The Faith and Joy of Russert

As a fellow son of the Jesuits, I'm humbled by the generosity he's bestowed upon us all. It will surely take an exceptional individual to fill The Shoes of the Irishman.

Ms. Quinn, as a Catholic I will say that you would have shown much more respect for Mr. Russert & his faith if you had not taken Holy Communion. Holy Communion is for those who are in Communion with the Church. In other words, a person who has received the Sacraments to come into the Church, one who is faithful to ALL the teachings & beliefs of the Church. Since you are not a Catholic, you are not in Communion with the Church. Those of us who are should not take the Eucharist or Holy Communion if they are in mortal sin. I am sure there are those who do, but I am not in God's business of saying who is worthy/not worthy of receiving it. So I tried to put in simple terms, why a non-Catholic should never receive Holy Communion.

Wow! You are a really self-centered individual. If you went to a native american ceremony, would you run around taking snapshots? Would you put on black face and go to a gospel church? I would hope not. But, when it comes to the Catholic church, respect and manners go out the door. You taking-TAKING-communion does not diminish or change the sacrament that I participate in. But it sure says a lot about you and what kind of person you are. All Catholics have gone to communion when we ought not to-it is our obligation to recognize those times and go to confession. To give scandal, to confuse people, deliberately-or even just to spread ignorance without concern is a horrible thing. The rabbis said the punishment was to take a feather pillow, climb to the highest point in town, and tear open the pillow. Then the gossip was to collect all the feathers. Sister Sally, you know what to do-will you accept the challenge?

As a life-long practicing Catholic and a certified Catechist in the Church, I have a problem with anyone who is not in accordance with Church teachings who takes it upon themselves to receive the host at Mass. Example: when my daughter was Confirmed in 2004, my husband, a convert, was at the time engaging in adultery with a married co-worker and in a state of mortal sin. I knew it. I asked him to not partake in Communion at the Confirmation Mass. I said that since his faith (which he had rejected at that time under the guise of "keeping him obligated to rules that had kept him from being 'happy'") meant so little to him, it still meant a lot to me and his daughter, and would he refrain from taking the host. He did it anyway, to show me his disdain for any kind of "rules." I felt nauseated when he did it, and our daughter was shocked and sickened by his action. We are now divorced, and I am in the process of an annulment of the covenant we entered into when we were married in the Catholic Church. I have spoken to my Bishop about continuing to receive Communion during the process. Ms. Quinn seems to think that receiving the host during Tim Russert's funeral Mass was okay, since it was done to support him and his family and for her to feel closer to Tim. Sorry, Sally, the faithful take Communion to feel closer to God, not a person. In "communion" with the Almighty. Any other use is a sin and a sacrilege and a slap in the face to those who view it as a holy act. Those who partake for the 'experience' are not showing proper respect for it. Catholics view Communion as a sacred act because it is consecrated to God. It shows irreverence to God to do otherwise.

It would seem that she is not the only person to be pilloried for being disrespectful to a cracker - http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php

Prof. Myers has received death threats for this particular blog entry and a witch hunt is being put together by the Catholic League to have him fired - http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1459

Wow a lot of people need some real mental help! Maybe they can mix in some prozac with the wafer this Sunday, you could all use it!

Look, someone who doesn't even regularly attend church was so overcome by grief at the loss of a close friend that she looked for solace in the arms of a church and a God who had meant so much to her friend. She didn't come marching down the aisle of the church clashing cymbals, stride to the altar, throw the wafer on the ground, and piss on it. She came to the Table, well aware that she was an outsider, but desperately seeking to experience divine mercy. And then she had the audacity to publicly announce that she, in her greatest moment of need, had found comfort in the arms of God.

Perhaps some of you should reread the Gospels with particular attention to persistent outsiders. Especially the ones who were initially turned away, such as the Syrophoenician woman, blind Bartimaeus, and the man with the withered hand. Seems that Jesus may have thought mercy and healing were more important than religious tradition. Perhaps some of you should take the hint...

Doing something that is against the rules of a church is simply disrespectful. As a "Christ Follower" I only have one thought for you: You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, DO YOU ROB TEMPLES? ” ROM.2:22 - , I'M SURE TIM'S RESPECT FOR OTHER FAITHS WOULD NOT ALLOW HIM TO DO WHAT YOU DID. I HAVE RELATIVES WHO ARE CATHOLIC AND WHEN I ATTEND A SERVICE AT THEIR CHURCH I HAVE RESPECT FOR THEIR FAITH BY FOLLOWING THEIR RULES. A REAL LOVE FOR TIM WOULD RESPECT HIS RELIGION, NOT GRANDSTAND TO FILL A VOID IN THE NEWS CYCLE- THINK ON THAT MISS Q

Ms. Quinn should know that by taking communion at Tim Russert's funeral Mass that she committed a sacrilidge against the beliefs of Roman Catholics. No doubt her error was unknowing, although the priest should have pointed our the rules to the many non-Catholics present at Russert's Mass. According to the Catholic Church, Communion is available only to Roman Catholics who have made their first communions, are not in a state of mortal sin, and have fasted for one hour. Anti-Catholics often point to these rules as an example of exclusivism, or to say that Catholics are better than non-Catholics. Not true. The Catholic church believes that the Eucharist is the true body and true blood of Jesus Christ, as Jesus himself states in John chapter 6. Communion has always been limited to those in agreement with this belief, which is exclusive to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. As St. Paul says, those who take communion carelessly put their souls in serious danger. Communion is not available to non-Catholics who want an interesting experience. Although Sally Quinn probably was not aware of the Catholic Church's rules, she should apologize for her sacrilidge. Then I recommend that she read up on Catholicism in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and not rely on other's interpretations of it. Even Mr. Russert had it wrong.

Patrick Sarsfield wrote, "Specifically, Jesus founded a single church and gave it the power to bind and loose. That Church has made clear that a requirement for receiving communion is that one be in communion with the Church. Is that binding on God? Only if He is true to His Word for He said to the head of the Church at the time of his appointment...."

And we know the answer to that one, too:

"For I am the LORD, I do not change...." Malachi 3:6

"God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" ~Numbers 23:19

In other words, GOD doesn't do givesies-takesies like a snotty little girl on the playground.

As for Kimberly's objection to where the Bible talks about "only Catholics" receiving the Blessed Sacrament:

1. The Bible isn't an owner's manual--but, as the venerable convert, Cardinal John Henry Newman pointed out so beautifully, "The Sacred Text was *never* intended to teach doctrine but only to *prove* it and, that, if we would learn doctrine, we must have recourse to the formularies of the Church, for uinstance, to the Catachism and to the Creeds." ~Apologia Pro VBita Sua, 1

2. In their wildest nightmares, the Apostles never foresaw anything so heinous and violent as the Protestant revolt and the subsequent rearing up of the Fifth Pillar--it would never have even occured to them to make the distinction between Catholics and denominationalists as, in the beginning, there was only one Holy Church, undefiled, unmolested and without envy by arrogant men. That said, there can be no doubt that the canonical instruction of the Apostles are indeed directed to those who remain in His Church under His established priesthood, without running off like wild, scattered sheep looking for new more novel pastures to chew up and....you know....

