Why not invite both candidates to the dinner with the provision that there will be NO photo-ops? That is what Pope Benedict did when he had Nancy Pelosi to the Vatican!
I’m not sure its possible to avoid a photo-op, Lego. It is one of the most public and media-covered event of the entire fall campaign.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
) and God reminded me of the battle in the OT when He asked that only a very few men be in the battle against the enemy who had many more fighting.Christ said His would be tested, or persecuted for His namesake. He also said that even the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church, and promised to be with it until the consummation of the world.For Obama, his conflict with the Church is a political one where he can justifiably drop his gloves for a non-partisan dinner. For the Church, however, this is a battle to the death. If this HHS mandate continues as planned, Catholics could potentially be getting persecuted and jailed for living out their faith. This is not a political issue for the Church, it’s survival… If Obama loses this battle then he will find another high paid job easily as a lobbyist or a politician, if the Church loses this battle then this will be the beginning of legal Catholic persecution in America. So I feel that whatever legal ability the Church has to stall or halt Obama’s re-election efforts, then it has a responsibility to take advantage of that ability (even if that means appearing to show favoritism towards the republicans this time around).
Now, this dinner with Obama isn’t necessarly a bad thing. In fact, I would support this dinner if two things were to happen during Obama’s attendance: 1) There would be no opportunities for PR benefit to the Obama campaign (ie. no photography) and 2) This dinner would be used as an opportunity to call out and discuss the evil nature of Obama’s policies in the interest of showing him the error in his ways. Even Christ had dinner with sinners, but I can guarantee that Christ was spending this time to help save their souls and certainly did nothing to stroke their ego’s or make them feel justified in their ways.
I certainly don’t mean to show disrespect towards the Cardinal and I’m sure he has no deliberate intention to hamper the Church’s efforts agains the HHS mandate. But we have to realize that the Church in America has never had to fight this type of religious persesuction before, it’s easy to just keep these issues in the political arena and forget just how close to home they could be hitting after election day…
That ought to be obvious. There’s less harm in inviting the two candidates to the dinner than in showing that we are not united behind the Cardinal, which can be used against us.
And, it is indeed a charity event. No political speeches will be expected nor made by either Obama or Romney. The both know the rules.
I still would not agree with Obama’s invite, but it would look better if there were no photos taken. Phil Lawler says
Agree!
I agree with you on that. Obviously, there is a problem with Obama’s positions, but it is not a bad idea to have the candidates meet with Cardinal Dolan.
Comedian who? I do not participate in any form of secular media. I am happier because of that.
Amen! The last I heard, God was still in charge of all things.After feeling very fed up about bishops, I prayed about it (sometimes I am a little slow
The victory of such a small number over such a huge force meant that the glory of the victory was most clearly attributed to God.
Instead of complaining about what Achbishop Dolan is doing here, we should be praying hard that God’s will be done, that at least a seed will be planted. This is a venue in which this can happen.
We all know that petitions and whathaveyou won’t change anything. What has much more potential for change is prayer. Let’s ask God for His help rather than relying on ourselves!