Failure to Grasp the Concept

Fr. Erik Richsteig tells this unusual story about Catholics who appear not to be 100% tuned in to the teaching of the Church:

So, I get back from the barber today. As soon as I walk through the door, I am told that I need to have my secretary tell me about the phone call that came in while I was out: “Excuse me, do priests still do circumcisions?” Oy veh, someone thinks I am a moyle. (Maybe I should stop wearing the zuccetto.)

Meanwhile, somebody else sends me a link to something called “Catholics Against Circumcision“. I have no quarrel with the claim that Catholics are not obliged to be circumcised. Of course, we aren’t.

However, I do not that, in their zeal against their particular bugaboo, Catholics Against Circumcision is opting to call it “mutilation”. Here’s the thing: Catholics who want to engage in serious inter-religious conversation with Jews would probably do well not to start the conversation by calling the central Jewish rite of fidelity to the Old Covenant “mutilation”. Jews sort of get the impression that you respect neither them, nor the patriarchs.

As Catholics, we are quite free to say that we are not bound to be circumcised. And it’s quite true there’s no medical necessity for it. But when we turn our liberty into the denigration of the Patriarchs and the Jews, we cross a line.