As JFW points out in the Forum, John Kerry attended Mass on Sunday in Idaho. He showed up in his ski clothes, to the annoyance of parishioners. He also received Communion to the annoyance of all Catholics in good standing. But it’s his staff person’s attitude that takes the cake:
“It was just a media-op,” says a Kerry advance staffer. “We set it up with some reporters that we knew were going to be there.”
Just a media-op. Not a sincere expression of the Senator’s faith. Not an opportunity to worship God. Not even a witness to Christian belief. A media-op designed to create a presumably false image of the Senator as someone who is a faithful Catholic in order to fool all the little irish grandmothers into voting for him. Sick.
Leave the journalism to those who know what they’re doing, Todd. That detail was in the story linked on the Drudge Report. The reporters weren’t doing the same thing since they weren’t pretending to be something they’re not. They’re just doing their job. Or is going to Mass the “job” of a presidential candidate?
I have to comment on KMac’s terminology – “worship space”? “Presider”? These bastardizations of English are the products of a minimalistic epistomology that seeks to destroy the sense of the sacred in the Church.
It’s not just “worship space” any more than a King’s palace is just “living space”. It’s the house of the almighty God.
A priest is not a “presider”. A presider is someone who simply officiates or leads something. A priest is Alter Christus, a servant of God, marked with an indellible sacramental character and alone capable of confecting the Holy Eucharist – the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ himself. He offers the spotless victim, the lamb of God, the only begotten Son, to the Eternal Father as an oblation for the remission of sins. He calls heaven down to earth.
Sorry if I seem a bit uptight about this, but the expression of truth is a matter of semantics. It’s too important to be left to silly words and phrases that waste time and convey nothing.
Steve,
My use of those bastardizations was meant tongue in cheek. Your response was mild compared to mine when I hear such nonsense. I despise those descriptions of The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass, churches, and priests. Sadly, I have a smattering of contempt toward those that foment those words and phrases, spoken or written. Not to worry though. On Sunday I’ll apply to my confessor for relief through the Sacrament of Confession and beg for due Pennance.