Folks,
Why would a person who thinks that the discussion of religion is stupid waste his/her time writing something like this:

"Everybody see how stupid this is? The "One Church". The "True Church". Orthodox. Reform. Catholic. Protestant. Transubstantiation. Communion for all. Communion only for those baptized. Communion only for confirmed Catholics. "received...and driven away."

That last one sums it up for me. I was driven away decades ago and frankly my life is better for it.

Ms. Quinn, you would've been better off remaining an atheist and keeping your butt in the pew. Now you're on the sh*t list of hundreds of millions."

Is it that Milsapians has a mission to save Sally Quinn from either religion or obloquy? Or is it that he/she just wants to take a shot at religionists for supposedly being stupid? Whatever. Milsapians post is an emotive dump of some sort.

Everybody see how stupid this is? The "One Church". The "True Church". Orthodox. Reform. Catholic. Protestant. Transubstantiation. Communion for all. Communion only for those baptized. Communion only for confirmed Catholics. "received...and driven away."

That last one sums it up for me. I was driven away decades ago and frankly my life is better for it.

Ms. Quinn, you would've been better off remaining an atheist and keeping your butt in the pew. Now you're on the sh*t list of hundreds of millions.

Kim writes:

"Jesus came to fulfill the Law, to do away with Mosaic, legalistic stuff. He wanted to make it simple to know and love God.

Instead of condeming Sally, how about you share your love with her. And share your love of God with her, your testimony of how you came to believe in Christianity. I believe that's what Jesus told us to do."

Kim, try not to be so self-righteous and assured in your ignorance.

It is not "complicated or legalistic" to commit yourself to obeying Christ and preparing to receive Holy Communion. We are not talking about memorizing the Talmud here...

As for the message of Christ, He came to bring not peace but, the sword to render all men asunder from the deceptions of satan.

He also stated that the gates of Hell are wide compared to the gates of Heaven and that we should not throw pearls before swine.

Sally did not attempt commune with Christ, she attempted to commune with Tim and her journalistic ego.

This was a grave and deliberate act so spare us your liberal misinterpretation of the Scripture and your PC relativism.

Everybody see how stupid this is? The "One Church". The "True Church". Orthodox. Reform. Catholic. Protestant. Transubstantiation. Communion for all. Communion only for those baptized. Communion only for confirmed Catholics. "received...and driven away."

That last one sums it up for me. I was driven away decades ago and frankly my life is better for it.

Ms. Quinn, you would've been better off remaining an atheist and keeping your butt in the pew. Now you're on the sh*t list of hundreds of millions.

Folks,
Kimberly asks:
"And where in The Bible does Jesus say "Only Catholics take and eat..."

In the same place it says that Jesus was not going to found a multiplicity of churches, just one. IOW, although the specific language you demand does not appear in the Bible, the proposition can be read inferentially from what Jesus did say and from the subsequent action of the Church in reliance on the authority Christ entrusted to it.

Specifically, Jesus founded a single church and gave it the power to bind and loose. That Church has made clear that a requirement for receiving communion is that one be in communion with the Church. Is that binding on God? Only if He is true to His Word for He said to the head of the Church at the time of his appointment: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 16:18-20). If one believes in God and in Christ and in what He said in the Bible, then one ought to listen to the Church. Matt. 18:17.

Ms. Quinn,

I'm not sure if you realized this so I won't belabor the point, and seeing as you may not have known I won't get angry with you. However, for your future reference, it is considered sacrilege by the Catholic Church for a nonCatholic to receive the Holy Eucharist. So, please, in the future, do not receive communion in a Catholic Church unless you are Catholic when you do it.

Thanks,
Joe

Micki Traci wrote:

"Kimberly wrote: "If you know love, you know God."

"What a load of wishy-washy, pansy-handed, lukewarm, lackwitted crap."

Kimebrly's response:
1 Corinthians 8:3 (New American Standard Bible)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

"3but if anyone loves God, he (A)is known by Him."

So, I guess St. Paul wrote "wishy-washy, pansy-handed, lukewarm, lackwitted crap?" wow. Notify the vatican to remove both books of Corinthians. Plus Romans, and Timothy, et al.

And where in The Bible does Jesus say "Only Catholics take and eat..."

Mark 14 -
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat;[b] this is My body.”
23 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new[c] covenant, which is shed for many.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law, to do away with Mosaic, legalistic stuff. He wanted to make it simple to know and love God.

Instead of condeming Sally, how about you share your love with her. And share your love of God with her, your testimony of how you came to believe in Christianity. I believe that's what Jesus told us to do.

Maybe her taking communion at Tim's funeral is a step toward understanding God's love and if that's so, then I applaud and support her decision.

if you dont share your privacy, Sally Quinn, who shall be connected to each other? Queen Elizabeth has purchased McDonalds, Guler Sabanci has practised what she permitted on herself and has comprehended. and this is not Gulliver's Adventures! this is Egyptian Medication, of Akhineton, of Nathan, of Globe, of Abraham, of Islam, of Internationality, of God.

jazz.intext.googlepages.com/vesairvesait.txt

An aside to Radar:

"Which one would you call the original church? Which one was 'founded in 1054'? Aren't they both branches growing off the original tree trunk?"

Um, you totally missed this one.

The Patriarch of Constantinople was declared *anthema* via presentation of Papal Bull to His own high altar(and by virtue of allegiance, so were all his followers) by envoy to the Holy See of Rome in 1054 because of his/their refusal to admit doctrinally that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, GOD and, therefore, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Nothing was "founded", no "branch" grew out of the trunk of the one true Vine--there was a *schism* by men who thought they knew better than those on whom Christ had laid His mantle of authority (a sad fact which continues to this day...), plain and simple. Even the Eastern Othorodox Study Bible (which I am looking at right now--pp 788-791, specifically) and other Orthodox study tools for parochial school students K-12 admits this fact!!! If children are taught this and understand its import, then surely a grown man can comprehend hostory in black and white!

...This is what happens when people start rewriting history to fit their own prejudices and selfish desires--they always end up spreading falshoods....

...And this is why I for one will always defend the only Church Christ establish and gave His authority, and Him Crucified--including the sacred separation of the Blessed Sacrament from those who do not perceive Him there....

An aside to Radar:

"Which one would you call the original church? Which one was 'founded in 1054'? Aren't they both branches growing off the original tree trunk?"

Um, you totally missed this one.

The Patriarch of Constantinople was declared *an anthema* via presentation of Papal Bull to His own high altar(and by virtue of allegiance, so were all his followers) by envoy to the Holy See of Rome in 1054 because of his/their refusal to admit doctrinally that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, GOD and, therefore, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Nothing was "founded", no "branch" grew out of the trunk of the one true Vine--there was a *schism* by men who thought they knew better than those on whom Christ had laid His mantle of authority (a sad fact which continues to this day...), plain and simple. Even the Eastern Othorodox Study Bible (which I am looking at right now--pp 788-791, specifically) and other Orthodox study tools for parochial school students K-12 admits this fact!!! If children are taught this and understand its import, then surely a grown man can comprehend hostory in black and white!

...This is what happens when people start rewriting history to fit their own prejudices and selfish desires--they always end up spreading falshoods....

