A symbol of Catholic piety comforted at least one person during the tense moments when President Obama and his top advisors watched and waited for news during the operation that ultimately killed Osama bin Laden. From the New York Times:
On Sunday afternoon, as the helicopters raced over Pakistani territory, the president and his advisers gathered in the Situation Room of the White House to monitor the operation as it unfolded. Much of the time was spent in silence. Mr. Obama looked “stone faced,” one aide said. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. fingered his rosary beads. “The minutes passed like days,” recalled John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief.
Read the full article here.
He has many failings but has a consistent knack of representing his inner faith in greater moments.
I am glad that the rosary beads were there, grace can be found in all situations.
He has a conscience and has a humanity that will probably only be recognzed when he is dead.
How many catholics are literally holding on by the beads?
It is unfortunate that the author of this article hold up this fictional NY Times account as authentic. This is a classic overdone Hollywood group mobilization effort on the part of the NY Timesx reporters to gain more Caholics support for the strike against bin Laden. Catholics do not need be manipulated. The President's actions are understood, supported and praised by Catholics on their merits. As Commander and Chief he has acted boldly, decisively, and very effectively. No phony group appeal or identity politics ploy is needed. Such fakery by the NY Times reporters is an insult to Catholics. Catholics are no longer the huddled masses waiting for instructions from elites on how to act or think. If Catholics are to be appealed to in a news article let it be on the rational merits and not ficitonal accounts of outlandish piety in the middle of a serious military action taht require the full attention of all participating leaders including the Vice President.
This piety is the same false piety of a person seeing a religious image in their French toast at breakfast. It makes Caholics look like fools and this is not a ture representation of what Catholics are or should be about.
I am really and truly digging your cynicism ,but miracles happen .
If I was in his shoes and had lived through what he had lived through i think
that the cosmic would enter the narrative very quickly . Fulton Sheen spoke of many great men who fumbled with a rosary in their time.If Pascal and Pasteur can do so why not Biden??
Biden is more cathlolic than Weigel , Gringich and Santorum could even dream of being .
False piety?I got a masterclass on Sunday.But Biden?No ,this guy can safely leave his rosary at home .He has reached the end of the line in political terms.
It was Biden who noted that the real deal was in Pakistan.Obama and all Americans should be proud to have men like Biden on the team.
French toast? Great example but many catholics ,including me,carry their rosary to big ocassions.
I would love to hear your response, as I loved your first statemeent.
P
More importantly, we as Catholics, I believe, are called upon to CHALLENGE this culture of "take-no-enemies" political rhetoric. Too often we engage in the WORST of it. Some of the things people (I assume all practicing, informed Catholics) write on here about other PEOPLE is amazing. We should stick to ARGUMENTS, not attack people.
Finally, the notion that OBL was "assassinated" is total myth. See No. 8 below:
http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/top-ten-myths-about-bin-ladens-death.html
Thanks for the response and I agree with your outlook on superstitions and the need for faith to be rooted in reason.
However, I think that the New York Times is this time probably not lying.Like David Smith said he may be using them as worry beads and fingering them.
The actor Martin Sheen does this and the sharpest and shrewdest man I have ever met in my life also has the practise.Do you rank the Rosary as a superstition?
Like Jeff Landry I too am comforted by the "disputed fact". It is a fallen world and those who have an Adamic vision will never see things for what they are.
@Maria,I never said the guy was a Saint.As you know, I set the bar high :).
Superstition cnn be defined as any blindly accepted belief or notion according to the Random House Dictionary where the example given of this word useage is "He accepted the superstition that the party was always right." This agrees with my observation of a non-critical acceptance that Joe Biden is prying at a super crtical realtime maontoring of a realtime military action. As the picture above shows everyone in the room is glued to the TV action. Yet we are to belive that Joe Biden alone becasue he is a Catholic is less fully engaed and is praying. This is not credible.
I do not beleive he would be doing his job by not paying 100% attention to what was going on and I think Biden is professional enough to know it is not prayer time. One is not called to the Siduation Room to pray. Something crtical is going on which everyone must be completely focused on. Prayer at this time is fales piety that no serious person would do. It is not time to pray.
Superstition cnn be defined as any blindly accepted belief or notion according to the Random House Dictionary where the example given of this word useage is "He accepted the superstition that the party was always right." This agrees with my observation of a non-critical acceptance that Joe Biden is prying at a super crtical realtime maontoring of a realtime military action. As the picture above shows everyone in the room is glued to the TV action. Yet we are to belive that Joe Biden alone becasue he is a Catholic is less fully engaed and is praying. This is not credible.
Biden would not be doing his job by paying less than 100% attention to what was going on and I think Biden is professional enough to know it is not prayer time. One is not called to the Siduation Room to pray. Something crtical is going on which everyone must be completely focused on. Prayer is wonderful but at this crtical time it would be fales piety that no serious person would do. It was not time to pray for anyone.
I assume at the time the picture was taken, the attack was under way and as such scant little any one of those people in the room could do at that moment BUT pray. Besides, and I mean this in no disrespect to Biden personally, but I'm pretty sure the Vice-President of the US is the least important person in the room.
Of course I have no idea what Vice President Biden's prayer life is like, nor is it really my business. But I have no cause to doubt his sincerity, and without cause to doubt it behooves me to be more ready to accept his sincerity than to condemn it. Nor do I question the sincerity of President G.W. Bush's faith, much as I may disagree with much of what he has said and done. You don't have to like any politician to accept the sincerity of their faith.