Religion briefs

MAY PROCESSION IN QUINCY

The Friends of Star of the Sea Catholic faith community will hold a May Procession at 12:30 Sunday at 107 Bellevue Road, Quincy. Bring a flower to place under the statue of the Blessed Mother Mary. For information, contact Kate Monahan at 617-276-2108 or kmtmonahan@gmail.com, or Maureen Mazrimas at 617-257-8295 or maurmaz@aol.com.

CONCERT AT FORT SQUARE CHURCH

Soprano Angie Carr will sing at 7 p.m. Sunday at Fort Square Presbyterian Church. A free-will offering will be taken. The church is at 16 Pleasant St. in Quincy. For more information, call 617-471-6806.

TEMPLE BETH SHOLOM CELEBRATING YOM YERUSHALAYIM

Temple Beth Sholom in Hull will celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Independence Day, with a Klezmer band and a light supper on Sunday at the temple, 600 Nantasket Ave. Tickets are $18 for members, $25 for nonmembers and $12 for children 12 and younger. For information, call 781-925-0091, or email templebethhull@comcast.net.

CHILDREN’S CONCERT TO BENEFIT ORGAN RESTORATION FUND

First Parish Church of Norwell will present a children’s concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the church, 24 River St. Children’s choruses to perform include First Parish Norwell Junior Choir; The Studio Chorus from the James Library in Norwell; the A Cappella Men’s Chorus from North Quincy High School; and Pure Treble and Pure Harmony from South Shore Conservatory. A reception will follow. Proceeds will support the First Parish Organ Restoration Fund. The suggested donation is $10 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. For information, call Peg Carpenter at 781-826-8553.

PRAYER CENACLE IN WEYMOUTH

The Apostles of Peace, A Marian Community, will hold a prayer cenacle at 4 p.m. Sunday in the convent at Immaculate Conception Parish, 1199-R Commercial St., Weymouth. The service will include eucharistic adoration, the rosary and reflection on peace. For information, call 781-812-1603.

NEW BETHLEHEM COFFEE HOUSE TO HOLD COOKOUT

The New Bethlehem Coffee House will end its season with its annual cookout from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, at Lutheran Church of the Cross, 77 Rockland St., Route 139, in Hanover. The coffeehouse is for adults with intellectual disabilities. The cost is $3. For information, call 781-826-5121.

HINGHAM CONGREGATION serves up ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Congregation Sha’aray Shalom will hold Sundaes on Sunday, a prospective-member ice cream social, from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tours of the temple and meeting the staff are part of the event. The temple is at 1112 Main St., Hingham. For information, call 781-749-8103 or go to www.shaaray.org.

MEMORIAL DAY MASS AT CEDAR GROVE CEMETERY

A Memorial Day Mass in membory of the deceased will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 27 in the GIlman Chapel at Cedar Grove Cemetery, 920 Adams St., Dorchester. Historian Robert Bayard Severy will conduct a walking tour of the cemetery following the Mass. For information, call 617-825-1360.

TEEN CHALLENGE CONCERT IN SCITUATE

The Men’s Choir of Teen Challenge New England will give a concert at 10 a.m Sunday, June 3 at First Baptist, 660 Country Way, Scituate. For more information, call 781-545-0058.

CHURCH YARD SALE IN PEMBROKE

Bryantville United Methodist Church in Pembroke will hold a yard and craft sale and silent auction from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 16. Tables to rent are available. The deadline is May 15. For information, call 781-293-2025 or email Bryantvilleumc@gmail.com.

FAMILY FUN FEST IN MILTON

First Congregational Church of Milton is hosting its third annual Family Fun Fest and Yard Sale from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, June 23 at 495 Canton Ave. The event will feature more than 50 vendors and exhibitors, children’s activities, live entertainment, a silent auction, a yard sale and refreshments. Vendor and exhibitor space is available. For information, go to www.TheFamilyFunFest.org.

Exorcise DeGioia and Company From Georgetown

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The Spectacle Blog

William Peter Blatty is the author of the deeply thoughtful
novel The Exorcist. (The movie tried, but didn’t quite,
capture the depth of theology in the novel; the movie is now
remembered mostly as a rather graphic horror flick, but it really
was far better than that.) Now Blatty has taken up a
massive cudgel against his (and my) alma mater,
Georgetown University, for its repeated affronts to people of
Christian and particularly Catholic faith which — after including
the draping of the Jesuit cross in order for President Obama to
speak on campus — has culminated in yesterday’s featured
speaking role for HHS Secretary and religious-freedom assault queen
Kathleen Sebelius. As Jenna Johnson reported in the Washington
Post, “An invitation to be seated on the commencement stage is
one of the highest honors a university can bestow. Especially
coveted is the opportunity to address the graduating class.” Yet
Georgetown’s increasingly radical President Jack DeGioia, in direct

defiance of the
Archdiocese of Washington, has defended the
Sebelius invitation and basically thumbed his nose at every
Catholic bishop in the country and at all the faithful
following.

Blatty is justifiably incensed. He offers a petition drive against
Georgetown, asks those who ordinarily donate to the school to
withhold contributions for at least a year, and promises a canon
lawsuit against the university. Among the potential outcomes from
the lawsuit would be “relief that may include a declaration by the
appropriate ecclesiastical authority that Georgetown University is
no longer entitled to call itself a Catholic or Jesuit university.”
This would be big stuff. Frankly, my understanding is that it is
within the Pope’s authority to order the Jesuits out of Georgetown
entirely.

In addition to these potential actions, I would suggest
consideration — not a conclusion yet, but definite consideration
– of another one: Fire Jack DeGioia.

I write this with heavy heart. Jack and I have always been
friendly, ever since my first day on campus as a resident of the
building he then served as Resident Director. In many ways he has
served Georgetown well in various capacities for something like 35
years. But he has gone well beyond the pale. His defiance is
outrageous.

Despite an
absurd editorial by the increasingly
anti-Catholic-leaning Washington Post, the Sebelius
speech has nothing to do with “the free exchange of ideas.” It is
patent dishonesty to somehow suggest that a speech at a diploma
ceremony does not carry with it a rather explicit honorific. This
is not an in-semester speech sponsored by the College
Democrats or by an on-campus debating society. This is a university
sponsored and sanctioned event — as Johnson wrote, “one of the
highest honors a university can bestow.” DeGioia knows this. The
Post knows this. To suggest otherwise is errant nonsense,
so much a prevarication as to be beneath contempt.