...And this is why I for one will always defend the only Church Christ establish and gave His authority, and Him Crucified--including the sacred separation of the Blessed Sacrament from those who do not perceive Him there....

You totally ruined all the good things you said about Tim - when you dissed Catholicism. You aren't stupid Ms. Quinn, you know darn well that non-Catholics shouldn't be receiving communion during Mass. The feeling you had of being in communion with Tim may very well have been a gift from the Lord - but one you TOOK rather than received. Shame on you!

Sally Quinn's reception of Holy Communion at Tim Russert's service was a blasphemy and an insult to Catholics everywhere. And then her juvenile description of receiving the sacrament only added to the insult.
Her writings on "Faith" are a joke. It's obvious she has absolutely no knowledge or sensitivity to any religion, but most certainly not to the Roman Catholic faith.
Go back and read the Baltimore Catechism, Miss Quinn. Maybe this most basic of books will allow you to understand our religion, since it's written for the very young in terms they can understand.
Tim would be ashamed of you.

Folks:
PART TWO OF RESPONSE TO RADAR:
As to your analogy of a bunch of branches off a single tree, there is some validity to that but in the case of Protestantism, those are non-apostolic churches that have rejected the central authority of the Church. It is not up to Christians to take and pick what they want from Christianity and change the rest to their liking.

As to the idea that Celibacy somehow constituted a departure by the Roman Catholics after the 1054 Schism, not so. Both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism had had celibacy for monks going back as far as 300 AD or so and the eastern Orthodox to this day require Celibacy of bishops too. All Roman Catholicism has added is mandatory celibacy throughout the West for secular priests.

The idea that christians are free to ignore the Teaching Authority of the Church and go their own way is hardly what Christ meant when He commissioned the Church to teach all the World (Matt. 28:18-20).

In apostolic times, not even as headstrong a guy as Paul had the chutzpah to reject the central authority of the Council of Jerusalem and Peter, the man who headed up and pronounced the ruling on the question Paul presented, and make up rules for himself. Although he liked to think of himself as the apostle to the Gentiles, he kept his silence when Peter pronounced himself (Acts 15:7-9) the person charged by God with the Mission to the Gentiles and then he accepted the ruling that Peter pronounced (and which even James the Judaizer acknowledged). Paul and Barnabas then carried the letter containing the ruling around to hhis own church of Antioch and to other churches to strengthen those other churches in the One Faith given unto the Apostles (Acts 16:3-5).

Why is it important that the Church speak with a voice and not ten thousand voices? Precisely because we are supposed to listen to the Church (Matt. 18:17), which means we need to know which church is that Church.

Patricksarsfield says:

"How could any church founded in the 16th Century or later (read all protestant churches) be the Church Jesus founded?"

There was originally one Christian church. After a century it split (the Great Schism) into the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church. Each church retained some of the original customs, and changed others. For example, Orthodox churches continued to permit married priests, and Roman Catholics, who once allowed such a practice, made celibacy a requirement.

Which one would you call the original church? Which one was "founded in 1054"? Aren't they both branches growing off the original tree trunk?

Then in the 16th Century, more schism and separation... Many Roman Catholics in Europe reformed some customs, thus becoming "Protestants". The Roman Catholics reacted by holding the hugely important Council of Trent, where refined and revised their rules. Once again, each branch of the tree took some customs, changed others.

The Roman Catholics are not sole owners of original Christianity. They are a part of a large and diffuse religion that has grown in many directions. They change and adapt like all the others. We are all branches sprouting off the original tree.

have been a fan of yours for a long time. you should not have taken communion even as some kind of self serving act of being one with TR.

Folks,
In chiding a Catholic for noting differences between Catholic and Protestant Communion, Another Anonymous notes:

"May we all be reconciled to the essence of the One God who resides beyond, who transcends all names, whose Holy Presence speaks in all tongues and in all rituals."

Amen to that, so far as it goes anyway. If one is a Christian, though, the Transcendent God in whom we monotheists believe inrupted into History by condescending to share our humanity with us in the person of the Man-God Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary. After His Resurrection way back in the First Century AD, He founded a SINGLE Church ("Thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my Church;" (Matt. 16:18 et seq.)not rocks, not churches). That Church was born on the First Christian Pentecost and it has existed ever since.

It is no merely invisible church. To the contrary, it has always had a structure and a commitment to unity through a central Teaching Source as the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1 et seq.) and its aftermath, the first encyclical letter (Acts 15:28-16:5) amply demonstrate. Teaching Authority in that Church has always been passed on by the laying on of hands (Acts 13:1-3; 2 Tim. 1:6, 13, 14-2:2).

So how could any church founded in the 16th Century or later (read all protestant churches) be the Church Jesus founded? Where in the Bible does it say that Jesus delayed a millennium and a half in coming up with His Church?

I did not say God is responsible for all the rituals of the world, but SPEAKS, miraculously and mysteriously, for the just and unjust alike...
That you have awareness of the suttee is a miracle of modern communications, and correction is on its way. Just as we moved beyond witch burning, so will we move beyond widow burning.
God brings correction and forgiveness where man judges them absent.
It might not seem immediate, the correction might not happen entirely within our generation, but God IS present in all ritual, Speaking one way or another, and WILL bring correction to all the errors of this world.
At the center of the resurrection, Jesus said, "forgive them, for they Know not what they do."
None of us knows His ways entirely.

Yeah, Mr. Russert, a faithful and practicing Catholic, almost certainly would have been startled that Ms. Quinn took the Eucharist at his funeral Mass. He probably would have been very gentle and kind about it, but probably would have asked her not to do so again.

Another Anonymous Post, you wrote:

"To suggest that non-Catholic Communion lacks the miraculous blessing of Christ is to deny that faith and miracles can exist outside the Roman Church."

No, it's not. Do you even understand what is being discussed here? Catholics and non-Catholics (except the Eastern Orthodox) don't even CLAIM the same thing about their communion breads. We, for instance, claim that it is not in fact bread after the "miraculous blessing," but only LOOKS like bread, while in reality being JESUS, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, whole and entire, lacking nothing essential to his personhood. Protestants and Evangelicals don't even claim that about theirs. They say that theirs is just a symbol of Jesus, no more, no less. So for us to say that theirs hasn't got that kind of "miraculous blessing" that ours has, but is only a blessing, isn't demeaning them - it's agreeing with them!

"Too many religious groups judge all others as inferior, and history tells us this is one of the greatest failings of our humanity."

Lolol. Too many atheists, agnostics, or vaguely spiritual but religiously unattached persons judge all religious persons to be inferior.

"May we all be reconciled to the essence of the One God who resides beyond, who transcends all names, whose Holy Presence speaks in all tongues and in all rituals."

In all rituals? Before you start waxing sentimental here, let's take this claim seriously. Does the same God who speaks in the Communion "ritual" (a ritual of sharing self-giving love) speak in the suttee ritual (widow-burning)? Come now, let's not be so patronizing, cliche, or trite.

"To remain ignorant of other religions in such a time as ours is to perpetuate the polarizations and divisions that the harshest of these blog entries present."

True.

If Judy Garland is the equivalent of God, does that make Liza Jesus?

