanity demand of us? What does love ask of us? What did Jesus present as essential and all-embracing? What is God doing on earth today? John Paul the ll asks such questions in his writings >Social concerns< and finds himself speaking for truly radical Catholics. Striking at the root of the tree, he does not ask us to "CHANGE". That is why the Priest and the Presidents and other men of power have thus far been unable to admit that this encyclical even exists.

Fr. Richard Rohr!   >Radical Grace: Daily Meditations<