As the Archdiocese noted, DeGioia is being deliberately and
flagrantly misdirectional by making the excuse that the invitation
to Sebelius went out before the January announcement of the final
decision on abortifacient mandate. The fact is, as the statement
indicates, that ”the mandate was published last August” as a
near-final draft rule for public comment. In fact, it was
way back in September that the bishops objected and called
it “an unprecedented threat to individual and
institutional religious freedom.” That was long before the
invitation from Georgetown was issued. DeGioia knows this.

It is not just the defense of the invitation by DeGioia that
raises the issue of his fitness to continue as president; it is the
intellectuall dishonesty represented by the above-described
evasions of the truth.

Again, this isn’t just some debate about contraception or even
about abortifacients. This mandate is a direct frontal assault on
religious liberty — and not just that of Catholics, but of every
faith and denomination in the country. It is the very essence of
tyranny to force somebody to financially support that which his
faith teaches is among the gravest of all sins.

When I was at Georgetown and writing 200 articles for the
Georgetown HOYA newspaper, the single biggest feature I did was on
the role of the Jesuits at Georgetown. I was/am a Catholic-leaning
Anglican, but I was fascinated by the additional moral seriousness
at GU that seemed to stem from its Catholic identity. I wish I had
the story in front of me, but one of the interviews I did has stuck
with me until this day. The legendary Fr. Joseph Durkin, S.J.,
founder of the school’s American Studies program, author of a
multi-volume history of the university, and beloved, active member
of the campus community until his death two weeks after his 100th
birthday, told me in words that I can repeat almost verbatim from
memory even a quarter-century later:

“We are a Catholic and Jesuit University. Because we are a
university, we welcome and encourage freedom of thought and of
speech. Because we are Catholic and Jesuit, we take specific
positions on certain issues. You have every right to speak up
against those positions of ours, openly and without fear of
repercussion. But we reserve the right to explain to you why
you are wrong, and to insist that while you are perfectly free
to keep being wrong, we will continue to say publicly why we are
right. An example of this is the Communist philosophy, which
teaches atheism. It is wrong, and we will say so.”

Jack DeGioia not only is failing to step up and say that
Kathleen Sebelius is wrong, but is going in the other direction by
providing her a speaking slot that carries with it a widely
understood honor (even if not officially an honorary degree).
DeGioia thus has moved nearly 180 degrees away from Father Durkin’s
wisdom. Shame on him. And shame on the university’s board if it
lets him get away with it.

Staten Island Ministry helps youth make a radical choice of faith

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The religious order of nuns that runs the St. Edward Food Pantry in Pleasant Plains has formed a ministry in the hopes of strengthening the Roman Catholic faith among young people.

The Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary has formed a Catholic Youth for Radical Faith Ministry (CYRF) on Staten Island that operates out of the order’s convent in Pleasant Plains.

The worldwide CYRF ministry is a response to Pope Benedict’s call for youth to make a radical choice of faith within the “New Evangelization.” As part of their mission, the sisters have launched a fund-raising campaign in the hopes of sending 13 Staten Islanders to World Youth Day 2013, slated for July 23-28 of that year in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil.

The order already has earmarked $10,000 to cover the expenses of three attendees, and needs nearly $30,000 additional to sponsor all the candidates, said Sr. Gertrude Lilly Ihenacho, congregation minister. 

/subONE OF THE CHOSENRRGabriella Reyes, 22, a parishioner of Holy Child R.C. Church who aspires to become a medical doctor, was thrilled to be chosen as one of the WYD attendees.

“I went to World Youth Day when I was 11 and it had a huge impact on me,” the Huguenot resident said. “It was amazing to see so many young Roman Catholics coming together at one place at one time.”

Unfortunately, the St. Joseph by the Sea High School graduate, does not see that enthusiasm matched on Staten Island.

“It’s hard to find Catholic youth who are excited about their faith,” Ms. Reyes said, noting that some don’t even want to admit to their religion.

“Sometimes it’s seen as nonsensical to be religious,” she observed, speculating that negative media accounts about the Roman Catholic Church have fueled those sentiments.

“I am happy and excited to be a Catholic,” said Ms. Reyes, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Stevens Institute and is studying for her master’s degree in biomedical science at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

The goals of the CYRF ministry are to generate youthful enthusiasm in and defense of their faith, to foster Gospel values and discipleship and to provide young people with the opportunity to interact with other Roman Catholics from throughout the world. The Franciscan Handmaids sponsors people to attend World Youth Day as a way of reaching these goals, according to the order’s literature. 

/SUBA GLOBAL EXPERIENCErR“World Youth Day is a global experience,” Sister Gertrude noted. “We want them to see knowledge and spirituality among Catholic Youth. We want the youth to really understand their faith, to be able to defend their faith.”

The ministry aims to give young people more information about their religion, especially with regard to issues of social justice.

“We want to empower the youth to make informed decisions,” Sister Gertrude said.The Staten Island ministry also provides ample opportunities to serve both on the Island and throughout the world, while trying to counterract powerful negative social forces, such as drugs and crime that are influencing today’s youth.

“You can’t get by stealing, by wanting somebody to bring it to you,” said Sister Gertrude, who was a public health physician prior to joining the order. “You can be anything you want to be as long as you identify what your skill is and go for it,” she said.

The CYRF ministry allows for real and web-based contact with other members throughout the world. The ministry is a global link to educational, financial, volunteer, internship, missionary and employment opportunities and resources with Catholic agencies, the United Nations and many other non-profit organizations.

Members of the ministry have opportunities to attend various conferences, retreats and pilgrimages. They have acces to Papal messages, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops newsletters and a wealth of educational information on the Roman Catholic faith and social justice issues.

Volunteers are needed to join a fund-raising committee. To make a donation or for additional information about the CYRF ministry, contact Anita Fein, administrator of the St. Edward Food Pantry, at 718-984-1625, or e-mail stedwardfoodpantry@hotmail.com.

Tom Monaghan talks about giving away fortune, new hamburger joint and getting …

Around the time he sold Domino’s Pizza and the Detroit Tigers about 20 years ago, Tom Monaghan stopped doing most interviews. He devoted himself to Catholic education, most prominently by founding Ave Maria University, now based near Naples, Fla., where he spends much of his time these days raising money for the school.

