{"id":3155,"date":"2008-04-29T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/egan-and-rudy-part-deux.html"},"modified":"2008-04-29T13:02:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T13:02:00","slug":"egan-and-rudy-part-deux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/egan-and-rudy-part-deux.html","title":{"rendered":"Egan and Rudy, Part Deux"},"content":{"rendered":"

The controversy swirling around Rudy Giuliani receiving communion at St. Patrick’s just won’t stop. <\/p>\n

The latest to weigh in is Phil Lawler at CWN<\/a>, who notes: <\/p>\n

In his public rebuke to Rudy Giuliani for improperly receiving Communion during Pope Benedict’s visit to New York, Cardinal Edward Egan raised two subtle but very interesting points. First, the cardinal says that Giuliani should not receive the Eucharist because of his support for legal abortion; he does not base his argument on Giuliani’s irregular marital status. Second, the cardinal reveals that he had reached a quiet agreement with Giuliani. The former New York mayor violated that agreement– apparently for his own political purposes. <\/p>\n

But before discussing those rather subtle aspects of Cardinal Egan’s message, let’s begin with the obvious. Cardinal Egan deserves praise and thanks for his public statement, in which he shows himself to be a leader, a teacher, and a pastor of souls. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on in that vein. You’ll want to read the rest. But I’m left with a curious feeling of dissatisfaction over this whole mess. <\/p>\n

The simple fact is: Egan could indeed be considered a “leader, a teacher, and a pastor of souls” — if he had addressed this issue more than a week ago, when it happened. He didn’t. The event was widely noted (and seen on national television, with Rudy chomping on the Body of Christ as he wandered down the aisle) and the good Cardinal said nothing. He only responded after he was challenged on the issue by a nationally syndicated columnist. <\/p>\n

If Robert Novak had never written on the subject, would Egan have said anything? <\/p>\n

I have to wonder.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> The Anchoress has some remarkably sensible thoughts<\/a> on this matter: <\/p>\n

There are lots of ways to scandalize a church or to desecrate the Holy Eucharist, and many people who are not public figures commune \u201cunworthilly.\u201d As near as I could tell Giuliani was the only one of the recipient pols caught on television cameras. I have to be honest, when I saw it, I thought, \u201che\u2019s not supposed to be doing that\u2026\u201d but I also thought his mien and demeanor, his whole attitude was serious, thoughtful and yes, reverent – moreso than some of the others participating. I knew I was right smack dab in the middle of an abiding Mystery. <\/p>\n

In the Apostles Creed, we\u2019re told that Jesus \u201cdescended into hell\u201d before he rose. In communion He descends into the hell of our own lives – all of our confusion, all of our sins those declared and those unfaced, all of our doubt, all of our love and our hate, all of our fear, our conscience, our deepest longings and our conscious and sub-conscious minds; our very souls – Jesus descends into it, and then we rise with Him. His very Blood courses through our veins. <\/p>\n

This cannot leave us unchanged. Even if outwardly, we seem the same, inwardly, we have been penetrated. Some of us are very, very thick-walled; some of us have built astounding fortresses and battlements within us, and Jesus may very well want to go head-to-head, one-on-one so to speak, to tumble them. To descend into our personal \u201chells\u201d in order to help us rise from them. He is, after all, the Divine Physician. Paul gave us an ideal and a basis for law. But Jesus has always been – ultimately – bigger than all of it.<\/p>\n

And so, no\u2026for all that I accept the validity of those crying \u201cscandal,\u201d I cannot cry it myself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest of her post and see what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The controversy swirling around Rudy Giuliani receiving communion at St. Patrick’s just won’t stop. The latest to weigh in is Phil Lawler at CWN, who notes: In his public rebuke to Rudy Giuliani for improperly receiving Communion during Pope Benedict’s visit to New York, Cardinal Edward Egan raised two subtle but very interesting points. First,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacraments","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nEgan and Rudy, Part Deux - 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\/04\/egan-and-rudy-part-deux.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Egan and Rudy, Part Deux - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The controversy swirling around Rudy Giuliani receiving communion at St. Patrick’s just won’t stop. 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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\/3155","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=3155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}