Father Martin Rocks the House

A Rabbi, Priest and Minister walk into the Bar and the Bartender says "Is This Some Kind Of Joke?"

Yes.

Jesuit Father Martin, editor of America Magazine, the Jesuit rag in New York (you can get it emailed to you directly), had en entire congregation at Saint Matthews cathedral in Washington in stitches chuckling at himself on purpose. Self-depricating humor, he argued can lighten the load. He has written an entire book on it actually. He told joke after joke and tipped his hat to
those with the pink yamulkas in quoting a high holy clergyman who when asked -now that he is an Archbishop if he would like to "condemn" anything -now having condemning powers. The Archbishop replied "Yes, I would like to condemn instant potatos and light beer." Jesus, he argued, had a hysterical classic sardonic Jewish wit -turning water to barrels of wine was not only a poignant foreshadowing of his blood given for the world, but was funny at the time. Much of what his parables illustrated also had humor, lost a bit in translations of the ages.

The tone could not have been more appreciated in a political climate in Washington where people take their self righteousness more seriously than most people take Monday Night Football (that would be saying a lot in the house where I grew up.)

Father Martin, you will recall was the voice of calm and reason when it came to the issue of whether the US President was allowed to address a major Catholic College in America.
While the right wing- nuts were flailing in ignonymous upheavals and strolling dead plastic baby dolls smeared with blood trespassing across Notre Dame's campus, Jesuit Father Martin could be heard quiety wondering if we all had collectively lost a bit of our grip and couldn't just calm down a bit and perhaps listen to what the US population elected as its free democratic leader had to say.

This follows the Jesuit thoughtful tradition of St. Ignatius Loyola (after whom a few catholic colleges are named) who suggests that "It is necessary to suppose that every good Christian is more ready to put a good interpretation on another's statement than to condemn it as false. "
Ignatius believed that respect and kindness were hallmarks of good Christian discourse. Cardinal Avery Dulles, also a Jesuit, in highlighting the "community of disciples" that Christians are called to be, must respect the rules of community which demand respect and kindness- which are hallmarks of humility- as Jesuit Father and Pastor Mark Horak noted in his pastoral letter to Holy Trinity in the bulletin which you can find on line (http://www.holytrinitydc.org/). "This more humble view of a pilgrim church always in need of purification and improvemment may help to tone down the rhetoric and encourage Catholics to work together in addressing the great issues of our day, especially those involving the culture of life."
This also, he notes as did Cardinal Dulles, allows and enables the church "to understand its teaching better, to present it more persuasivelly and to implement it in a pastoral way."
The reverse of the statement does, as one would expect, just the contrary. Which is why rageful, ranting and hateful condemnations have zero place in intellectually honest dialogue in public policy debates of even the most sensitive nature.

And No, Father Jenkins should not "drop the charges"- when people were opposed to the Iraq war they were not permitted to jump the White House fences and parade around amputated limbs to make their point. That would cross the line and demonstrate zero respect for the authority that the law gives the resident of the White House. Father Jenkins made it very clear what he did and did not tolerate on the campus and his authority was totally disrespected by the wing-nuts who just arrogantly thought they could do what they wanted- no matter how counter-productive, how embarassing, how much it set the cause back. They didn't care- they had no thought of how they would be perceived. They trespassed, and there is a law against it.

Forgiving trespasses does not mandate that anyone dismiss Justice. Justice may require action against a trespasser even while the trespasser is forgiven.