But in a rare local appearance Friday morning at the Fairlane Club in Dearborn, Monaghan, who just turned 75, showed he still has a knack for making the sort of comments that made him swear off doing interviews two decades ago.

Known as a devout Roman Catholic who attends daily mass, Monaghan told an audience of non-profit fund raisers, “If it wasn’t for my faith I’d make Hugh Hefner look like a piker.”

And while acknowledging that he was speaking to a mixed audience, he freely criticized brands of Catholic religious practice that are theologically looser than his own strict faith, particularly in Catholic schools and universities today: “The worst thing you can do is send your kids to a Catholic school if you want them to retain their faith.”

If off-putting to some listeners, Monaghan also had people lining up after his talk for him to autograph their copies of his 1986 autobiography “Pizza Tiger,” which his staff gave out to the audience at the start of the breakfast meeting.

The event that drew Monaghan was the annual meeting of the Planned Giving Roundtable of Southeast Michigan, a professional association of people who raise money for the likes of universities, foundations and charities.

“I don’t think anybody’s thought more about how to invest their charitable dollars than I have,” he told the audience. “I never found anybody that came up with a better idea than helping people get to heaven.”

Speaking of raising money to further Catholic education at Ave Maria, he said, “It’s not a short-term investment. It’s a very, very, very long-term investment. It’s eternity.”

There were lighter moments, too, as when he drew laughter by saying, “I wanted to be a priest from the time I was in the second grade, until I sat behind Lois in the seventh grade.”

Monaghan estimated that he has given away 90% to 95% of his pizza fortune, which the media in the late ’80s estimated at $1 billion. He said the only wealth he has left is a lot of real estate at the Domino’s Farms complex in Ann Arbor, property which is mortgaged.

The vast majority of his wealth went to building Ave Maria University. Monaghan said he recently realized, “Maybe I can make more money than I can raise,” so he has started a new hamburger delivery company.

Called Gyrene Burger (the name a nod to Monaghan’s days in the U.S. Marine Corps and to Ave Maria’s team nickname), the company operates one outlet in Naples, Fla., but Monaghan said he wants to build the chain up to 20,000 outlets – almost four times as many outlets as Domino’s had when he owned the company.

Gyrene’s employees wear military-style camouflage uniforms and salute when making deliveries. The stores will resemble military-style Quonset huts covered with camouflage.

If building a new business at 75 seems ambitious, Monaghan has no worries. His said his doctor told him he is healthy enough to live to 100. He exercises daily on a stair machine and lifts weights. He complains of spending too much time on airplanes due to a heavy travel schedule, spending most weekdays at Ave Maria and weekends home with his wife in Ann Arbor. He was getting over a sore throat Friday and his voice was a little raspy.

Raised in a Catholic orphanage, Monaghan rose to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s by building up a single pizza outlet to the world’s largest pizza delivery chain, with several thousand units by the 1980s.

Known for his many enthusiasms, he bought the Tigers in 1982, collected classic cars, and owned a museum-quality collection of Frank Lloyd Wright memorabilia, even designing Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor in Wright’s classic Prairie School style.

But by the late 1980s, the pull of his Catholic faith caused him to turn his life in a different direction. He sold the Tigers and Domino’s, halted worked on a vast Wright-inspired mansion he was building for himself near Ann Arbor, and vowed to give away his fortune before he died.

Other thoughts Monaghan shared Friday:

• On the Detroit Tigers’ performance so far this season: “Frustrating. They seem to have everything they need. I’m confident they’ll break loose.”

• On expecting to live to 100: “That’s an awesome responsibility, to have 25 years left. How am I best going to use it? I want to do as much good as I can while I’m still around.”

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher99@freepress.com

Marco Rubio and wife Jeanette talk of politics, family and faith

WEST MIAMI — Marco and Jeanette Rubio, sitting side by side on their brown sofa in their sunny house, could be any young couple musing about life: juggling four kids, a job that separates them, aging parents, their faith and whether or not to move.

Only they’re not just any couple. At 40, he is the most prominent Latino in national politics today, and a widely touted prospect to be Mitt Romney’s running mate. She is a shy, behind-the-scenes booster married to her high school sweetheart who has never given a speech and bristles when the media reduces her life to a brief stint as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader.

Whether Marco Rubio is on the 2012 ticket this year or not, he and his wife are moving into rarefied air in American politics; he’ll be at the top of the 2016 list of GOP contenders if Romney loses. In an exclusive 90-minute interview with POLITICO — Jeanette’s first-ever extended interview — the couple seems to believe they are ready for the invasive tsunami of press coverage and vetting that could sweep over them at any minute while at the same time realizing they can never truly be braced.

“I’m prepared for the idea that no matter what he does — especially when there’s talk of him being the VP candidate — that (there) are things that are going to come out,” says Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, 38. “And through the Senate campaign, we already went through a lot. … That really prepared us, or at least me.”

Indeed, Marco Rubio is ubiquitous these days, raising his profile through national television interviews, a foreign policy address and coming to your Kindle soon, his personal memoir, An American Son. There is also an unauthorized biography coming out on the same day by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia entitled, The Rise of Marco Rubio.

This is definitely Marco’s moment, and regardless of what happens in the next few months, Rubio knows that this “Meet the Rubios” flash is his opportunity to address skeptics and define himself politically and personally before anyone else does it for him. His forthcoming book, he says, will offer details about growing up as the son of Cuban immigrants, meeting his wife and his faith.

His wife has largely eschewed the spotlight, purposefully choosing to focus her energy and time on keeping a “balance” for their children. In fact, so rare were her appearances during the Senate campaign that the local media felt compelled to note when she showed up — even if she failed to utter a word.

“I’m not pushing myself out there. I need to be with (the) kids just to give them that balance,” Jeanette Rubio explains. “If he’s out there, I feel like I have to be here for them, to give them that reality.”

But she says that “in the future, if I have to do it, of course I’ll do it. But in general, I am shy.”

Those who know the couple say that while Jeanette prefers to remain offstage, she is an integral part of everything he does. She says she actually likes campaigning — when she can get away. “You meet a lot of different people and you hear their stories. The part that’s difficult, I think, in campaigning is the part where you have to deal with the negativity that comes,” she says. “It puts a lot of strain on the family.”

