Amazon.com Widgets

 

Tags: invincible ignorance, democratic national convention, cardinal dolan, anne frank

Comments: 10

Devra Torres

Judge Not, Even During Election Season

Sep. 7 at 8:58pm

I saw something Thursday night that surprised me, and it might surprise you, too.

Cardinal Dolan, along with God and Jerusalem, was originally persona non grata at the Democratic National Convention.  No surprise there.  I’m not sure anyone claimed that his original non-invite was a “technical oversight”—though that’s how Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (with an impressively straight face) explained the exclusion of Jerusalem and God.   

The invitation was reluctantly extended in the end, and he took them up on it.

What surprised me was not that he dared mention unborn babies, or religious freedom, or marriage.  I expected that, though I was struck by how gracefully and confidently he managed it. 

Then again, integrating concern for babies, old people, immigrants, the rich, the poor, the sick, and yes, even the politicians, into a seamless whole comes naturally when you represent a universal Church.  It wasn’t a cobbled-together public-relations ploy, but an expression of what we actually believe, in (election) season and out.  We rightly debate how all this concern ought to translate into policy, but a prayer isn’t supposed to be a policy.

What struck me as beautiful, even heartbreaking, were the faces in the audience.  Take a close look at them (it's a short video).

They’re living proof of something I keep telling my kids: that, yes, there are a few people at the top who are knowingly lying, misleading and manipulating people.  (We should pray especially hard for them, because they have more to answer for, and they’re subject to temptations that most of us are never up against.)  But much, much more numerous are the objects of all that lying, cheating and manipulation.  If Anne Frank, hiding from the Nazis, could say "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart,"

then maybe, looking at the faces in the DNC audience, we can, too. 

You might wonder: How could they not know better? What could possibly explain their support of such radical pro-death policy but willful ignorance or outright malice?  Well, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”—so only He knows for sure.  I can’t prove there’s no malice in them from a few seconds of footage any more than someone else can prove they’re faking piety.   I can’t calibrate anybody's culpability. 

Still, remember that:

  • Most people are products of the American public education systerm.  Maybe you've seen the painful but enlightening video, where the man, woman, and kid on the American street struggle to answer questions like what state Kentucky Fried Chicken comes from, or what language they speak in Latin America:
  • On top of that, scores of people have grown up in the chaos of broken, or blended, or non-existent families.  Is it really such a stretch to believe that they’re easy fodder for the manipulators, and that they’re more sinned against than sinning?  It’s not as if many of us grew up learning about the sanctity of human life and the procreation and education of children within the marriage covenant--and then chose to reject that knowledge.  Rather, plenty were cheated out of it in the first place.

Is this a Pollyanna position?  Maybe.

I’m not blindly optimistic:I'm not claiming invincible ignorance for everyone who supports the pro-death platform.  I'm not saying that even if they all saw clearly they would rise up against it.

In fact, I’m regretfully convinced that, however November 6th turns out, the coming years will give us all more than enough opportunity to find out how ready we really are to rise up against injustice.

Still, what I think I saw gives me hope.

What do you think?

comment (10)

 

Marilyn Prever

It does look like a movement of the Holy Spirit, right in the middle of politics as usual. And it was just because he didn't take the usual niceness at all costs route, but spoke the truth in true charity, that this could happen. I don't think any amount of cleverness could produce those tears. 

#1 - Sep. 8 at 9:01am | quote

 

Janice Belbey

 The majority of people present at this convention agree with all the problems that Cardinal Dolan is praying for God's help. That's the emotion we are witnessing.  So, yes, I agree with Ann Frank's premise that most people are really good people at heart.  The problem is when we do not know where to look for truth about the human person, we turn to solutions that harm rather than heal the wounds of humanity.  That movement of the heart is not in accordance with truth.  This results in a "cancer of the heart" that goes undiagnosed and eventually spreads to the whole body.  St. Raphael, "medicine of God" pray for us.

