Cafeteria Catholicism

Cafeteria Catholic, also called à la carte, is an informal term used to describe a follower of Catholicism who dissents from certain official doctrinal or moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Polling indicates that many Catholics dissent from the institutional hierarchy on at least one issue.

Several instances of this include Catholics who support abortion, masturbation, or find no moral objections to birth control.

An early use in print of "cafeteria Catholic" appears in 1971:

"cafeteria Catholic" ... a little of this and none of that

— Redemptorists

A later use of "cafeteria Catholicism" appears in Fidelity, 1986.

"Cafeteria Catholicism" allows us to pick those "truths" by which we will measure our lives as Catholics. ... "Cafeteria Catholicism" is what happens when the stance of Protagoras, regarding man as the measure of all things, gets religion — but not too much.

— Fidelity, 1986, published by the Wanderer Forum Foundation