Marco Rubio writes in his book that when his long-shot quest for the Senate in 2010 was mired in the accusations of financial malfeasance, Jeanette convinced him not to drop out. “There were times that he said, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ and I just encouraged him,” she says. “I really believe that when things are hardest — those things make you stronger.”

When he is not playing his increasingly large role on the national stage, he and Jeanette and their children, ages 4 to 12, live in this Hispanic enclave, a shielded bubble in a transient world. Their house is a stone’s throw from the recreational center where the couple met as teenagers 22 years ago. His mother and sister live three blocks away, in the house where he grew up. Her mother is a 10-minute drive away. Their children have a dozen cousins living within 5 miles. “At the end of the day, I have a network — I have my family, my friends that help me when I can’t do it,” says Jeanette about her husband being in Washington all week. “I don’t have a nanny or anything like that. I have my family.”

There is nothing opulent about their home, but it is warm and bright and simply decorated with white and brown furniture. In the driveway sits the senator’s black pickup that he uses for weekend errands. “By the way, sorry for the patches (on the wall),” he offers. “They’re painting here.”

They have talked and talked about moving the family to Washington — and even looked at houses to rent in Virginia last year — but it’s a tough call for them. “My mom is older now and I need to get back and see her — and I want to be in touch with our state,” he says. “Our whole support network is here. … I mean, I’d like for them to be there, if we can work it out.”

“It’s hard for him,” she says. “But it’s a question of whether we should uproot everyone when our life is here.”

The Rubios both attended South Miami Senior High School, but they didn’t meet until a couple of years after he graduated, when he was 19 and she was 17.

Their story in their own words:

Her: “I was at the (West Miami Recreation Center) one day playing volleyball and he spotted me.”

Him: “I did the background work first — who is she, what is she all about. I had actually seen her before that.”

Her: “But I didn’t know that he had seen me.”

Him: “Her younger sister was dating a kid who lives two doors down from me, and one day I happened to be with him and he went by his girlfriend’s house, and she answered the door.”

Her: “So he asked questions and friends put something together where we would go to the movies and he would sit next to me and then — you know, coincidentally. Throughout the whole movie he would start talking to me, which I thought was a little annoying.”

They started dating shortly after, but Marco was heading to the University of Florida in Gainesville in the fall, which forced a long-distance romance in an era of few cell phones, no Internet, no Skype.

Him: “It was harder and harder for me even to stay up there on the weekends, just because I wanted to be back here. So I would write these really long letters.”

Her: “One of the letters that he wrote to me, I still have it. It was about how we were building a foundation and we were going through the steps. And he wrote all the steps in comparison to where we were in our relationship.”

Him: “I think the purpose of the letter — I was trying to explain to her how I thought that even though it was tough being apart from each other, we were investing in the early stages of our relationship, which would be the foundation for whatever came of it down the road.”

Rubio went onto the University of Florida law school while Jeanette remained in West Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College and worked part-time as a bank teller. In 1997, following his sister and her sister, she briefly joined the Miami Dolphins cheerleading squad, practicing her routines four nights a week — while he got the benefit of free tickets to games.

“I always wanted to be an NFL player,” interjects her husband, “and now I’m going to have to tell my kids that the only one of her two parents that ever touched an NFL field was her mom.”

Around that time, Marco proposed and she quit the squad to attend the International Fine Arts College with the intention of getting a degree in fashion design. They married in 1998. “I had only one semester left, and then I got pregnant,” she explains.

“After we got married,” he quickly adds.

And now, she has no interest in being a fashion designer. In the past year, she has been working part-time outside the home, at the Braman Family Foundation — run by wealthy Miami businessman and philanthropist Norman Braman — helping it identify projects and organize its giving. She has also taken an interest in the issue of human trafficking and has pushed her husband to use his platform to address the issue — which he has done.

“I’ve also just never been in a position where she’s had to give stump speeches or do things of that nature. It just hasn’t been what we do,” he says.

“I think that as time went by, I would probably feel more and more comfortable with that role,” she says.

Despite the Rubios’ apparently grounded personal life, and the junior senator’s oratorical and charismatic gifts, there is predictable skepticism about the readiness of a 40-year-old to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Is he intellectually ready at this stage of his life to possibly ascend to the presidency?

Is he ready to be vetted — one of the most grueling, invasive background checks known to man?

He is ready for the questions.

“I certainly feel like I’m qualified to be the United States senator from Florida, not just by virtue of the fact that the people of the state elected me, but what I did leading up to that point,” he says, carefully laying out his resume but refusing to talk about Romney’s selection process. He says his tough Senate race was an eye-opener and a microcosm of national politics. He volunteers that part of the experience he’s gaining is in foreign policy as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — a credential Romney lacks. “You really take away from (official overseas) trips and from those visits with the heads of state and other prominent governmental leaders a real understanding of the issues that nations are facing and the issues in our bilateral relationships with them.”

He is defensive about the suggestion that as a conservative Cuban-American, he doesn’t represent the interests of the larger Hispanic population. “Dividing Cubans against the rest of the Hispanic community is … offensive. I mean, my wife’s not Cuban; her family’s not Cuban,” he said of Jeanette, who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. The votes of all Hispanics, he says, “has to be earned through a message and a vision and a set of policies that inspire people.”

In addition to his youth and minimal experience in national politics, there is also some political baggage that some say could scare off the ever-cautious Romney. At the forefront are public spending issues. A credit card scandal that erupted in the middle of his Senate campaign — but that has received little national attention — exposed that Rubio and others used a Florida Republican Party credit card for personal purchases. Rubio has said it was a mistake and that he paid American Express for all the personal charges. But it still dogs him. Some expenditures from his political action committees to his wife and other family members have also been questioned. At best, it was a careless commingling of funds that any low-level politician knows not to do.

“There are things I wish we would have done differently, there’s no doubt about it — and would do differently and we now do differently,” he said. “But then again, I’ve never learned from my successes. Everything I’ve ever learned has been from mistakes — I’m saying that with life and not just in politics. “

In his forthcoming book, Rubio addresses another source of curiosity in his life: his unusual spiritual odyssey from Catholicism to Mormonism to the Baptist faith and back to Catholicism. He has at various times in the past decade identified his denomination differently in the Florida Legislature clerk’s handbook. He sees nothing odd about it. He and his mother and sister joined the Mormon church when they were living in Las Vegas in the late ’70s. According to a family member quoted in Roig-Franzia’s book, it was young Marco who convinced his family to return to the Catholicism.