To suggest that non-Catholic Communion lacks the miraculous blessing of Christ is to deny that faith and miracles can exist outside the Roman Church.
This is the unfortunate, but natural bias of the uninformed.
Too many religious groups judge all others as inferior, and history tells us this is one of the greatest failings of our humanity.
May we all be reconciled to the essence of the One God who resides beyond, who transcends all names, whose Holy Presence speaks in all tongues and in all rituals.
And may we all be reconciled to one another in the Divine Presence, where we are truly forgiven, and blessed as the Children of God that we are.
To remain ignorant of other religions in such a time as ours is to perpetuate the polarizations and divisions that the harshest of these blog entries present.
Forgiveness, tolerance, kindness - these are among the most difficult lessons in exchanges like these...

First of all, let me say that I have great respect for Mr Russert and do not intend for the following to minimize him, his faith, or the ceremonies & rituals surrounding his recent passing.

I, too heard about Ms. Quinn's entry on Slate.com and must say that even after reading the entire entry, I think her motives and meanings are still as disagreeable as the slate article alludes. I'm not one to say who should and should not receive communion, but to do it as some sort of macabre 'body and blood of Tim' ritual is sad and without meaning and entirely disrespectful of those who put meaning in communion. Who cares that some b-list bloger felt closer to Mr Russert as a part of it, that's not what the ritual is designed to be.

It's also worth noting that not only were her actions disrespectful of her fellow communion-takers, but by mocking the ritual, she could not have put herself farther from Mr Russert, her own silly perceptions notwithstanding.

I thoroughly enjoyed the article "The Faith and Joy of Russert". I tried to print it from my computer but on several attempts it only printed the first page of your tribute. If possible could you please send a hard copy to:

Glad Shulman - 2171 Piccadilly Circus, Naples, Fl 34112

Many thanks.

I 'heard' about Ms. Quinn's receiving communion at Mr. Russert's funeral over at slate.com. I am glad I came here to read the whole post. Having read the whole post, I can see that for Ms. Quinn, taking communion at Mr. Russert's funeral was a private, personal ritual that she made up on the spot, a ritual she devised to say goodbye to her friend. It's nice to have a sense of the personal relationships that can arise among professional colleagues and nice to be assured that 'famous' journalists are human and form human ties with colleagues. I am glad Ms. Quinn enjoyed a fine friendship with Mr. Russert and I am sorry for her loss (the loss of her friend).

HOWEVER, I believe Ms. Quinn was wrong to publicly report, in a blog ostensibly about Faith especially, about her private, personal, made-up ritual. Her private ritual was her own business and she certainly had a right to do it and derive her own meaning from it. . . . but to review her experience like some kind of restaurant or arts review in a public venue. .. that is sacrilege.

How can someone like Ms. Quinn, given the privilege of posting in a blog on Faith, blithely and disrespectfully address a religious ritual that she knows nothing about? It is sacriligious.

Religious rituals have meaning to the practitioners of the faith involved.

Ms. Quinn says she 'took' communion once in an evangelical church. I have never attended an evangelical church nor have I studied the underlying beliefs of 'an evangelical church', although I vaguely believe that there is a wide range of beliefs under the umbrella 'evangelical'. But, having confessed my ignorance of what evangelical communion might mean for evangelical Christians, I think it is safe for me to assume that communion in evangelical churches is a religious ritual based on a foundation of specific religious and spiritual beliefs. I venture to guess that in no Christian church that offers communion is communion some kind of communal snack. I believe communion is always a religious ritual employed to help the faithful sustain an ongoing relationship with their Deity.

I do know about Catholic communion because I was raised in a seriously Catholic home, attending Catholic schools K - 12.

In Catholic parishes, you can't just show up at church and 'take' communion. Communion is a sacrament and you have to take instruction before you are allowed to receive it. Priests, the authorities in Catholic parishes, oversee the instruction, although the classes might be taught by other teachers. Children are expected to memorize prayers and doctrine related to the ritual. It's a big deal.

I am sure it was a big deal to Mr. Russert. I am just about positive that Mr. Russert would have taken religious instruction before he received First Communion. I know Mr. Russert's kind of Irish American Catholic: I am of the same ilk.

When I applied to college, I decided I would escape all things Catholic and go to a non-Catholic university. This was shocking in my clan. Both of my parents and all my aunts and uncles and cousins had gone to Catholic colleges. I graduated high school in 1971 and pretty much left the Catholic church behind that year. I mention this because I am most definitely no longer a Catholic. And I don't have a lot of respect for the Church, although I have a healthy respect for the beliefs. The beliefs of any church are usually pretty good but the institutions, like The Catholic Church, aren't always aligned with their purported beliefs. But that's another story. . . . .

Fantastic! You have captured he spirit of Tim, but more especially, the spirit of Christ living in a Christian. And that shines through...

No, Tim did not wear "Catholic" on his arm, but it was in his heart and spirit, and that is what shone through to everyone who met him, either personally or through the TV media.
Thank you for this article.
God bless,
Geri Hennessey

Since Ms. Quinn's comments to the New Republic indicate that she refuses to acknowledge that she may have made a mistake in receiving communion, a few points from a secular Catholic:

- Yes, you are certainly welcome to participate in a mass.
- No, that does not mean you can participate in any way your feelings dictate is appropriate for personal growth, as would be appropriate in an evangelical service. You cannot, for example, conduct the service. Nor can you offer the Eucharist. Nor can you receive it unless you are in communion with the Church.

You would be, similarly, forbidden entry in many mosques around the world as a non-Muslim, forbidden entry in the Mormon mother church, and denied entry at Mecca. I know, lame, right? Well, them's the rules, regardless of your feelings about what Tim Russert's ghost would have wanted for you--which is no doubt his primary concern.

That these rules seem foreign to you in an indicator of your lack of qualification for your current line of "work."

You people, Ms. Quinn included, are #$%&@! crazy. Mr. Russert was not "a mystery" as someone posted. He was some guy on TV that a lot of people liked and even more people had never heard the name of, now thrust into the hagiography that journalists create for themselves. In typical media fashion, this has taken place with all the grace and dignity of an ad for Pepto-Bismol.

Quinn has now added to the commoditizing of Russert's death by trivializing what practising Catholics do indeed believe to be a religious mystery, then describing it as "slightly nauseat[ing]." (Next up on Tone-Deaf Blogging with Sally Quinn... Is Buddha too fat, or is he just channeling the spirit of Tim Russert?)

The whole spectacle has me, for the first time, finding the conservative wing of Catholicism making some strong points. The experience of death, like the experience of communion, is a moment for humility. It is a pity that Quinn forfeited that moment, for she has lost a chance to experience something actually worth reflecting upon--silently, God willing--and further debased the discourse in the process.

I would like to know if the priest presiding at Tim Russert's funeral Mass made an announcement to the attendees before distributing communion regarding the rules of reception. While one would think that a supposedly intelligent woman such as Ms. Quinn would understand that it is rude for a guest to trample on the rules when visiting the home of another, it would have left no doubt as to how a guest should behave if an announcement had been made. If the announcement was made, then shame on Ms. Quinn for her rude and selfish behavior. If the announcement was not made, then let this be a lesson to all priests and bishops! Clearly Sally Quinn doesn't get it even though Tim Russert explained the meaning of transubstantiation to her. I wonder if she said "Amen" after the priest said "Body of Christ". In case you do not know, Ms. Quinn, "Amen" means "YES, I BELIEVE."

