On Cardinal Dolan and Joe Biden – Our Politics Is Not What Makes Us Catholic
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I came down pretty hard on Cardinal Dolan for agreeing to speak at the Republican and Democratic conventions. The reason is that our Catholic Faith transcends the temporal powers and his appearance at both, or either, confuses people on that point. In like manner, I have to now defend him against critics who take issue with this quote from him at National Review:

Dolan welcomed the fact that there is a Catholic on each party’s ticket. “Do you not think it’s a cause for celebration in the Catholic community in the United States of America that the two vice-presidential candidates are Catholic? Did you ever think it would come to this?

“We’ve got two men who — and you can disagree with one of them or both of them — say they take their faith seriously, who don’t try to hide it, and who say, ‘Hey, my Catholic upbringing and my Catholic formation influences the way I think.’ Not bad. Not bad.”

Our politics is not what makes us Catholic. Two things make us Catholic: the Sacraments and our belief. As long as we believe we are Catholic and as long as we are receiving the Sacraments, we are Catholic. Joe Biden believes he is Catholic, and he is receiving the Sacraments. Some would argue that he should not receive the Sacraments in that he should be excommunicated, but there is a valid argument against his excommunication. That is that if Joe Biden’s bishop believes that excommunicating him would drive him further away from the Church, then he can’t really excommunicate him. We cannot drive people away from the Church. You might argue that Biden’s position on abortion and “gay marriage” and other issues confuses people and drives them away from the Church, and that, too, would be a valid point. But don’t think Joe Biden’s own soul does not matter. His soul does (and should) matter to all of us.

Instead of insisting that Joe Biden is “not Catholic” (he is Catholic, for the time being) and instead of insisting that he be excommunicated, which would probably drive him farther away, try praying for him.

Faith in God’s will, and concern for souls is, after all, what we should be about.

Hat-tip, Pewsitter.

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The Pope Warns Against the Danger of False Religiosity
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Vatican City, 3 September 2012 (VIS) – The Law of God, which finds complete fulfilment in love, provided the theme for Benedict XVI’s remarks before praying the Angelus today with faithful gathered in the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo.

Commenting on today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, in which the Pharisees reproach Jesus’ disciples for not following the norms of Mosaic Law, the Pope explained that God’s Law “is His Word, which guides mankind along the path of life, freeing them from the slavery of selfishness and introducing them into the ‘land’ of authentic freedom and life. It is for this reason that, in the Bible, the Law is not seen as a burden, … but as the Lord’s most precious gift, … (an expression of) His desire to remain alongside His people, and to be their Ally”.

Yet when the people settle in the Promised Land and become the depositories of the Law, they are tempted “to place their safety and their happiness in something which is no longer the Word of the Lord: in material goods and in power, other ‘divinities’ which are, in fact, empty and futile idols. Of course, the Law of God remains, but it is no longer so important, no longer the rule of life; rather it becomes a facade, a covering, while life follows other paths, other rules, often selfish individual and group interests. In this way religion loses its authentic meaning … and is reduced to a secondary habit which satisfies the need human beings have to feel they have done right before God”.

“This is a serious risk in every religion, one which Jesus encountered in His own time, and unfortunately it can also arise in Christianity. Thus Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel against the Scribes and Pharisees must make us think. Jesus repeats the words of Isaiah: ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrine’. … In his Letter, the Apostle James also warns against the danger of false religiosity”, the Holy Father concluded.

After praying the Angelus, Benedict XVI greeted, among others, a group of pilgrims from Lebanon, expressing his delight at the prospect of his forthcoming visit to that country.

Source: Vatican Information Service

It’s Still Wrong to Find Your Identity in Disorder
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I’ve said that I will continue to blog on this from time to time, and so here I am. Identifying as “gay” is still wrong and for very good reason. It leads people away from Jesus.

From Courage [Emphasis mine]:

There are people within the Catholic Church who might argue that those who label themselves “gay” or “lesbian” aren’t necessarily living unchastely. That’s true, but the implications of the terms in today’s society don’t commonly connote chaste living. Furthermore, they are limiting their own possibilities of growth by such self-labeling, and reducing their whole identity by defining themselves according to their sexual attractions.

That may seem minor but read it again and think very seriously about it. It’s very serious if you live it, and I do live it with my Bipolar Disorder. To identify people as “gay” and to sit back and fail to object to it when they identify themselves that way is to hide Jesus from people. When they also happen to be people who are actively searching for how to become closer to Jesus, it is a tragedy.

Read my article: Objective Disorder and the Cross.

My friend Nathaniel Jameson, who has Same Sex Attraction Disorder, has written his most recent post in response to a reader who offered some protestant “health and wealth doctrine” in a comment on his post about identity in Christ at First Things.