“The truth is I have been a Catholic, and I am again — and I am, and I feel very strongly about the Catholic Church, but the bottom line is we found this (other) church that we liked,” he explains about his decision to attend Christ Fellowship, a megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

He tries to attend Mass daily while in Washington. Jeanette was also raised Catholic but considers herself more of a devout Christian that a devout Catholic. The family attends two services on weekends, Mass on Sunday and Saturday evening services at Christ Fellowship. He only takes communion at Mass, he says.

Of Christ Fellowship, he says, “they’re excellent teachers of the written word. They’re excellent teachers of applicable — of how you apply the principles of Christianity and the powerful teachings of Christianity not just to your life but to eternity. We just liked the church. And my kids liked it and my wife liked it and our family liked it, and for a time, that’s the only place I went to exclusively, but always felt called back to the Catholic Church and to the Catholic faith.

But for any more detail about his journey and dance with Catholicism, he says, “you’ll have to buy the book.”

POLITICO and the Tampa Bay Times have partnered for the 2012 presidential election.

Health secretary addresses health care, religious freedom in protested …

By Dan Merica, CNN

Washington (CNN) – In an anticipated and controversial address Friday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius delivered a speech that blended inspirational messages to graduates with a discussion of public policy’s tough decisions, including health care and honoring religious freedom.

Her speech at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute awards ceremony had been considered controversial by conservative Catholic organizations that saw her appearance as the university validating her positions on abortion and contraception.

The speech did not mention the controversy directly, but Sebelius did address faith in public life in a section of the speech devoted to John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president of the United States.

“Kennedy was elected president on November 8, 1960,” she said. “And more than 50 years later, that conversation, about the intersection of our nation’s long tradition of religious freedom with policy decisions in the public square, continues.”

Sebelius continued: “Contributing to these debates will require more than just the quantitative skills you have learned at Georgetown. It will also require the ethical skills you have honed – the ability to weight different views, see issues from other points of view and, in the end, remain true to your own moral compass.”

A few minutes into the speech, a protester sitting with families in the crowd stood up and shouted at Sebelius, getting the crowd’s attention. “Georgetown should be ashamed,” he yelled, drawing boos from the crowd.

Though the protester continued, the crowd largely drowned out his statements. Police escorted him out, but his chants could be heard inside the room as he left.

Sebelius remained composed throughout, and when the speech continued, she received a round of applause.

Student reaction to the protester was largely evidenced by their reaction to his shouting.

“The students here are very committed to public service …” said Taiyang Gul, 24, who came to Georgetown from China. “Obviously, this is not the forum for expressing opinions. People can express their views in some other occasions.”
Gul said in the end, this day was for the students, to mark their success and wish them well.

Ranjini Danaraj, a 31-year-old master’s in policy management graduate, dismissed the protester, calling the response to him appropriate, and said she thought Sebelius did a great job.

“I thought [the speech] was great,” she said. “She did a good job of relating events from her life that were relevant to us. I thought she had a lot of life lessons to pass along.”

The secretary’s statements on understanding different points of view largely echoed Georgetown President John J. DeGioia, who defended her invitation by saying Georgetown is “a university, committed to the free exchange of ideas.”

DeGioia’s defense, however, was not enough for the groups and some faculty who protested Sebelius’ speech.

Just outside the Georgetown walls, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property held banners, flags and signs that protested the speech. About 15 protesters counted the rosary and said the Hail Mary prayer as people in graduation gowns walked past.

“There are certain lines that we can’t cross,” said Michael Drake, a volunteer for the organization. “She [Sebelius] has a pro-abortion record from her time in Kansas. … We are very scandalized that Georgetown would even invite her.”

There were also vocal groups of protesters before the speech. Leading the charge was the conservative Cardinal Newman Society, a group that has regularly blogged about speakers at Catholic universities who go against Catholic teachings.

Patrick Reilly, the group’s president, labeled Georgetown as “anti-Catholic.”

“It is recognized by the bishops as Catholic, so it is Catholic,” Reilly said about the university. “Does it do a good job at upholding its Catholic identity? No, it is one of the worst at doing so.”

At the heart of his and other protest groups’ disagreement is that Catholic bishops, in 2004, released a document that outlined how a Catholic university should invite speakers to campus. In it, the bishops said Catholic universities should not bestow honors upon speakers whose views differ with those of the Catholic Church.

Reilly’s take: “I would say that a commencement address falls into the category of an honor.”

Protest was not limited to solely independent Catholic organizations, however. The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., also chimed in on the speech.

“Given the dramatic impact this (contraception) mandate will have on Georgetown and all Catholic institutions, it is understandable that Catholics across the country would find shocking the choice of Secretary Sebelius, the architect of the mandate, to receive such special recognition at a Catholic university,” the Washington Archdiocese’s statement said.

The archdiocese was referring to a Health and Human Services mandate that religious employers offer health insurance coverage that includes access to contraceptives and birth control services.

Georgetown is the oldest Catholic university in the United States. It was founded by the country’s first Catholic bishop, John Carroll, and describes itself as a “global research university deeply rooted in the Catholic faith.”

Catholic faith, as directed by the church’s hierarchy, is adamantly against abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage. As a Catholic university, Georgetown adheres to those positions – no condoms are passed out on campus, for example – but this has caused friction with the student body.

In her remarks, Sebelius addressed the path she took to become leader of the Department of Health and Human Services. She also talked about her role in implementing President Barack Obama’s hallmark health care legislation.

“I have the extraordinary opportunity to help implement legislation that is finally, after seven decades of failed debate, ensuring that all Americans have access to affordable health care,” she said.

Sebelius was one of a handful of graduation speakers at Georgetown this weekend. Many of the university’s individual schools have both a commencement and an awards ceremony. Sebelius was speaking at the awards ceremony – called a tropaia, after the Greek word for “trophy” – for Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute.