Ms Quinn,
I am deeply saddened and outraged by your contempt for the most precious gift God has given to us, the Eucharist, and your dismissal of our protest. I pray that in time you will realize the pain you have caused us, repent and make proper restitution.

I am utterly appalled at the total lack of disrespect Sally Quinn showed the Catholic faith by partaking in the Communion ritual.

Does she not understand that transubstantiation is the POINT?

She owes the Catholic community a profound apology.

Folks,
Nannywills points out:

"Unfortunately, when I was directed to 'Google' this article, I mistakenly, or not, opened a vicious, hateful blog that purposed to be defending the glorious Eucharist, while in so doing, expressed an ugly, unloving response. The heart of the Eucharist is love and forgiveness, and that is what we are asked to live, for all people."

Nanny is, of course, right in saying that Ms. Quinn's column ought to be addressed in a loving way.

I think what other Catholics have been upset about, though, is that Ms. Quinn herself had shown no sensitivity to the 2000 year-old belief of Catholics that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. Although her article at times expressed honest sentiment about Tim Russert's passing and was otherwise smarmy more than offensive most of the time, it went over the edge and became obnoxious twice when Sally talked about being "nauseated" by receipt of evangelical communion and when she asserted that she nevertheless decided to receive Catholic communion "transubstantiation notwithstanding!"

That type of judgmentalism and callous dismissiveness about others' deeply held beliefs is unfortunate precisely because it is likely to produce the emotional responses it has produced. Ms. Quinn needs to apologize for her expression of such odious sentiments.

I am grateful to have read the above article. Tim Russert was mystery, in the best sense. Because the essence of all of life is mystery.

Unfortunately, when I was directed to 'Google' this article, I mistakenly, or not, opened a vicious, hateful blog that purposed to be defending the glorious Eucharist, while in so doing, expressed an ugly, unloving response.

The heart of the Eucharist is love and forgiveness, and that is what we are asked to live, for all people.

Isn't it sad that the Washington Post hired a religion columnist who knows absolutely nothing about religions? Mrs. Quinn, please enlighten yourself.

You did not need to take Communion. You could have crossed your arms, and the Priest would have blessed you instead of giving you the Eucharist. I don't presume to speak for Mr. Russert, but surely any decent Catholic would cringe at your disrespectful behavior.

Don't forget Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTJlODMyNGFmYmJiODVmOGFmMDY4MDUyNjc2ZWM0NGI=

Hey Sally,

Why not ask your "panel" of experts on On Faith whether they think you are correct in your desecration Holy Communion in the name of tolerance and diversity?

Are you even going to comment on it?

Many bloggers are talking, on big sites, too:

Slate
America
Inside Catholic
the New Republic
The Catholic League

You look pretty sheepish trying to sweep this one under the rug...

We beg a little respect to others who you aren't in Communion with, by not partaking. Thanks.

Ginny writes: "as a woman called to priesthood..."

Priest = male.....priestess = female

Sorry, Ginny, you are not called to the "priesthood"

Nature/biology is sooooo unfair to create division and distinction between male and female!

Folks,
Ms. Dahlberg posts this somewhat misleading contention:

"As a Catholic theologian (barely "Roman" - but then, that's only one of many Catholic rites/communities)"

There are about twenty two rites in the Catholic Church, one of which is the Latin Rite, but it is hardly "only one of many." To the contrary, the vast bulk of Catholics are Latin (sometimes called Western) Rite Catholics. The other twenty one rites account for fewer than 2% of the total membership of the Catholic Church (@18 Million) while the Latin Rite accounts for 98% of the 1.15 Billion Catholics.

Even if one expands the scope of the term Catholic to include Anglicans (77 Million) and the Eastern Orthodox (250 Million), the 1.132 Billion Latin Rite Catholics would still constitute 77% of the total 1.477 B members of the purportedly expanded "Catholic Church."

Perhaps the writer of a religion blog for two top selling periodicals should understand the tenets of the largest religious group in the nation. If so, she might have realized her error in being so flippant and disrespectful of the most important sacrament in that religion. Is it too much to ask those periodicals to hire someone who actually knows something about the topic she writes about and displays some modest amount of respect to its adherents?

As a Catholic theologian (barely "Roman" - but then, that's only one of many Catholic rites/communities), and as a woman called to priesthood, I rejoice in Ms. Quinn's experience of Eucharist. In Jesus, ALL are made new - ALL are endowed with the Spirit. IOW - ALL are called to share in the Supper, in the Communion of those called to believe - to follow their own "call" towards God.

If only our pope, and the bishops, understood as Ms. Quinn does!

Womanpriest

"In other words, Mrs. Davis, don't be a horse's arse. Judy Garland's got nothing on GOD."

People, please! Let's not let ourselves get sidetracked here! I think we can all agree that both the Lord AND Judy Garland are great, almighty, and deserving of all worship and adoration.

Now let's get back to the topic at hand- Sally condemning herself to eternal never-ceasing torture in the fiery pits of Satan's furnace! Where, needless to say, there will be NO Judy Garland albums available for purchase or download.

SALLY QUINN’S NARCISSISM

June 25, 2008

The funeral Mass for Tim Russert was held at Trinity Church in Georgetown a week ago today. Attending was Sally Quinn. She is a Washington Post journalist and founder and co-moderator of On Faith, a Washington Post and Newsweek blog.

Quinn, who was an atheist most of her life, posted on Monday why she decided to go to Communion: “Last Wednesday I was determined to take it [the Eucharist] for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I’m so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it.”

Quinn also admitted the following: “I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started ‘On Faith’ and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue had this to say:

“Just reading what Sally Quinn said is enough to give any Christian, especially Catholics, more than a ‘slightly nauseating sensation.’ In her privileged world, life is all about experiences and feelings.

“Moreover, Quinn’s statement not only reeks of narcissism, it shows a profound disrespect for Catholics and the beliefs they hold dear. If she really wanted to get close to Tim Russert, she should have found a way to do so without trampling on Catholic sensibilities. Like praying for him—that’s what Catholics do.”

Uh yeah, SQ is an idiot. She is a religion writer who shows less understanding of Catholicism (only about 25% of the U.S. population) than the average citizen. It is rude to receive Communion but easily forgiveable if it is done in ignorance. But it is just plain stupid to admit you didn't know the custom, and then to rant about how uninclusive the people who's custom you violated are. It could be, maybe, that SQ was the one who was rude.

Folks,
Miki is precisely right in this:
"Josie Wales wrote, "catholics [sic] dont speak for god [sic]."

No, but Holy Scripture and the Magisterium do--just look at the post right below yours, Josie. That's what we believe. Jesus taught it and entrusted it to His priesthood, the Apostles promulgated it, and the Church carries it forward as objective truth throughout the ages."

