A little help please
There is a Catholic charity that my wife and I support that does very good work in a place where not enough good happens. Aside from the Church, it is really the only charity to which we give time and money and other things with any regularity. In the mail today was an invitation to their annual dinner and auction. (Those who object to such events need to understand that they reach a segment of the population that don't normally give very much, and--properly run--increase the net giving for an organization whose fundraising efforts are fairly young. So pipe down, and just write your check if you think they are wasteful.)
The honorary chairs of this event, unfortunately, are the bloviated Senator of Irish ancestry, the fake-medal-tossing, billionaire-marrying other Senator of Irish ancestry, the September 11-Why-do-they-hate-us?-Congressman from that district of Irish ancestry, and a state Senator whose ancestry I don't know. The first three profess to be Roman Catholic; I don't know about the state senator. All four of these folks score a big fat goose egg on pro-life issues, with the groups who track voting records. (Among other things, this means that the three who go to Washington voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion.)
Here then is my probelm: This charity has nothing to do with family planning or anything like it. It is a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, and food pantry for poor people in one of the poorest parts of Massachusetts. It does good, Christian work.
At the same time, it is run by Catholics, has the pastor of my former parish on its board, and yet it is borrowing the prestige (if that is the word) of three Catholic national legislators who actively work against an issue our Church rightly proclaims to be one of the most significant moral issues of our time. On the other hand, it has simply snagged the state and federal legislative delegations to draw attention to its work. But (if I may have a Tevye moment) on the other hand, these men and this woman may now borrow on the prestige of the charity to bolster their own Catholic credentials.
What is a boy to do? Overlook it? Stop supporting the charity, whose work as I say is not at all connected to abortion? Protest to the people in charge, but keep supporting? Simply skip the event? I am fairly up against a lee shore on this, and would appreciate hearing from you.
There is a Catholic charity that my wife and I support that does very good work in a place where not enough good happens. Aside from the Church, it is really the only charity to which we give time and money and other things with any regularity. In the mail today was an invitation to their annual dinner and auction. (Those who object to such events need to understand that they reach a segment of the population that don't normally give very much, and--properly run--increase the net giving for an organization whose fundraising efforts are fairly young. So pipe down, and just write your check if you think they are wasteful.)
The honorary chairs of this event, unfortunately, are the bloviated Senator of Irish ancestry, the fake-medal-tossing, billionaire-marrying other Senator of Irish ancestry, the September 11-Why-do-they-hate-us?-Congressman from that district of Irish ancestry, and a state Senator whose ancestry I don't know. The first three profess to be Roman Catholic; I don't know about the state senator. All four of these folks score a big fat goose egg on pro-life issues, with the groups who track voting records. (Among other things, this means that the three who go to Washington voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion.)
Here then is my probelm: This charity has nothing to do with family planning or anything like it. It is a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, and food pantry for poor people in one of the poorest parts of Massachusetts. It does good, Christian work.
At the same time, it is run by Catholics, has the pastor of my former parish on its board, and yet it is borrowing the prestige (if that is the word) of three Catholic national legislators who actively work against an issue our Church rightly proclaims to be one of the most significant moral issues of our time. On the other hand, it has simply snagged the state and federal legislative delegations to draw attention to its work. But (if I may have a Tevye moment) on the other hand, these men and this woman may now borrow on the prestige of the charity to bolster their own Catholic credentials.
What is a boy to do? Overlook it? Stop supporting the charity, whose work as I say is not at all connected to abortion? Protest to the people in charge, but keep supporting? Simply skip the event? I am fairly up against a lee shore on this, and would appreciate hearing from you.
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