On "Meet the Press" yesterday, moderator David Gregory was talking with Cardinal Francis George about the new people and seems more interested in American politics than Catholic teachings:
When asked about the tension between the Church’s teachings and contemporary attitudes, George emphasized that the pope “simply has to preach the Gospel,” even in a context so secularized that it seems “there is no god and Freud is his prophet.” He lamented that “for the sake of sexual liberation, we’re willing to let a lot of other liberties go.” The cardinal said he was “not sure we realize what’s going on,” but that Pope Francis “will help us to realize it better.” Gregory pushed him about the Church’s role in American politics, but the cardinal rejected that Catholic teachings are easily mapped onto American politics: “The categories you use are conservative and liberal, you’ll be using them today, our categories are what is true and what is false.”
Amen. I'd say that applies to life outside religion, too, although I wouldn't quiite make the contrast between truth and falsehood. I'd differentiate between people who think the truth is worth pursuing and those who say it can never be known. And just because we can't always see it doesn't mean it's not there. The fact that we understand it poorly or incompletely is reason enough to keep searching -- it's a worthy lifetime's work, in fact.