In addition to the 1 Cor. 11:26 et seq. passage on unworthy receipt of communion to which Miki alluded, another passage ought to be cited to refute the contention that the Church does not speak for God. As God is recorded to have told the apostles in one of His post-Resurrection appearances: ""Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." " John 20:21. And as He noted in His final post-Resurrection appearance before the Ascension: ""All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." " IOW, God has remained with His Church for the past 2000 years and it has the Teaching Authority. Pundits like to tell the Church what to do, but Jesus said that we needed to listen to the Church! Matt 18:17.

Sally writes: "Would Jesus have said, "No you don't, Sally Quinn. You're not going to get away with this one!"

Jesus also said not to throw pearls before swine.

And He drove money changers from the temple with a bull whip.

That is how the prideful Sally should be received ... and driven away.

The self-centered, ignorant Quinn also tries to make this about HER:

"I've become a champion of pluralism and a spirit of inclusiveness. Any religious people who purport to be Christians, or whatever faith you might be, would do everything they could to welcome others--in the case of Catholics, to welcome others the way Christ would welcome others. This is a perfect example of WWJD. Would Jesus have said, "No you don't, Sally Quinn. You're not going to get away with this one!"

Wow!

Sally Quinn has written in the New Republic:

"There's no sign out there that says you're not allowed to take Communion. [The Catholic Church is] like, "Everyone is welcome. This is God's house." God doesn't turn people away, supposedly."

Are you kidding me?!

The moderator of a religious blog doesn't know that there are basic requirements for communion for a religion that covers one billion+ people???

Fire this women!

...to retain what little creditability the "On Faith" blog has.

Josie Wales wrote, "catholics [sic] dont speak for god [sic]."

No, but Holy Scripture and the Magisterium do--just look at the post right below yours, Josie. That's what we believe. Jesus taught it and entrusted it to His priesthood, the Apostles promulgated it, and the Church carries it forward as objective truth throughout the ages.

OBEDIENCE, not just profession of belief, is the true mark of a faithful follower of Christ. You'd actually know that if you hadn't turned coat on you heritage and chosen to rewrite faith.

I feel deeply sorry for you, Josie, and all those like you who claim to know what "Catholic" means, but who prove by your own paltry words to be as blinds as the Pharisees and the "free-thinking" humanists skulking about the globe today towards oblivion. I'll be adding you to my list of daily prayer intentions.

as a former catholic i can understand why, all of you, as catholics are offended by sally quinns actions. what i dont understand is why and how you could possibly know that god or tim were in any way offended.

catholics dont speak for god. being catholic is just a religion. it does not give license to speak on god's behalf. god belongs to all of us without exception. god manifests himself/herself through the actions of all living things. god did not produce the rainbow, tim did. and through tim, those living that witnessed that rainbow had the wonderful experience of having had their hearts touched. each in their own way . . . and thats just awesome stuff. you get to take that one with you, . . . . forever!

professed atheist or not makes no difference, sally's heart was touched by god through tim. thats how its supposed to work.

... i reckon so.

1 Corinthians 11:
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

mobokrasher,

Get real...Quinn is the anti-Catholic leftist fanatic who has repeatedly and (in this case) physically insulted the faith of Catholics with her arrogant act.

Voicing outrage is not fanaticism....and if she did something similar to Islam she would probably be killed - and this is why should would never dare.

She is a coward and an evil hag, no doubt about it.

Looks like Sally Quinn, reading all of these deserved criticisms on the blog, has lashed out by reposting an interview attacking the Catholic Church.

You, Sally, are a disgrace to the journalism industry who is only given this job after sleeping with the boss...so much for feminism.

In any case, I am happy to say that the Washington Post is bleeding readers and cash and will not survive another 10 years.

Out with the trash!

I thought that only Islam had fanatics; I have been proven wrong!!!!!! Such hatred. Give the lady a break. It was just an article.

Your kind words for Tim Russert notwithstanding, you show a complete contempt for his religion to accept communion. As an atheist, you had no right to accept communion in a Catholic Church.

Communion in a Catholic Church is limited to Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite Catholics, and Orthodox. To us, it is not the same as communion in a Protestant church. We take transubstantiation seriously.

You disrespected Tim Russert's memory by treating the faith he held dear as some quaint alien anachronism. If you had the least bit of respect for this part of Tim, you would have informed yourself before taking part in this sacrament and realized how wrong it was for you to participate.

As an editor of a blog on religion, your admission of taking the Eucharist "transubstantion notwithstanding," is incredibly disappointing. The Eucharist, as Tim could have told you, is the actual body and blood of Christ. The Church doesn't allow nonbelievers or Catholics with sin to take the Eucharist because it is a grave responsibility. Taking the Eucharist without being spiritually prepared is far worse than burning a Bible or Torah. It is defiling the body of Christ.

I'm sure it was a wonderful experience. I just wish you would have considered what you were doing.

It was very disrespectful of your friend to take Holy Communion, Sally. He would not have been amused nor proud of you. Research and search inward, join the Church and take Holy Communion and he will be proud and rejoice for you.

Why would someone like you want to take Communion? Why would you think your friend (who venerated the Holy Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ) would be proud of this? Of you saying it "nauseated" you? I'm glad I don't have friends as sensitive as you.

"Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged . . . Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them." - Pope St. Pius X, our Apostolic Mandate, August 25, 1910.

In other words, Mrs. Davis, don't be a horse's arse. Judy Garland's got nothing on GOD.

Which was the greater act of blasphemy: Sally receiving Communion, or the playing of a recording of "Over the Rainbow" being sung by someone other than Judy Garland? Discuss.

There is no way to look at this in a positive light. If Quinn knew the restrictions on receiving Communion, then the fact that she partook anyway was extremely rude.

On the other hand, Catholicism is a major world religion. If she was ignorant of the restrictions, plus didn't understand what an offensive gesture this was, then she has no business writing a column on religion.

There is no way to look at this in a positive light. If Quinn knew the restrictions on receiving Communion, then the fact that she partook anyway was extremely rude.

On the other hand, Catholicism is a major world religion. If she was ignorant of the restrictions, plus didn't understand what an offensive gesture this was, then she has no business writing a column on religion.

Among other idiotic things, Jess said: "That I took communion at many different churches over 40 years ago was a private act of curiosity, never intended to offend...."

What you intended and what actually happened are not even in the same ballpark.

I feel sorry for you, but that doesn't negate the fact that participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not a "private act" by any leap of the imagination; it is a corporate participation in the salvic mystery of Jesus Christ. You cannot participate if you are not in union, spiritually and willfully, with the intent and true meaning of the Sacrament itself--and you yourself state pretty clearly that you weren't, and that you still aren't.

No one has "chosen" to be offended by your words, but the actions you have taken, either out of a serious lack of respect and charity for God and men, or out of a deep-seated arrogance not unlike that of Mrs. Quinn, are very definitely an offense against God and His Holy Church. But, then again, it's so typical of those who believe in nothing in particular (including ordinary respect) to excuse their own behavior by passing the buck and accusing other poeople of "choosing" to be offended by what one has actually done wrong.

I suppose you would also say that if your father raped my daughter, my disgust and abhorrance at such a thing would be my "choice?" This is exactly how orthodox, believing Catholics feel about those who come into our Heavenly houses and usurp the Blessed Sacrament for their own selfish purposes (which you have admitted doing--not out of true Christ-focused worship or adoration, but "personal curiosity"). Actually, it would probably be easier to take if you would just pick one of us at random and rape us right there on the nave's footpace--at least you wouldn't be molesting Christ with, as another poster said earlier, such base and self-centered violence!

