Comments on: Mandate Fact #3 — Dragging Words Out of Our Mouths

By: James Leach, MD

James Leach, MD — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:47:02 +0000

President Obama is not bringing down the Church! The Pope and bishops are doing a good job on their own by inept handing of pedophilia in the church and reprimanding sisters conscious of social justice. The HHS mandate is good public health policy.
If you want to decrease the number of abortions, give sex education courses to high school students and provide contraception to women who want it.

By: James Leach, MD

James Leach, MD — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:44:54 +0000

President Obama is not bringing down the Church! The Pope and bishops are doing a good job on their own by inept handing of pedophilia in the church and reprimanding sister conscious of social justice. The HHS mandate is good public health policy.
If you want to decrease the number of abortions, give sex education courses to high school students and provide contraception to women who want it.

By: Ed Mechmann

Ed Mechmann — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:25:10 +0000

I don’t think it’s really that big a deal, or that it undermines the Church’s public witness. The public stance of the bishops is very well known about the HHS mandate, legalized abortion, etc. The internal disagreements within the Church are also well known, and will have to be dealt with internally. I don’t think that joining in a public prayer event minimizes those realities. In fact, I think that it would have been a bigger story, and one that would have reflected badly on the Church, if Cardinal Wuerl had declined to attend. That would have been seen as an uncivil snub to the President and to the other religious leaders.

I compare this situation to a pastor joining in an ecumenical prayer service. Everybody knows there are significant theological differences between the participants, and the joint effort shouldn’t pretend that these differences don’t matter. We can still pray alongside each other, and be civil to each other. A good example of this is the way Pope Benedict handled the ecumenical prayer event at Assisi — warm greetings to leaders of other faiths, respectful listening to them, but clear statements about what we believe.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:15:20 +0000

I’m sorry but there is something horribly compartmentalized about this….that leading Catholic dissidents (in my judgment) can give a public relations moment to the president who is leading the charge to bring down (in my opinion) the Catholic Church? Huh?

By: Ed Mechmann

Ed Mechmann — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:39:48 +0000

As Shakespeare once said, even the devil can quote scripture for his purpose, so it doesn’t particularly trouble me when a politician does so.

I tend to take these kinds of events for what they’re worth — an act of the “public religion”, so I view a bishop attending them merely as an “honor the emperor” kind of thing (1 Peter 2:17). Civility, and little more.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:36:56 +0000

This is my “what is going on with the Catholic Church in America” question for today. It comes from a National Catholic Reporter story about the Easter Prayer Breakfast this morning at the White House attended by the following prominent catholics:

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington read from the New Testament at the prayer breakfast. Other prominent Catholcs in the room included Rev. Charles Currie, S.J., Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., Rev. Clete Kiley, Rev. Anthony Pogorelc, S.S., Sr. Carol Keehan, Sr. Simone Campbell, Rev. Larry Snyder, and CUA Professor Stephen Schneck.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/easter-prayer-breakfast-white-house

Do you suppose the prominent Catholic in attendance were part of the laughter and Amens when the President ended his comments saying:

“We all have experiences that shake our faith. There are times where we have questions for God’s plan relative to us — (laughter) — but that’s precisely when we should remember Christ’s own doubts and eventually his own triumph. Jesus told us as much in the book of John, when He said, “In this world you will have trouble.” I heard an amen. (Laughter.) Let me repeat. “In this world, you will have trouble.”

AUDIENCE: Amen!

THE PRESIDENT: “But take heart!” (Laughter.) “I have overcome the world.” (Applause.) We are here today to celebrate that glorious overcoming, the sacrifice of a risen savior who died so that we might live. And I hope that our time together this morning will strengthen us individually, as believers, and as a nation.”

And this during Holy Week? What a disgrace for our Church.