Austrian chancellor’s son tells how faith helped him survive Nazis

Washington D.C., May 17, 2012 / 04:19 am (CNA).- Kurt von Schuschnigg Jr., son of the former chancellor of Austria, says that his Catholic faith helped him get through difficult times during World War II and now guides the way that he looks back at past events.

“Faith is always a big thing when you are in trouble,” he observed. “Unfortunately today, not too many people hold on to faith anymore.”

Von Schuschnigg was a first-hand witness of many of the atrocities committed during the Second World War. His father, who has the same name, was chancellor of Austria when Germany invaded the country in 1938.

On May 9, Kurt von Schuschnigg Jr. and his wife, Janet, spoke with CNA about their new book, “When Hitler Took Austria” (Ignatius, $24.95).

The book tells the story of the German takeover of Austria, as experienced by young von Schuschnigg.

He explained that his father opposed the takeover when German troops entered the country but also realized that they were not equipped to fight.

To avoid a massacre of the Austrian people, he resigned from his position as chancellor and was later sent with his wife to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Von Schuschnigg Jr. was able to complete his education and was then stationed on a naval vessel before deserting the German military and fleeing from the Gestapo, making a harrowing escape to safety.

He and his wife – both of whom are Catholic – worked together on the new book. Janet, who grew up in Atlanta, Ga., said that over their years of marriage, her husband told her stories about his life in Austria.

She realized that the story of Austria’s takeover by the Nazis was not being taught in schools, and she decided to record the events that her husband had recounted.

The book is not a plea for anything, she explained, but is simply trying to explain how life was for people in Austria during that difficult time.

“America should know it,” she said. “The rest of the world should know it.”

Kurt von Schuschnigg believes that God’s providence was helping him during that difficult time, sometimes manifest through the kind and daring gestures of other people.

He recalled an instance in 1945 when a German doctor in Munich saved his life. Due to the family responsibility laws, he should have been turned over to the Gestapo and would have been taken to a concentration camp or executed. But the doctor – whose name he does not even know – allowed him to escape.

He also remembered how his Austrian governess had courageously taken him in when his father was arrested, risking her own safety in doing so.

“She could never get a job again,” he reflected.

Janet von Schuschnigg describes her husband’s family as “centered on God.” Even after all they’ve been through, she said, they are still good Catholics.

“You don’t find so many good Catholics in Austria anymore,” she continued, explaining that the Church has undergone heavy persecution.

Her husband added that while there are many good people leading “a happy life” in Austria, they have largely been forced to “forget their past” in order to do so.

For him, however, faith has played a significant role in both good and bad times.

He recalled a hand-written papal blessing that was given to his family that gave him confidence and helped him trust in God during difficult circumstances.

One time, he recounted, he was able to smuggle the Eucharist to his father in the concentration camp.

This was only possible, he explained, because the guards had been there for four years, and they had become friends.

The guards were “kind” and “decent” people, he reflected, although they would have shot his parents without hesitation if ordered to do so.

When von Schuschnigg attempted to tell some family friends about the things he had witnessed in the concentration camp, they brushed him off, refusing to believe his stories and defending the Nazis.

Kurt von Schuschnigg does not consider his actions particularly heroic, especially since at the time no one thought of themselves a a heroe.

“We were survivors,” he said.

After World War II, von Schuschnigg’s family was liberated and moved to America, where they became citizens.

While he has not forgotten the atrocities he witnessed and experienced, von Schuschnigg has forgiven those responsible for causing his family pain – an ability that his wife says “impressed me incredibly.”

Kurt von Schuschnigg explained that he does not blame those who hurt him because he knows that “they did it out of fear.”

He described the “terror” that pervaded the atmosphere of a country in which one could never trust the people around him.

You have to be able to forgive, he said. “You cannot carry things with you.”

He compared the situation to a fight with a good friend. After a while, you let go and forgive, and you return to being friends, he said. 

Kurt and Janet von Schuschnigg hope that “When Hitler Took Austria” will inspire people to reevaluate their lives.

Janet explained that the book is an example of discipline and faith, virtues that are sorely needed today, as many people seek immediate gratification but find that they are not truly happy.

“The world’s a mess right now,” she said. “It’s frightening.”

She lamented that so many people today have lost a sense of balance in life, forgetting the importance of virtues like discipline and duty.

“People don’t go to Church anymore,” she added.

Her husband agreed. He said that many of the values that were strong in his childhood have been lost by society.

Restoring these values is critical, and it must begin in the home, Kurt von Schuschnigg said.

“It cannot all be done by the schools,” he explained. “It comes from the family.”

Tags:
Inspirational Stories, World War II

Strong Seattle support for US nuns facing Vatican-ordered crackdown

St. James Cathedral is often the scene of vigils, but the crowd outside its front door on Tuesday night was there to dissent from rather than proclaim Vatican policy: 

The praying, singing gathering of Catholic was protesting the Catholic Church hierarchy’s crackdown on American nuns.

A 15-year-old Seattle Prep student named Fiona Campbell summed up what brought out the 125 people who stood beneath a stained glass window of Christ with its inscription:  “I AM THE VINE AND YOU ARE THE BRANCHES.” 

“The Vatican is investigating all of them,” said Campbell.  “They staff hospitals and schools and orphanages.  They’ve done a lot more of the church’s real work than other people who are investigating them.”

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, whose chancery is in the next block, was recently appointed by the Vatican to make American nuns toe the line, or in the language of the hierarchy “offering guidance on the application of church doctrine.”

Sister  Helen Brennan, former religious education director for the Diocese of Yakima, stood on the cathedral steps voicing both apprehension and hope.  “I’m holding my breath,” she said.  “He (Sartain) has held three bishoprics, which means he’s a company man.  I hope he will dialogue with us and hear our story.”

A “doctrinal assessment”, released last month by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, accused the sisters of embracing “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

It took aim at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 nuns.  The Vatican claimed that the church’s “Biblical view of family life and human sexuality are not part of the LCWR agenda,” and that the sisters have “serious doctrinal problems.”

The Vatican’s view does not comport with what those outside St. James have seend.  They argued Tuesday that the sisters do God’s grunt work, and are there from the hospital bedside to the classroom to the social justice picket line.

“Gosh, it’s bullpucky, it’s upsetting,” Theresa Litourneau said of the “assessment” by the Vatican.  “I was in an orphange with nuns,” she added.  “I’ve been in Harborview, and nuns came to see me.  I grew up in school with nuns.”

