The Cardinal's Number
Not sure how much attention this is getting outside the New York area, but here it's big news that Cardinal Dolan has invited President Obama to the annual Al Smith dinner -- and the President apparently has accepted.
The result has been a furor. Although an invitation to the Al Smith dinner -- a non-partisan, non-political affair in which both presidential candidates have typically been invited to give short, self-deprecating speeches -- is not the same as an invitation to be a university's commencement speaker (much less be awarded an honorary degree), you can see the confusion. One member of the archdiocese's staff has defended his boss here, but, judging from the comments, he hasn't been persuasive. These comments are worth reading.
Now, the issue here is not the Cardinal's commitment to Catholic teaching, unborn life, or the fight against the contraceptive mandate. The Cardinal has been pretty tough. I am a huge fan of the Cardinal, yet the decision does raise questions about prudence. Not being privy to the reasoning that went into this, I'm willing to have my mind changed. Still, my gut feeling is that it was a very very unwise thing to have done.
The Cardinal's defender rightly notes that Jesus sat down with tax collectors, and that this is a civic, not a religious event. With regard to the first, Phil Lawler points out that no one is objecting to the Cardinal meeting with President Obama per se. The objection is that the context is essentially a photo op: We can guarantee that on the front page of the next day's New York Times we will have a photo of the Cardinal laughing it up with the Commander in Chief. No doubt that is why the President has agreed to come. If the Cardinal and the Pres can laugh it up, can this mandate really be the threat the Cardinal says it is? That too is a cause of understandable confusion.
As for the latter, it seems to me that the fact that this is a civic affair adds to the problem rather than mitigates it, because it makes the invitation optional. No doubt the Cardinal weighed these things -- the great political advantage President Obama will get from it in the midst of an election, the demoralization of many who support the Cardinal's fight against the mandate, the confusion it sends the faithful. Paris may be well worth a Mass, but it is hard to see how the Al Smith dinner is worth this. Indeed, the whole idea of Al Smith dinners, which allow our pols to get nice photos with the members of the hierarchy they are busy undermining, strikes me as something that itself ought to be re-examined in our present climate.
The Cardinal is no dummy, and he is a good and decent shepherd. I hope I have it all wrong. My sense, however, is that good, faithful people who are the Cardinal's true friends and allies are utterly utterly dispirited, and I see no good coming of it.
- Comment (30)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
May '11
Re: The Cardinal's Number
To borrow from Margaret Thatcher, "this is no time to go wobbly Cardinal." I have the sad feeling that the Church is toast, at least in the U.S.
May '11
Re: The Cardinal's Number
dreamlarge
Aside from the defender's inappropriate comparison of the Cardinal to Jesus, why should it matter if the event is civic or religious?
Are we sure it was the Cardinal that he was comparing to Jesus?
Mar '11
Re: The Cardinal's Number
As someone who's been stuck at conferences in my Diocese all week, and then came home to see Dolan (?!?!), of all people doing this, I also fear greatly for the Church here in the U.S. It seems that "The Spirit of Vatican II" has banished "The Holy Spirit" to the wings.
Jun '12
Re: The Cardinal's Number
dreamlarge
Aside from the defender's inappropriate comparison of the Cardinal to Jesus, why should it matter if the event is civic or religious? · 10 hours ago
I don't find it inappropriate (but then I'm not Catholic).
As a Christian, we are commanded to be like Jesus, to at least to try to live up to the example He set.
Supping with the lepers and tax collectors would indeed be appropriate; but Jesus didn't do it at a public forum, he did it at a private home. The spokesperson's analogy fails on that point.
Mar '12
Re: The Cardinal's Number
Conservative Wanderer, Jesus did not just eat with tax collectors and sinners, He also said, "Go and sin no more." Perhaps the cardinal will make that statement publicly, but one suspects not.
I am a Catholic and I do find this to be inappropriate, albeit consistent with the USCCB model that works against Catholic positions and interests.
The USCCB hasn't yet figured out how to stop shoveling.
Mar '11
Re: The Cardinal's Number
The Cardinal's 'turning of the other cheek' here is grossly misguided. AS Bill has said, this appearance will only provide covering fire for Obama to claim that his policies do not amount to the attempt to remove religion from the public square.
And even if, Saints be praised, Obama should have some miraculous awakening as a result of this and repent and remove the specific contraception requirements that the Church finds so odious, is the Cardinal so naive as not to see that the growing presence of the State in this manner and others will, over time, crowd out Catholic charities from performing any serious function?
May '12
Re: The Cardinal's Number
ConservativeWanderer
dreamlarge
Aside from the defender's inappropriate comparison of the Cardinal to Jesus, why should it matter if the event is civic or religious? · 10 hours ago
I don't find it inappropriate (but then I'm not Catholic).
As a Christian, we are commanded to be like Jesus, to at least to try to live up to the example He set.
Supping with the lepers and tax collectors would indeed be appropriate; but Jesus didn't do it at a public forum, he did it at a private home. The spokesperson's analogy fails on that point. · 3 hours ago
Another difference is that the sinners and tax collectors didn't claim to be Christians.
Obama dares sit in a pew in a Christian church, fund the killing of innocents, and then gets this invitation. Does the Catholic Church have any credibilityleft?
Jun '12
Re: The Cardinal's Number
BrentB67
ConservativeWanderer
dreamlarge
Aside from the defender's inappropriate comparison of the Cardinal to Jesus, why should it matter if the event is civic or religious? · 10 hours ago
I don't find it inappropriate (but then I'm not Catholic).
As a Christian, we are commanded to be like Jesus, to at least to try to live up to the example He set.
Supping with the lepers and tax collectors would indeed be appropriate; but Jesus didn't do it at a public forum, he did it at a private home. The spokesperson's analogy fails on that point. · 3 hours ago
Another difference is that the sinners and tax collectors didn't claim to be Christians.
Obama dares sit in a pew in a Christian church, fund the killing of innocents, and then gets this invitation. Does the Catholic Church have anycredibilityleft? · 5 minutes ago
"Christians" didn't exist then. They were all Jews. The "Christian" church didn't begin until after the Resurrection.
Dec '10
Re: The Cardinal's Number
The Al Smith dinner is an anachronism. Most people under the age of 70 don't even know who he is, or his importance in American history. The dinner is an artifact of a day when the Catholic Church operated as the spiritual wing of the Democratic Party. Maybe it still does.
Mar '12
Re: The Cardinal's Number
As a Catholic priest (and convert from Mennonites) friend once remarked, the largest Protestant denomination in the US is the American Catholic Church. The Al Smith Dinner is an artifact of the era in which the Catholic Church set out to become that denomination (i.e., convince the American establishment that its immigrant congregations posed no threat). I would argue that the embrace of liberation theology and progressive politics by portions of the clergy and congregation in the 60s-90s represented the logical conclusion of that conversion. Now the remnants of the original Catholic Church are left to discover what can be saved of the original vision amid the ruins of what has become a mainstream Protestant/Christian Socialist institution as intertwined with the American political establishment as the Episcopalians ever were. As with most commandments, "render unto Caesar" sounds simpler that it is.