I get mail...

Edward is back for more. This time he noticed the overwrought headline on my post about a Les Kinsolving column that disturbs me more each time I read it.



Eddie said...
I came back to your site. I didn't read this post before. How true about Catholics, though I am confident that Roberts is the real McCoy. The president wouldn't have appointed him if he wasn't.

I am always amazed by how some Catholics seem to think that their faith is inherited from their parents. You can't be Catholic if you don't practice the faith. Our Pope tells us this includes denoucning baby murder (aka abortion) and not following secular points of views. Showing up for Church because it makes for good photo shoots for your political campaign for office is not enough in itself.

Thanks, Edward.

This seems to be the day for serious, thoughtful comments. I hope I am up to the task of responding appropriately.

I am not as confident as Eddie is when it comes to the current president. He does seem to be more of a man than his father was. (Strange, considering Bush the Elder was a genuine war hero.) If his father had done his job properly, Iraq would have had a 12 year head start on this freedom thing.

As for Judge Roberts, I hope and pray he turns out to be a Justice like Scalia or Thomas. I understand the desire to say nothing controversial in the hope of slipping by the forces of ignorance in the Senate, but this does not say much for Judge Roberts guts, fortitude, moxie, et cetera.

As for public Catholicism, I think you are correct. There is no such thing as a "cultural Catholic" (and I suspect the "cultural Jew" is merely a figment of the imagination of Jews who no longer believe in anything) and people like Mario Cuomo who are "personally opposed" to child murder but do everything possible in their public lives to promote it are nothing more (or less) than mortal sinners.

I would not dare to judge the condition of Cuomo's soul (or that of Durbin, Kennedy, Leahy, Scalia, Thomas, et al) but if it walks like a duck in public, quacks like a duck on TV, and votes like a duck on the record, chances are excellent that duck needs to go to confession and then change how he walks, talks, and votes.

If he truly believes disobeying the Will of God will land his fat backside in Hell one day, that is.

And there you have it. We're back to the original question: How does one recognize a believer? Our protestant friends seem to believe (I can never be sure with them.There are too many different kinds.) all you have to do is say you believe and, voila, there you go, straight to heaven.

But we have a responsibility to act on our faith in the world (Us too! Us too! yell the P's as an afterthought.) and if we see someone claiming to be Catholic behaving publicly in a manner unbecoming (to say the least) a Catholic, what conclusion must we draw?