![\"\"](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SN29tyAGt_I\/AAAAAAAADCs\/DCp72vbeDXE\/s320\/20080926kurtz02.jpg\")
<\/a>This is an election year, and once again bishops face questions about how to deal with Catholic politicians whose positions are at odds with church teaching. If Joe Biden, for example, campaigns in Louisville one Sunday and goes to Mass, will he get Communion?<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t prepared either way, because he\u2019s not a parishioner here. I have not given specific instructions with regard to Communion [for politicians]. \u2026 My primary approach has been that if there is a politician who is Catholic within the archdiocese, and whose positions are counter to church teachings, the proper moment to deal with that is in personal conversation, giving that politician the opportunity to help shape his or her conscience.<\/p>\n
What do you make of the recent flap over comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden over Catholic teaching on when life begins?<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m not at all unhappy when a baptized person takes seriously his or her responsibility to learn about the faith and to communicate it to others. When anyone does that inaccurately, however, the bishop has a special responsibility as the chief teacher to point it out. \u2026 It\u2019s not the question of who has the mantle to speak for the church that I\u2019m most concerned about, but doing it accurately.<\/p>\n
The bishops have placed a discussion of abortion and politics on the agenda for the November meeting. What do you expect?
<\/span>
Sharing best practices. I always like to hear from other bishops, in a very free way, about the situations that have confronted them pastorally. The primary thrust needs to be, even in canon law, not something that\u2019s punitive but something that really is remedial, that reaches out and helps people to form their conscience.<\/p>\nYou don\u2019t see the need for new policies?<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t. I\u2019ll be listening for very solid pastoral approaches.<\/p>\n
Finally, you\u2019re preaching to the Catholic Coalition on Preaching this week, which has to be a bit daunting. Any tips on good preaching?<\/span><\/p>\n[Jesuit Fr.] Walter Burghardt said that the gift of dynamic, zealous preaching is rarely given to the lazy. Preparation, becoming a student of the word, is essential. On the other hand, I also got some great advice when I entered the seminary, which was, \u2018Never let a retreat director ruin a perfectly good retreat.\u2019 There\u2019s something in that tension that\u2019s good for a preacher to know. Yes, we should prepare, but we shouldn\u2019t take ourselves so seriously that we\u2019re not aware the Word of God itself is effective. \u2026 Don\u2019t think that the only variable is your words, and don\u2019t make yourself more important than you really are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If you visit the NCR link, it will take you a text of the entire interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What’s it like for a priest from Pennsylvania to become an archbishop in Kentucky? John Allen has a pretty interesting interview with Louisville’s Joseph Kurtz, in which he talks about southern Catholicism, the importance of vocations — he’s a real rainmaker in that department — preaching, and politicians: This is an election year, and once…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-art-of-preaching","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\n
"The gift of dynamic, zealous preaching is rarely given to the lazy" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/the-gift-of-dynamic-zealous-preaching-is-rarely-given-to-the-lazy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The gift of dynamic, zealous preaching is rarely given to the lazy" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What’s it like for a priest from Pennsylvania to become an archbishop in Kentucky? John Allen has a pretty interesting interview with Louisville’s Joseph Kurtz, in which he talks about southern Catholicism, the importance of vocations — he’s a real rainmaker in that department — preaching, and politicians: This is an election year, and once…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/the-gift-of-dynamic-zealous-preaching-is-rarely-given-to-the-lazy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-27T00:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SN29tyAGt_I\/AAAAAAAADCs\/DCp72vbeDXE\/s320\/20080926kurtz02.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The gift of dynamic, zealous preaching is rarely given to the lazy\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/the-gift-of-dynamic-zealous-preaching-is-rarely-given-to-the-lazy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The gift of dynamic, zealous preaching is rarely given to the lazy\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"What’s it like for a priest from Pennsylvania to become an archbishop in Kentucky? 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}