Kudos

I am a regular critic of the Roman Catholic Church. However, today I have to applaud the faculty of Jesuit Georgetown University. They have broken the usual tacit peace between Catholic institutions and any Catholic politician on the national scene to serve the political interests of the Catholic Church, which are considerable. The Catholic Church receives a considerable amount of Federal and state funding in the United States. 

The Georgetown faculty have scolded Congressman Paul Ryan for representing his Libertarian budget, the standard for the Republican Party, as Christian and consistent with Catholicism. The Georgetown rebuke suggested that Ryan's ideas are more Ayn Rand than Jesus Christ. Bravo.

This behavior of Church versus State is the whole point of the Constitutional separation of Church and State. Religion could be a valuable check or balancing influence on government, as opposed to being a manipulator of government, as it has become since the 1980s. The gospel of corporate welfare for non-profits, which churches are, has corrupted this separation and its positive function in society. Sadly, part of the motivation of the rebuke of Ryan may be related to the cuts in parts of the Federal budget which most benefit Catholic institutions which are subsidized by tax dollars. Whatever the motivation, it is refreshing to see this assertion of the truly Christian message against an exploiter of religion for political and financial gain.