And that, in my opinion, is a very good thing. Here is a transcript of the Archbishop's recent appearance on Hugh Hewitt's radio program. And here is an excerpt:
HH: Now Archbishop, let’s dive into the book. Again, for the benefit of people tuning in, it’s Render Unto Caesar: Serving The Nation By Living Our Catholic Beliefs In Public Life. And I want to emphasize, it’s not just for Catholics, though that’s obviously the intent of this. I was trying to figure out your motive, and then I came across a quote from a Vietnamese bishop, later made a cardinal, which was, “The greatest failure in leadership is for the leader to be afraid to speak and act as leader.” Is that part of the motive, Archbishop?
CC: Well, I have a responsibility as a bishop to clearly proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when people don’t want me to do that, and even when it’s difficult. So I wouldn’t claim to be particularly courageous, but I feel responsible. And if I don’t speak on the issues that I think the Lord calls me to speak, I feel guilty about that. So for me to be quiet on these issues would have been a harder burden for me to carry, perhaps, than speaking about it. Actually, I mentioned two reasons why I wrote the book. One is some Catholic political folks asked me to, people who ran for office, and were having struggles because of that. But more importantly, I’ve grown tired of so many people in our culture saying to believers that they ought to be quiet, that there’s no place in the public square for the voice of faith. I wanted to make a distinction between separation of Church and state, and separating our faith from our politics. You can embrace the concept of separation of Church and state, but that’s not at all the same thing as separating our faith from our actions, from our political actions.
HH: Was it times to appear prior to the presidential election consciously?
CC: Well, people have asked me that. You know, I finished the book a year ago this month, and gave it to Doubleday, and it takes a long time for it to get through the process of being published. I personally had hoped that it would come out in the early spring so it wouldn’t be seen as something that was aimed particularly at this election. But the publisher is the one who controls that. And some people have told me they think it’s a blessing both in terms of the message of the book, and for the people of our time, for the people of this moment, that it’s coming out this close to the election.
HH: You know, I think it’s going to discomfort not just liberals, but a lot of conservatives as well. I don’t think you could pigeonhole this as a conservative or liberal book, and I’ve been through it in quite detail. I hope that’s what your assessment is.
CC: Well, you know, people sometimes pigeonhole me as a conservative, and I hope what I am is a Catholic. And I preach the Gospel honestly without compromise, and that cuts to the right and to the left, because the Truth is supposed to set all of us free from our parties and from our prejudices or whatever. So I think people who want to follow the Gospel will offend people on all sides of the political spectrum.
Read the entire transcript.
Order a copy of Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.
HH: Archbishop, I want to begin with Chapter 4 here in hour number two, A Tale of Two Bishops. Explain for our audience who Archbishop Rummel is, and the example he set for the leadership of the Church in difficult political situations.
CC: Archbishop Rummel was the archbishop of New Orleans, Louisiana at the time when our country was dealing with the very serious issue of segregation. And during his service as a bishop, he desegregated the Catholic schools in Louisiana, and really was a hero in terms of civil rights issues. And some of the Catholic leaders in his community, political leaders, decided to oppose him, especially when it came to the issue of desegregating Catholic schools. And eventually, because of their public opposition to this basic teaching of our Church about the dignity of all individuals, regardless of racial differences, he eventually excommunicated three of them. And at that time, he was considered a hero in many sections of our country. Of course, he was disliked very much by others. But the New York Times, for example, ran an editorial praise of this man’s courage for dealing with this moral issue in such a public way.
HH: I mean, he actually excommunicated them.
CC: He actually did.
HH: Now explain for our audience what that means, you know, if they’re not Catholic, and they’ve never even been inside of the Church. What’s excommunicate mean? Is it a fine? What’s it mean?
CC: Well, to excommunicate somebody means that you tell them that they should no longer receive Communion. Ex means out, and communication means communion. And so if you don’t, if you aren’t in communion, in agreement in your mind and heart with what the Church teaches, the Church can, through its leaders, formally state that you’re no longer in communion with the Church. It’s not saying someone’s going to hell, that they’re damned. It’s just that they’re living a lie for their taking positions that have led them outside of the communion of the Church. And that’s what we was saying about those folks. If they favored racial segregation, if they were discriminatory in what they thought and what they did, then they couldn’t claim to be in communion with the Catholic Church, because we don’t believe that.
HH: You know, I did not know this story, and it’s really kind of shocking to me that that happened, and that I didn’t know about it. Have you ever excommunicated someone?
CC: No, I haven’t.