#2 - Sep. 8 at 10:02am | quote

 

Marilyn Prever

The reason I felt the Holy Spirit at work is that Cdl. Dolan was in a situation where everyone is polarized and demonizes the opposition, and usually in that situation the speaker, especially if he's a religious personage, takes the irenic route--skirts around the real conflict and uses fuzzy language. By the usual rules, his words should have stirred up nasty feelings, not tears. He even used the words "the unborn," ordinarily guaranteed to cause conflict.

#3 - Sep. 8 at 10:21am | quote

 

Katie van Schaijik

Beautiful, beautiful faces!  Thank you, Devra!

Makes me so mad at the liars and manipulators—at the Father of Lies and the Master Manipulator.  

#4 - Sep. 8 at 10:56am | quote

 

Janice Belbey

Oh, yes!  Cardinal Dolan was amazing!  A great sign of hope for all!

#5 - Sep. 8 at 3:48pm | quote

Devra Torres

Oops, it looks like my comment (after Katie's) disappeared.  Did anyone see it?

#6 - Sep. 8 at 3:52pm | quote

 

Jules van Schaijik

I didn't see it Devra. Also not on the "back end" where I looked to see if I could retrieve it.

Once again a great post. I can even agree with Anne Frank, as long as she is not taken to exclude the seeming opposite truth that most people (not you of course!) are also partly bad at heart.  

#7 - Sep. 8 at 6:54pm | quote

Devra Torres

Oh, of course not me!

The prayer made me think, Now there's a seamless garment, rightly understood!  

It's true, Janice: I think lots of people understand the Democratic party to be the friend of the workers, the poor, the immigrants, the sick--I just hope maybe they saw how naturally "the unborn" fit in there.  

As someone who came into the Church at the end of the Seventies, I hear bishops and priests like Cardinal Dolan and I think, Oh, so this is what it's like to have shepherds!

#8 - Sep. 8 at 8:13pm | quote

 

Janice Belbey

Yes, Devra, I hope they had the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to be moved.  All Our Lord needs is one little opening, right?  I actually woke up this morning thinking about the gospel parallel of Christ's eating with sinners and how Cardinal Dolan's presence as well as,"what he said and how he said it" was such a great example for us.  Is this not how we are to approach evangelization?  In such a critical moment in history, we need to speak the truth with conviction and gentleness.  These are not incompatible but complementary!  The video is a fabulous teaching tool.  Speak we must!  I may just use it with my students....all eager to know Truth and see its beauty.  Thank you for your post and all those who commented.  I have my lesson plans for this week!

#9 - Sep. 9 at 8:57am | quote

Devra Torres

Yes--I've seen lots of articles about the content of the speech, but what was even more striking was the response of the audience--a graphic illustration of how the human heart really is made, "wired," to respond to truth.

Of course I don't want to read too much into it: I don't take it as evidence that these people are going to switch parties, or switch convictions--but I don't assume it's meaningless sentimentalism either.

#10 - Sep. 9 at 9:52am | quote

 

To comment, please sign in or register first. (It's free and easy, and helps us prevent spam.)

 

Stay informed

Reading circles

Lectures

Latest comments

  • Re: Two new items for my case against "unprincipled forgiveness"
  • By: Tim Cronin

  • Hi Katie, In John Milbank's "An Essay Against Secular Order" he talks about the reality of forgiveness. He says that without forgiveness being accepted and realized it does not have a true reality. Neither does forgiveness have a true reality if it is merely formal. Receiving forgiveness involves a complete realization of consciousness of egocentricity. This involves a suffering on the receipient of forgiveness. It also involves a suffering on the forgiver through the re-establishing of the bonds of the relationship. -Tim

    Jun. 13 at 3:11pm | See in context

  • Re: Mercies hurt
  • By: Samwise

  • The Eustace reference works well!

