Oratio Pro Caravaggio
Imbelli, Robert P.
teaching of the church did not make me feel any less compassion for women in the terrible situation of contemplating an abortion, but it did challenge my notion of when life begins and what...
...If this world is all there is, don't we have an obligation to make the best of it...
...The church is wise, but it does not supply blueprints for living...
...Its credibility has also been undermined by institutionalized bad habits and failures of judgment and courage...
...We are also in the midst of a presidential election that will decide who will lead us in that war...
...Robert P. Imbelli Commonweal 1 2 June 4, 2004...
...Oratio Pro Caravaggio Devouring desire, Longing indiscriminate, Two-souled (like the rest of us) Driven to despair...
...I'm afraid this hedging is what I do myself...
...This ought to be the end of the story...
...Beauty-besotted child, Craving beyond measure, Passionately seeking A half-forgotten face...
...multinationals to guarantee our disproportionate prosperity and our freedom to speak of noble values...
...with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in...
...But doubt is not something I ever get around entirely...
...On many other questions, political positions advocated by the church matched views I had long held...
...When will we see a Democratic leader who possesses the moral clarity and intellectual vigor to say something like: With malice toward none...
...So far, he's not on the ballot...
...On the other hand, by not becoming a priest—by marrying and raising two children—I have entered into a life that is, I am sure, most in tune with the person who, deep down, I believe myself to be...
...As Catholics, we should be internally consistent in our beliefs and come to coherent, consistent moral and political choices...
...if I knew with absolute certainty that God has given us an immortal soul, is watching over us, and will judge us mercifully at the end of our days...
...to bind up the nation's wounds...
...Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's "seamless garment" approach made perfect sense to me...
...I don't know these things for sure, I can only take them on faith...
...My suspicion is that many Catholics are stuck between Catholic idealism and Nietzschean realism, wanting to trust the angels of their better nature, but fearing that the gospel is not true and hedging their bets just to be on the safe side...
...My life is comfortable and privileged and my sacrifices are anything but dramatic...
...What if, after all, power decides, might makes right, and idealism and notions about people's inherent dignity are just wishful thinking...
...I haven't embraced voluntary poverty...
...In some ways, I feel that my life as it is now sells my ideals short...
...teaching of the church did not make me feel any less compassion for women in the terrible situation of contemplating an abortion, but it did challenge my notion of when life begins and what it entails (when understood in the context of God's love...
...It's so easy to talk a good game of ideals (going to church, supporting good causes, saying the right words) while looking the other way and relying on our military's pulverizing might and U.S...
...May your tenebrific spirit (Rank fruit of wrath and flight) Be freed from endless darkness Into Christ's transfigured light...
...to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan— to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations...
...It was one thing to think of a radical, self-sacrificial commitment as a twenty-three-year-old seminarian...
...I believe this is the cosmic plan, and I struggle mightily to live my life accordingly...
...I am not a social activist...
...Moreover, it puts me in touch with experiences (challenges) that many share and that I otherwise would have missed: marriage, parenting, providing for and protecting one's family, pursuing a career...
...In November he will vote by absentee ballot...
...with charity for all...
...At the same time, I've been waiting for a Catholic Lincoln to make his appearance, someone who combines political realism with conscience and the ability to call the American people to their better nature...
...I am not living a life of sacrificial service to the poor...
...However, the waters got stirred along the way, and integrating my personal beliefs and political choices has proved to be anything but easy...
...Catholicism, while continuing to have great influence on my political views, has not, by itself, supplied the neat integration of life and ideals I had hoped for...
...I don't doubt that the dangers we face are real or the steps we must take to preserve this nation will be harsh...
...It is something else altogether to do so as a thirty-eight-year-old married man who wants to respect the views of his non-Catholic wife, materially provide for his two young children, and find his own way in a world full of risks...
...I did not become a priest...
...Life would be easier if I knew for sure that it was all going to work out in the end...
...And what if what the church teaches isn't true...
...Timothy P. Schilling writes from the Center for Parish Spirituality, Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
...bishops' pastoral letters on the economy, nuclear arms, and capital punishment...
...Then shouldn't we just get real and stop kidding ourselves and make sure that America remains a strong, safe, and prosperous country...
...I felt right at home, for example, with the U.S...
...We are in the midst of a "war" on terrorism that threatens much of what we hold dear...
Vol. 131 • June 2004 • No. 11