Roger Yockey worked for years with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (then the Retail Clerks) on civil rights and social justice issues.  He was active in the Catholic Interracial Council, which confronted housing segregation and redlining of loans by Seattle banks.

“I’ve been with religious women on picket lines, in retreats, on pilgrimages,” Yockey said.  “I suffered an injury when I was 4 years old.  It is due to the work of a Catholic sister that I can speak here today.  And you know I love to speak.”

Bev Coco, another demonstrator, remembered the inspiration of Sister Katheryn Clair who taught Coco in school years ago.  “She was an example of a strong woman who wanted all women to stand up for themselves,” said Coco.

One by one, vigil participants took the microphone to praise the good works of American nuns they have known.  Among those mentioned was Sister Jean Prejean, the Louisiana nun who has devoted her life to working with death row inmates.  (Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for her portrayal of Prejean.)

With its guitars and folk songs, the St. James gathering evoked the era of the Second Vatican Council and Pope John XXIII, a half century ago, when the Catholic Church appeared to be opening itself to the modern world and embracing other faith traditions.  Future Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen was the youngest American prelate at Vatican II.

“Secular” Seattle saw more interfaith cooperation — even a KOMO-TV program featuring a priest, a minister and a rabbi — than almost any other city in the country.  A church-spawned organization, Neighbors in Need, fed Seattle’s middle class hungry during the “Boeing recession” of the early 1970′s.

Inside St. James, a shrine to Blessed John XXIII (he is a candidate for sainthood) will be installed later this year, and an anecdote from the life of the late pope graces each Sunday bulletin.

But some Catholics fear that legacy is being left behind.  In the 21st Century, the Catholic hierarchy has begn to take a hard line — even toward its own.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the head of the Vatican’s highest court, excoriated American nuns for what he called “the public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week began to investigate and assess ties between Catholic parishes and the Girl Scouts.  The reason is Scouts’ association with Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and the Sierra Club — groups which have shown sympathy for family planning.

The Catholic hierarchy is also angry with American nuns for seeking accommodation with the Obama administration on inclusion of birth control in health plans offered by Catholic hospitals and universities.  The bishops, by contrast, seem  spoiling for a fight and denouncing what they claim are attacks on “religious liberty.”

The nation’s bishops and cardinals — and their counterparts in Rome — are not known for listening to “the branches” despite what’s written on the face of Seattle’s cathedral.  Lay protest did force the Vatican to back down in the late 1980′s when it tried to strip away authority from the pacifist Archbishop Hunthausen.

It galls some of the Catholics who turned out Tuesday.

“They haven’t explained it (the crackdown on nuns),” said Don Sly.  “They don’t have to.  This is about power.  That’s the stance of power.  You can investigate someone without offering any real investigation.”

There were “Support the Sisters” vigils outside 27 cathedrals across American on Tuesday night, in locales ranging from Anchorage, Alaska, to Austin, Texas.  Songs were sung outside the cathedrals of the country’s two best-known hard line bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York and Archbishop Charles Chaput in Philadelphia.

Brennan was joined by four other religious women on the steps of St. James.  The Rev. John Whitney, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, supplied the candles and prayer cards.

The vigils will continue on Tuesday nights through the month of May.

OCP Institute: ‘Discover, Sing, Celebrate’ to transform Catholic faith through …

PORTLAND, Ore., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Beginning early June, 2012, leading liturgical publisher OCP will launch a new format of their popular OCP Institute clinic series titled: Discover, Sing, Celebrate. The focus of this new event? Spiritual development and formation.

Concentrated on transforming faith through music, prayer and reflection, Discover, Sing, Celebrate uses songs from the top Hispanic, Catholic hymnal Flor y Canto, tercera edicion, to aid in spiritual formation and personal discovery within a retreat-style setting.

Pedro Rubalcava, Director of Hispanic Ministries at OCP says, “The way that we understand the role of music and use it in our personal and communal prayer helps us make connections to the Eucharist when the whole community gathers. What we sing has the power to form and transform. This is what Discover, Sing, Celebrate accomplishes�using songs as vehicles to change what we know and how we look at our discipleship and relationship to Christ and the Church.”

Helping attendees examine their personal roles within the church, the event brings the formational qualities of liturgical music to light, illuminating them as tools for evangelization.

Discover, Sing, Celebrate is only one of the OCP Institute event series. Currently serving Hispanic Catholics across the U.S., these events continue to engage and inspire this fastest-growing segment of the Catholic Church. Other formats like “Sing to the Lord!” are geared toward parish musicians with workshops like sight-reading, improving guitar and vocal techniques.

“OCP Institutes are ideal for worship communities that have a Hispanic ministry as they bring much needed training and formation,” says OCP Institute Clinician, Rodolfo Lopez. “Many Spanish-speaking music ministers are volunteers with little formal music education. We provide an opportunity for them to learn from experts in the field. Expanding the skills of the parish musicians enhances the worship experience for the entire community.”

The inaugural Discover, Sing, Celebrate event will be held June 2 at Saint Marcellinus church in City of Commerce, Cal. To register, please visit OCP.org/Institute-Registration. For more information about OCP Institutes visit OCP.org/Institute.

About OCP
OCP, a not-for-profit publisher of liturgical music and worship resources based in Portland, Oregon, has been in operation for more than 85 years. Worship programs produced by OCP are used in two-thirds of Catholic churches in the United States and are distributed worldwide. More information is available at 1-800-548-8749, ocp.org and Facebook.com/OCPmusic.

Media Contacts: Erin McClellan, 503.460.5363, erinm@ocp.org
Laure Krupp, 503.460.5321, events@ocp.org

SOURCE OCP

Obama’s Case for Gay Marriage Shows That Invoking Faith Isn’t Just for …

You don’t have to be Christian to know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. In fact, scholars note that it is the one precept common to all major faith traditions. But in his interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts on Wednesday, President Obama cited the Golden Rule as found in Matthew 7:12 when describing the role his Christian faith played in leading him to support same-sex marriage.

“When we think about our faith,” he explained, “the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule. . . . Treat others the way you would want to be treated.”

