I have very good friends who are upset about it…

…but I’m just not feeling it.  I speak, of course, of Cdl. Dolan welcoming Obama to the Al Smith Dinner.

I see it described as “eating with the enemy”, “scandalous”, etc.

The same things were said, for similar reasons, when Jesus ate with known enemies of God.  We forget that tax collectors and prostitutes were not charming Dickensian rogues with hearts of gold.  They were regarded as scum by decent people because they often *were* scum: collaborators with an occupying military power, homewreckers, thieves who assisted in the oppression of an already oppressed people.  In eating with them, Jesus extended the hand of fellowship to a lot of crap nasty people who had given not one sign of repentance in many cases.

So I have no big issue with Cdl. Dolan eating with this enemy of the Church.  God commends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Cdl. Dolan’s welcome of Obama at table seems to me to be an eminently Christian gesture.  It in no way acknowledges that Obama’s policy is okay.  It merely acknowledges that a) he is to be honored for his office and b) that he is loved by God.  Works for me.