It is not okay to reject the Cross. Demanding that people be consoled in their ignorance exacerbates their sufferings, hides Christ from them, and rejects core teaching about the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is no better than the false teaching that Nathaniel addresses in his post against the “health and wealth” doctrine.

This is a protestant video, but it expresses the redemptive power of the love of Jesus Christ through His Cross. There is nothing in it that contradicts our Faith. He can heal us if it is within His will, but more often than not, He uses our sufferings for His holy purposes. Our sufferings are redemptive. In this, they have value. If we keep looking at disorder as if it is what we are, instead of at the Cross which is where our redemption is, then we are saying no to Him and our identity in Him.

UPDATE: Video #2

Maybe Cardinal Martini’s Last Interview Wasn’t So Bad After All
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Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith has an excellent article at Catholic Herald explaining that Cardinal Martini’s last interview may not have been as scathing as some have reported.

Please give it a read.

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Hackers Claim to Have Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns
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I think that Mitt Romney could clear this up right now if he would just voluntarily release his tax returns. Having said that, the hackers, if caught, should be prosecuted.

Mashable, via Memeorandum:

Mitt Romney’s tax returns are reportedly in the hands of a team of hackers who plan on releasing them publicly at the end of the month unless a ransom is paid.

The hackers want $1 million in bitcoins and the Secret Service is investigating. Something tells me that the documents will eventually be posted publicly even if Romney pays the ransom and even if the hackers are caught. If so, and if they are fake, the only way to prove it would be to release the real ones.

What a mess. I still think he should have released them because he is making claims about his time at Bain that can only be proven if he releases those returns. If you make claims, you should back them up.

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DNC Force Feeds God and Jerusalem to Delegates; Rams References Back Into Platform
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This is astounding. Watch the video. There is a report at Breitbart.

UPDATED with better video.

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Idolatry in the Catholic Blogosphere?
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Many discussions I have had with my priest on the idolatry in the world of social media and how to avoid it. Alas, it is rampant.

The Anchoress discusses idolatry in politics today at First Things. She also mentions it on her blog at Patheos, more specifically in regard to the disagreement between Fr. Peter West and Mark Shea.

Happy Catholic asks if Catholic bloggers are like the First Corinthians. Excellent question.

I cannot judge the entire Catholic blogosphere, and I hesitate to compare the blogosphere to a specific diocese, as the Church at Corinth was, but my general assessment of the Catholic blogosphere is that I don’t like being associated with it. I prefer to be associated with Jesus. That’s what I’m working on. It is unavoidable, I suppose, for a culture to have erupted online that is “the Catholic blogosphere” but I am a member of St. Augustine parish in the Diocese of Owensboro, not the “Catholic blogosphere.” The Catholic blogosphere has no bishop and I prefer to pay more attention to my own parish priest and to Bishop Medley than to the Catholic blogosphere. I think that is my duty.

Jesus is bigger than the Catholic blogosphere. We Catholic bloggers will never corner the market on Jesus because, by way of the Incarnation, Jesus lives in every human person. Jesus is interested primarily in people’s hearts, not their brains, and He lives in many hearts. Blogging is more about brains than about hearts. We Catholics are, by and large, intelligent people, but intelligence is not a sign of love. Bloggers cannot change hearts with their intelligence. Only God can do that. Bloggers just plant God’s seeds, and God grows the seeds.

The internet is not made of flesh. Far from it. It is more like the pages of a book. One can learn about love from the pages of a book, but one cannot truly know love unless one experiences it in his/her heart. My priest knows my heart far better than anyone I know online.

I have learned that I can sit here and write a million blog posts and would never have even gotten close to explaining the love in my heart for Jesus and for humanity, because my brain is not only broken, but like everyone else’s brains, it is not made for that purpose. It seems that most people in the Catholic blogosphere who have interacted with me tend to see me as something completely different from what I really am, but that is fine because I can guarantee you that no one who blogs can express who they really are, even if they wanted to.

The love of Christ is bigger than a blog. It’s bigger than my brain can explain. It’s bigger than anything else could ever be, to me, and the love of Christ that is in me is unique to me, as His love in your heart will be unique to you. The Catholic blogosphere has, in some ways, become a place of idolatry because of so many losing sight of the fact that our identity is in Him, not in our blogs. The words I write here are not “me.” They are just ideas. Everything written out here online is an idea. The main thing, therefore, that we should be interested in online is whether or not the ideas expressed here are true, untrue, or neutral.

God takes care of everything else.

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” — G. K. Chesterton

I blog every day knowing that quote in my heart, and that everything out here online is “in front of me” while God is “behind me.” That is how everyone, I think, should view blogging. Let’s please just concern ourselves with the exchange of ideas and whether or not they are true, not true, or neutral. If we would just focus on that, we wouldn’t get caught up into thinking that disagreement is synonymous with hatred.

It is when we reject others, not when we reject bad ideas, that we fail.