At any rate, you and Mrs. Quinn have reminded me of a particular passage that you might want to meditate on before you go around treating other people's most precious Treasures like your own personal play things. It would also be a good place for you to start *reading* Scripture instead of the baloney eisegesis that you've been passing off here as "Jesus said":

"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight....

"Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." ~~Isaiah 5:20-24

God will get you, sooner or later--you wait and see; He is not mocked and justice always comes before mercy.

Oh, and Mrs. Quinn? If you ever dare to step foot in another Catholic Church again, without having been properly, formally received into our Faith, please stay away from the Communion rail. Sit on your hands and wrap your feet around a kneeler if you have to to stay put. Let me be clear: if I ever happen to see you there, anywhere, I will be the first one to tackle your arrogant, pompous little butt to the floor and beat the living tar out of you rather than allow you to desecrate the central mystery of my faith ever again.

Now *that's* love!

Many thanks to the "Pointless Shrew Catholic Defense" blog for letting people know that this was going on!

Vales:
I did not use the word "undermine".
I used the word "question".
You used the words "fulfill" and "overthrow".
These are not words I used.
To fulfill something is to make it complete,
and I might suggest Jesus is still at it, as his work transcends time, unfolds beyond time, where we still experience ourselves as being.
Nothing wrong with this, except our attempts to describe reality from here - which is not actually possible, except (forgive me) in relative terms.
We are not asked by Jesus to judge one another, but to love one another.
Truth is another of those infinite and eternal qualities where we fall short in our understandings, simply because we are finite in our perceptions and experience. While embodied.
We are continually challenged by larger and larger truths, beyond this world, and beyond the insistences of the world.
In this way we do undermine the past, inevitably.
The jumble comes when we attempt consistencies where they do not reside, namely in our own consciousness and thinking, and in our interpretations and judgments of others.
It might help if we sometimes relent on taking ourselves so seriously.
And literally.
We might begin with a little forgiveness.
I forgive you.
Can you possibly forgive me?

Lastly:
God does have a sense of humor, which might have its own ineffibly infinite nature, along with all the compassion and grace...

Jess,

One more thing, you say that Jesus sought to undermine the authority of his day?

If you read the NT, He states that he has come to fulfill the Word, not to over throw it.

So, while he challenged the legalistic/materialistic eye-for-an-eye nature of the Jewish leaders, he did not overthrow the need for obedience to God and His will.

The Commandments still stand, as does righteous authority.

These are not things that you discover or "think for yourself" - and, if you did, there would be no such thing as authority or universal morality.

Finally, try to understand that there is a difference between authoritarian and authoritative - the Church is the latter.

This person who calls herself a committed atheist then takes communion at a Catholic Mass. What chutzpah.

I guess she really is an atheist, because nothing is sacred to her. The whole funeral Mass only became about Sally Quinn.

This is part of why the American public holds the media in such ill repute. Respect for others just does not seem to be on the media's radar. And really, how can this moronic Sally babe be a moderator for a religion forum if (1) she knows little to nothing about a major world religion and its beliefs and (2) she's an atheist. Last time I looked atheists don't believe in religion. It's kind of like a vegan writing a restaurant review of a steakhouse.

Jess -

Honestly, I am not even going to try to read that jumble...sorry.

Less rambling, please.

As for "exclusion," Christ spoke the the narrow gate to heaven and the wide gate to hell.

Not everyone is saved, according to Christ - the majority fail the test and pass through the wide gates of hell.

This is not the stuff of PC, new-age relativism; forgiveness does not guarantee inclusion.

As someone who writes under the heading "On Faith" how did you not understand that taking communion isn't about you but about being in communion with the tenets of the Catholic faith and, most importantly, about receiving the body and blood of Christ?

It's not a wafer to sample like at a wine tasting, and it won't make you closer to Tim, for goodness sake since it's not Tim you're supposed to be trying to get closer to. It isn't something to make you feel good or for someone in heaven to look down and smile about. It isn't about you.

What a shame that this simple concept completely escaped you. And what an insult for you to write about it in such a flippant and self-centered way.

Human reason is a process, not based on static truths, and so you know, science no longer advances on absolute or objective fact, if you can admit the effects of quantum theory and research, where every past assumption, every 'established' truth is more open to question than ever.
And where religion is concerned, even Jesus (especially Jesus) questioned the earthly authorities of his day.
That he gave us the symbols and the means and the miraculous demonstration of communion by his teaching and his passion does not insist their grace must be confined to a select and properly indoctrinated community.
His demonstration was of a radical transformation this world can never understand fully, as his vision was so profoundly beyond.
For us to have systemetized and domesticated the ritual as we have is exclusionary and for some of us an upside down interpretation of what he asked us to do in his primary commandments, to love one another, and to love God, as well as to forgive.
And if you want to apply reason consistently, it might be useful to ask for more clarification on what forgiveness is, and if it has limits, where are they? This question, considered thoughtfully and freely leads me to a place where I can place no limits on forgiveness or the grace it brings.
If this is so, how can any of us judge another?
And as for authors and theological authorities, for us to challenge or judge one another's thinking by their personal studies is a form of literalism and pidgeon-holing that actually dismisses our need to think for ourselves.
I haven't read the authors mentioned - there are thousands of books with valuable insights that by their sheer volume we cannot claim any knowledge of. But that does not prevent us thinking and reasoning (in our imperfect ways) for ourselves.
God is a loving God. Is that not enough to begin?
Or must we organize and order this belief and legislate our rituals to somehow improve on this miraculous knowing?

"transubstantiation notwithstanding" ?!?!?!

Tim Russert told you personally that Communion and transubstantiation were important to him and all Catholics... yet you still choose to ignore his beliefs at his memorial?

What a sad way to dishonor your friend - by disrespecting his faith.

Imagine inviting someone into your house, breaking bread, and intending to deny some of your guests from partaking. That's just rude. Jesus would never do that, and we shouldn't either. It's a church for Christ's sake, not a private club. Sally, you did the right thing. Christ smiled.

The point of the Church barring nonbelievers from taking communion is not to be intolerant or exclusive, but rather to be charitable toward them. "For all who eat and drink without discerning the body [of Christ], eat and drink judgment against themselves." (I Corinthians 11:27-29).

PS - you state:

"One can argue that all 'interpretation' is mis-interpretation because any discussion, especially in religious matters, is incomplete,
since language itself, dogma itself is a temporal and localized phenomena."

This is a form of anti-intellectualism and nihilism. Do you extend this line of reasoning to science, as well?

Human reason is a gift from God to used for understanding - no matter if we are talking about religion or science.

I get the feeling that you have read Oprah's guru - Tolle - recently. Am I correct?

Honestly, Jess -

No matter how you try to dress up your form of relativism and "non-judgement," it remains false.

"all the blessings of all the priests, while sincere and powerful in their intentions, cannot ever exceed the wisdom or love of God, which transcends every effort or humble interpretation made in time and space."

