At CatholicPhilly.com, Archbishop Charles Chaput talks about the pope's visit, the state of the archdiocese, and caring for the poor. I encourage readers to click on the link to the full text of the interview because +Chaput's comments on caring for the poor are important and on target: We can't delegate this, not even to Catholic Charities, but must be with the poor. I have not been shy about criticizing +Chaput when I thought it warranted - nothing but love coming from Distinctly Catholic for him today. (h/t Rocco)
The conservative critique of Cardinal Tagle, elected as head of Caritas International last week, begins. At MondayVatican, a complete misunderstanding of the "both/and" quality of the Catholic imagination as the author seeks to pit charity and truth against one another.
One of my bugaboos is the way writers contrast "dogma," which is understood as a bad thing, with pastoral practice or mercy, which is understood as a good thing. But, in this report, a Jesuit theologian points out: "Mercy is dogma." Ours is a dogmatic faith. Period. Full stop. The left, and it is usually the left, should never allow the myth that our commitment to social justice is somehow unrelated to the central dogmas of our faith. Cf. my review of Meghan Clark's new book which is both clear and persuasive on this very point.