    I have heard Mark-- on the radio-- speak about Uncle Andrew too.  Together, Eustace and Uncle Andrew make for some of the most off-putting characters in Narnia, and can annoy readers to the point of wanting to imitate Edmund (of all people).

    On the radio, Mark pointed out the unrepentant nature of Uncle Andrew, exhorting listeners to  have "child-like faith' instead.  It was a good reminder that ingenuity and IQ are not all we're meant for.

    Jun. 12 at 11:42am | See in context

  • Re: The Least I Need to Do
  • By: CATHY ECHANIZ-BECK

  • Not in particular, Devra.  It's kind of fuzzy to me, too. :)  Just a general sense I had, of Ivan's feeling guilty and wanting to do better.  Ha!  I should re-read that one; it was good! 

    Jun. 11 at 11:55am | See in context

  • Re: The Least I Need to Do
  • By: Katie van Schaijik

  • I love the reminder that turning away from serious vice is "the beginning of freedom".

    The next big liberation, in my experience, is from illusions of rectitude and self-sufficiency. It's the willingness to face and absorb the truth about ourselves—especially our impotence to save ourselves, or even to live well.  

    It's painful, but definitely freeing.

    Jun. 11 at 11:53am | See in context

  • Re: The Least I Need to Do
  • By: Devra Torres

  • I'm not sure, but maybe.  Ivan Ilyich had his lists of "thou shalt not's," but they all had to do with what was and wasn't done in his social circle.   There's something like that in Anna Karenina, too, about how Vronsky stuck to his principles, which were "Never lie, except to a woman," and "Never fail to pay a debt, unless it's a gambling debt," and so on.  Crime and Punishment is pretty fuzzy in my mind, Cathy: is there some part in particular you're thinking of?

    Jun. 11 at 10:39am | See in context

  • Re: The Least I Need to Do
  • By: Marilyn Prever

  • Was it the one about the dying man who couldn't take the first step, which was to admit he was not a good man ad to ask for mercy.The Death of Ivan Ilyich or something like that?

    Jun. 11 at 9:01am | See in context

  • Re: The Least I Need to Do
  • By: CATHY ECHANIZ-BECK

  • Dev, 

    Were you thinking of Crime & Punishment by Tolstoy??

    Cathy 

    Jun. 11 at 8:26am | See in context

  • Re: Two new items for my case against "unprincipled forgiveness"
  • By: Katie van Schaijik

  • One of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies, On the Waterfront, is Terry and Edie's first date. Terry tells her his philosophy of life. It's every man for himself. Get the other guy before he gets you.

    She lives in a different world—a world where people are part of each other, where they care about each other, help each other, and call out the best in each other. She's asking for his help. He's drawn to her world, but finds her naive. He wants her to drop her pursuit of justice for her brother. Forget it. Move on. Enjoy life. Don't risk trouble.

    The conversation ends abruptly when he bursts out in frustration, "What do want from me, Edie?"  She replies, passionately: "Much more. Much, much, much more."

    Cardinal O'Brien sounds to me a lot like Terry. "I said I'm sorry. What more do you want?" The Vatican sound more like Evie. "Much much more."

    Much more from you and much more for you.

    Jun. 9 at 1:49pm | See in context

  • Re: It's Here!
  • By: Katie van Schaijik

  • Got it. Thanks, Devra!  Can't wait to read it.

    Jun. 7 at 8:42am | See in context

  • Re: Interview with Hannah Arendt
  • By: Katie van Schaijik

  • Rhett, I'm with you in lamenting that maddening gap between the depth and delicacy of the insight you think you have and the clunky unspecialness of what comes out when you try to put in it words.

    That's the negative experience of writing your thoughts. The positive experience is when you've struggled and struggled to say something, realized you're missing something key, and then suddenly seen what it is—something you wouldn't have seen if you hadn't made the effort to put it to paper, or screen.

    Jun. 6 at 9:44am | See in context

Latest active posts