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| Meseret Defar of Ethiopia gives thanks after winning gold in the women's 5000 meter race in the 2012 Olympics in London. |
I
take a certain pride in watching great Olympic athletes like Usain
Bolt and David Rudisha make the sign of the cross before they
compete. Even more satisfying perhaps was watching Meseret Defar take
a picture of the Blessed Mother and Christ Child out from beneath her
jersey and hold it up to the sky in celebration of and thanksgiving
for her victory in the women's 5000 meter final in London. It makes
me feel good to have something in common with them, even though,
while they represent the pinnacle of athleticism, I have trouble
getting up out of a chair.
The
same is not true for other notable Catholics, especially the ones in
politics. For example, I get no pride, take no pleasure, and feel no
commonality with Nancy Pelosi or Paul Ryan. That either of them is
Catholic is a source of embarrassment for me. Not so embarrassing as
pedophile priests and cover-up bishops, but troubling nonetheless.
They too are at the pinnacle of their game, while I, thankfully, am
not capable of the Machiavellian twists of moral rectitude required
to ever excel at politics.
I
don't think Pelosi and Ryan are whole Catholics. I don't think they
'get it' in the sense of being in full communion with the Church and
her teachings. I think Pelosi slept right through everything having
to do with the sanctity of life, and Ryan was somewhere else when
they covered social justice.
Both
of them apparently think of themselves as devout. Meanwhile 50
million dead babies churn in Pelosi's wake, sacrificed on the altar
of Choice, and Ryan would have millions of the impoverished and
disenfranchised lift themselves up by their own mostly non-existent
bootstraps while he strips away the programs that might actually give
them a leg up.
I
can't see either one of them making the sign of the cross before a
session of congress, or even asking God to bless their deliberations
and sanctify their thinking. If they do, I'm pretty sure that He
hasn't answered.
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