Nor did I jump to the conclusion that this was a scandal: although there are two thousand years of many and various scandals in the Church, the worst ever is what happened on the First Holy Thursday Night: Judas betrays Jesus for a paltry amount of money, Peter, the Rock denies Christ three times and the other apostles flee-we have withstood all of this-because Christ and the Spirit are with the Church! Somehow I really think we will survive the Al Smith Dinner!

What I did do, however was to sit back and begin to ponder: what is the Cardinal really doing here [I know he sent an invitation--but what is REALLY going on here!]

The most basic answer I came up with is this: Cardinal Dolan made a <> to invite the President. Whatever else, whatever other reasons, whatever shoulds or shouldn’ts are involved, the Cardinal was faced with a moment in which he had to make a prudential decision-giving it his best shot-just like the rest of us. Needless to say, many ‘feel’ that he made a mistake or even worse. It indeed could be a mistake [although I do not believe in the end it will show itself to have been a mistake].

The Cardinal, the Pope for that matter (just like every other human being) have to make decisions all the time-unless they are directly related to the content of doctrine on matters of faith and morals-the Cardinal or the Pope for that matter do not have the infallible guidance of the Spirit-and neither do the rest of us!

The Cardinal mentioned the Knights of Columbus. Two major things came out of that week long meeting, last week. One was the commission the Pope gave the Knights (KOC)to protect Religious Freedom, the other however was to reintroduce civility into the public sphere. Without civility we do not have culture and civilization.

One final thought, there are many who claim (and I do not dispute them) that we are indeed in a culture war in America. We have gone through several of these in our history [the Revolution pitted the 'Patriots" vs the Loyalists; the Civil War pitting states rights and slavery vs the Union and abolition of slavery. There were simply not that many Catholics in the thirteen colonies at the Revolution, but by the Civil War we were already the largest 'denomination' in the country. There were Catholics on both sides of the Mason Dixon line (with all that that means) yet we remained one Church and did not allow that culture war to divide us.

There are forces at work today that are attempting to divide Catholics [conservative against liberal, those 'pro-life' vs 'social justice' Catholics]. The time has come to ask ourselves not simply where we stand on these issues, but are we working toward ‘communion’ or ‘separation and division’?

I believe Cardinal Dolan has answered this-for himself and has given us more than a hint of a direction to go in

I am amazed at how quickly the erstwhile lovers of all things Dolan turned on him as soon as this decision was announced.

Disagreeing with Dolan is not necessarily “turning on him.” I vehemently disagree with his decision to invite Obama to the Al Smith dinner. Yet overall Dolan gives me hope that the Church is finally going to deal with the fact that it is inherently idolatrous to render unto Caesar authority over innocent human life that belongs only to God.

Caesar’s usurpation of God’s authority is a genuine assault on the very heart of Christianity, an assault on its heart figuratively in terms of the nature of the sin of idolatry, and literally if we take Christ at His word when He says that whatever we do to the least of His brothers and sisters we do to Him. It is then His beating heart that is stopped when the life of the child in the womb is taken.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
– Matthew 25:35

It was Him that was the helpless stranger the world refused to make welcome and disposed of at the abortion clinic.

A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples …
– John 13:34-35

“As I have loved you.” And how did He love us? He loved us heroically and passionately unto a humiliating death on a cross when we were as yet unborn. The world will know we are His disciples when we love Him as He loved us, loving Him heroically and passionately in His least brothers and sisters who are as yet unborn.

While Obama is no friend to the Church, he is not Satan incarnate, and I think many faithful Catholics forget that.

He is definitely not Satan incarnate. If it were true, as you say, that many Catholics are forgetting that, then that would be indicative of some very serious flaws in Obama’s character. It is not a matter of Catholics thinking he is Satan incarnate. It is really a matter of many Catholics becoming aware of the moral bankruptcy of his positions on the social issues and the danger of his ideology, one that calls for the deification of the state.

The approach of the French cardinals, endorsed by Pope Leo XIII was three-fold

(1) A distinction between the form of government (the Republic) and particular laws
(2) Respect for the laws of the country whenever they do not clash with conscientious obligations
(3) Respect for the representatives of authority

All three are perfectly compatible with each other. The “king” whom St Peter enjoined Christians to “honour” was Nero.

I still support Dolan, as he has done a lot to defend the Church’s interests throughout this year.

I think Dolan is great. When he candidly stated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto that Humanae Vitae “brought such a tsunami of dissent, departure, disapproval of the church, that I think most of us—and I’m using the first-person plural intentionally, including myself—kind of subconsciously said, ‘Whoa. We’d better never talk about that, because it’s just too hot to handle’ … we forfeited the chance to be a coherent moral voice when it comes to one of the more burning issues of the day,” that struck me as the words of a humble man with integrity who had made a decision to start dealing with the contemporary threats to Christianity realistically.

Obviously, I think inviting Obama to the Al Smith dinner, especially since Cardinal O’Connor did not invite President Clinton (thanks for that bit of information, jane kosco), was a huge mistake, but there will be plenty of opportunities to make sound decisions in the coming months that give glory to God and lead the flock by setting an example of taking up the cross and following Christ in spite of the unjust condemnation by the world that will bring upon the Church.