Announcing to the nation that he thinks that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry wasn’t the first time Obama has linked his Protestant beliefs to his support for specific policies. In his address at the National Prayer Breakfast this year, he credited his faith for inspiring policies as diverse as funding for medical research and eliminating tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. “Living by the principle that we are our brother’s keeper 1 / 8and 3 / 8 caring for the poor and those in need,” Obama said, are values “that have defined my own faith journey.”

American politics is rife with religious rhetoric – but in the modern era, it has almost always been deployed on behalf of conservative positions. Religious communities helped rally support for the North Carolina ballot proposition prohibiting same-sex marriage and civil unions, which passed Tuesday. No less an evangelical icon than Billy Graham appeared in print ads statewide to urge its passage, under the message: “The Bible is clear – God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman.” Liberal politicians, on the other hand, have tended to ground their positions in secular arguments, and often warned that Republicans were endangering the separation of church and state.

Obama cited several reasons for his support for gay marriage, including conversations with U.S. troops, his family and his staff. But his assertion that his views on same-sex marriage come from – not despite – his Christian faith marks a shift in U.S. politics. Democratic politicians now unabashedly cite religion when making their case, and GOP leaders sometimes find themselves in the unusual position of justifying – rather than merely stating – their religious claims. That’s something that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has cited his Catholic faith as a basis for the massive spending cuts in his proposed budget, has learned recently. Politicians from both parties now make explicitly religious arguments for opposing positions.

There was a time not long ago when the discussion of religion in politics centered on liberal causes – think of the civil rights movement or opposition to the war in Vietnam. When the religious right exploded onto the political scene in the late 1970s, however, many Democrats concluded that the introduction of religion into political discussion was a conservative act.

As they shied away from religious references, that assumption became self-fulfilling. By 2004, the meaning of words such as “morality” and “Christianity” had become so one-sided that exit polls for that year’s presidential election used the phrase “moral values” as shorthand for a circumscribed category of conservative concerns such as opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage when asking what issues had most influenced voters’ decisions.

That exit poll question, as well as attacks on Democratic nominee John F. Kerry by Roman Catholic leaders for his support of abortion rights, inspired a collective epiphany among Democrats. They began to remind voters – and one another – that issues such as education, health care and protecting the environment reflected strongly held values as well. In 2006, Democrats won back control of Congress with the help of a new cast of candidates who spoke easily about their faith and beliefs.

No group was more galvanized than Catholic Democrats, who were tired of Catholic leaders telling them they were bad Catholics or disinviting them from events at Catholic institutions. A group of young Catholic activists formed an organization called Catholics United, in part to hold politicians accountable on the issues they saw Catholic leaders largely ignoring. In 2007, they ran ads on Christian radio in the districts of members of Congress who opposed abortion and voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. “He says he’s pro-life, but for the second time in a month he’s voted against health-care for kids,” said the ad’s female narrator. “That’s not pro-life.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is another Catholic who has been frustrated by the fact that although Church leaders criticize her votes on abortion legislation, they remain silent about her Republican Catholic colleagues who deviate from church teaching on other issues. Last month, DeLauro made public a letter she sent to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, calling on him to “personally address the devastating impact of this 1 / 8GOP 3 / 8 budget.”

The bishops are usually swift to speak out regarding budget documents. But this year they have been preoccupied by a campaign for religious freedom in response to the Obama administration’s mandate that health insurance cover contraception. They had remained silent about the GOP budget. Embarrassed by DeLauro’s missive, the USCCB released several letters stating opposition to the budget – one called proposed cuts “unjustified and wrong” – four days later.

Nearly all of the Republican congressional leaders are Catholic, and they have been made particularly uncomfortable by the resurgence of an active Catholic opposition on the left. Last year, the head of Catholics United approached Ryan with a Bible and asked him to spend more time reading the Book of Matthew than Ayn Rand, who Ryan has said inspired him to enter public service. Video cameras captured Ryan awkwardly speed-walking away from the proffered Bible and into a waiting SUV.

Just in the past month, Ryan has attempted to explain how Catholic social teaching shaped his budget, only to have nearly 100 faculty members at Georgetown University sign a letter taking issue with his interpretation before a scheduled speech at the Catholic campus. And both he and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) have stumbled in response to the bishops’ criticism of the GOP budget. Ryan first tried to insist that the bishops’ letters represented the views of just a few people (they were in fact elected to represent the other bishops). And Boehner dismissed the bishops’ concerns, saying they needed to take “a bigger look” at the issue.

This new bipartisan politics of religion is a good thing – both for religion and for politics. For several decades, the right has held a monopoly over what it means to be religious in the United States, not to mention Christian or evangelical. The result has been devastating for the image of Christianity. When the Barna Group polled Americans ages 16 to 29 on what words best describe Christianity, the top response was “anti-homosexual.” The other common associations were “judgmental,“ “hypocritical” and “too involved in politics.”

It has not helped that for years, conservative politicians have explained their opposition to gay rights by simply stating, “I’m a Christian,” as if that automatically requires one to abhor the idea of same-sex marriage. Recent debates about the protection of religious freedom have assumed that the only religious motives that count are conservative ones. That’s the concept at the core of arguments about the contraception mandate, as well as a number of religious freedom bills moving through state legislatures. Enthusiasm for those efforts might well flag if religious progressives were to demand protection for their beliefs as well.

Our politics benefit from including more religious perspectives. When politicians are forced to say how their faith informs their policies – instead of just citing it as part of their political identity – it becomes more difficult to use religion as a blanket explanation for a partisan stance. Instead of asserting that his budget is shaped by his Catholicism, Ryan has to delve into the tradition of Catholic social teaching. Boehner has to explain why he thinks the U.S. bishops are wrong to criticize the budget. And Obama will inevitably have to take on the charges from conservative Christians who are already calling his linkage of the Golden Rule and support for same-sex marriage “an appalling blasphemy.” Indeed, one of his own spiritual advisers – evangelical pastor Joel Hunter – says he is “disappointed” by Obama’s decision.

After years of pretending that the culture wars were a matter of religious views lined up against secular beliefs, politicians are recognizing what average Americans knew all along. A majority of Americans now believe that there is more than one way to get to heaven, pollsters report. Our political discussions finally reflect that there’s also more than one answer to the question: “What would Jesus do?”

Amy Sullivan is the author of “The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap” and a former senior editor at Time magazine. Author’s email: thepartyfaithfulgmail.com