The Eucharist was not an act invented by "all the priests," it was an act instituted by Christ, Himself.

Do not call for the inclusion of false doctrines under the guise of "understanding and acceptance." Your ideas are very similar to gnosticism - i.e. the light is found within individual hearts.

Did you forget that the Word became Flesh? Do you wish to separate the sacred from the profane?

I suggest GK Chesterton as a start for understanding orthodoxy - i.e. "right worship."

Vales:
All interpretation is deliberate, whether mis-interpretation or honestly attempting to reach the heart of an important matter.
One can argue that all 'interpretation' is mis-interpretation because any discussion, especially in religious matters, is incomplete,
since language itself, dogma itself is a temporal and localized phenomena.
None of us can presume complete knowledge, absolute certainty, moral superiority or eternal virtue in a still incomplete world.
I did not argue for 'acceptance' as you suggest, but rather for forgiveness, for tolerance, for lifting this discourse to a more mature level.
To presume any of us can judge another soul damned is to usurp God's faculty of judgment, for which we have no actual evidence (except the experience of grace, of personal knowing), only conjecture built and expanded over centuries. One might say this conjecture, this dogma is a work in progress, an interpretation according to today's best thinking, if we can imagine so large a vision.
Communion is an act of grace, an act of love, an act of reconciliation, and all the blessings of all the priests, while sincere and powerful in their intentions, cannot ever exceed the wisdom or love of God, which transcends every effort or humble interpretation made in time and space.
Thus our need to forgive ourselves and one another.
Division of any kind, exclusion of any kind is a result of man's interpretation, and falls short of the ultimate mystery, the profound light and grace that many of us hold to be representative of God, whose care resides in all our hearts, whether we miss the target by sinning or manage on those rare occasions to see a little more clearly...

Jess, you are deliberately misinterpreting the statements and acts of Christ.

Yes, he forgave and showed the fallacy of pride and violence and lust; however, he also required repentance AND obedience to God. (i.e. - sin NO MORE)

This is not a relativistic type of love where you are accepted as you are no matter your behavior.

This is forgiving the ignorance of your sin and requiring that you sin no more.

So, take the Holy Communion if you accept the radical precepts of the Lord and will actively place them in you life.

If you take it out of pride or desire for a "personal experience" - such as Sally Quinn - you will damn your soul as you deliberately reject His forgiveness and mandate.

I apologize to those who chose to be offended by my earlier post.
I always thought Christ was about forgiveness and reconciliation, not about shibboleths and judgement.
That I took communion at many different churches over 40 years ago was a private act of curiosity, never intended to offend, but rather to understand a God who knows all our hearts, all our needs.
Because I did not know how to trust either ministers or priests, or even adults at the time, and because I had yet not learned to read, this seemed to me an obvious way to learn internally how to be closer to God, so I could find my way in the world.
Please forgive me my innocence, and please forgive Sally Quinn her affection for her friend.
I know now that somehow God does understand,
and that God forgives all.
Jesus taught not to judge, and to forgive our brothers continuously, or 70 times 7 times.
And who among us has truly forgiven this way?

I live in Mexico but am American. When they play the Mexican national anthem I stand up out of respect but don't put my hand over my heart. To put my hand on my heart, sing the song, doing it while believing in none of it and then write about it in a Mexican newspaper about the funny feeling it gave me would rightly piss off most Mexicans. this has nothing to do with Religion but it is the same principle.

Kimberly wrote: "If you know love, you know God."

What a load of wishy-washy, pansy-handed, lukewarm, lackwitted crap.

REALITY: What one does out of personal interest is *NOT* love. *True* charity seeks the very best good of others, FIRST and foremost--like GOD Himself, like Christ on the Cross.

1. Did it benefit Tim Russert's soul for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

2. Did it show charity and respect for Catholics who *DO* know, believe and cherish the sacred mystery of Faith for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

3. Did it show respect, love or discernment for Christ Himself, truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, for Sally Quinn to violate the source and summit of the Catholic Faith??? NO.

ERGO, Kimberly, what Sally Quinn did was NOT out of love--not even close--but out of selfish, self-serving, caustic ARROGANCE.

....and, as long as we're on the subject, what was Satan's sin, pray tell??? That's right--the pride of arrogance.

If Sally Quinn *had* been motivated by "love", she would have had enough common sense, respect and forethought to keep her place in our Father's House!!!

VIOLATING SACRED CATHOLIC RITES???

Now this just truly, viscerally pisses me off.

Lady, what kind of twisted, insensitive, unthinking, arrogant twit from the Pit of Hades are you??? How freaking disrespectful can you possibly be???

The Blessed Sacrament is NOT, about Tim Russert--it is, the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ (not "representative", you fool)--and you have absolutely NO right to cross that line!!!

Nauseated doesn't even begin to cover what I feel, knowing that you--not a Catholic, not in any unity of Faith with us, and not even close to discerning the reality of what you have done (see 1 Corinthians 11:27, etc)--dare to be filled with such pride and arrogance as to approach GOD's throne an take what is not yours to take! My blood boils at the thought....

"Communion", contrary to what that Marxist bimbo Nancy Pelosi so wrongly believes, is not a free for all, but (to quote our Holy Father), "The Eucharist is our most precious treasure.... It is the Sacrament par excellence ... It contains all the mystery of our salvation, it is the source and the summit of the activity and the life of the Church."

He also stated recently that, "The Eucharist is not a meal among friends. It is a mystery of alliance....We are called to enter this mystery of alliance, conforming our everyday lives to the gift received in the Eucharist."

You, Sally Quinn, have done great scandalous violence to the Blessed Sacrament, Lady. You have done violence to our Faith. And you have done violence to Catholics everywhere.

...Sadly, I think that the feeling you had afterwards was not one of uplift towards GOD (or Tim Russert), but that demonic glee that comes from violating the very foundations of the Salvic mysteries of Faith.

I'm not just nauseated, I'm enraged. Only the most truly egocentric, self-serving, callous morons walk into GOD's House and do such things without any thought to the consequences.

HOW DARE YOU!!!

May GOD have mercy on your blackened, shrivelled little soul--because I certainly don't. You, "Sister", are no better than Judas.

Quinn was not searching for Christ, she was selfishly looking to connect with a friend by using/abusing a holy sacrament of Christianity.

All are welcome; however, these with closed minds and evil in their hearts much repent before taking part in this ceremony and we all know that this was NOT the intention of this "moderator."

Finally, in regards to Sally Quinn, it was also said by Jesus: "Do not throw pearls before swine."

Dear Posters,

I am stunned at those here who are condemning Ms. Quinn.

Tim Russert shared with her his love for Christ. Part of that love is communion. Why wouldn't you want her to know and understand that love?

I know what the rules are. But if it helps her to understand God's love, why wouldn't you want to share that with her?

Christ loved everyone, even those who did not believe in the God of Abraham and Issaac. Aren't we supposed to be like Christ?

"If you know love, you know God."

there were six zeros in the currency then.

as far as i read from Queen Basement-Builder "Ece Temelkuran the Journalist", there are not any birds in Venezuella in the city because of electric wires on the fences.

why would they defend? is it because inhabitants in the center of the city sell not but go to shopping?

so where are the authors in multinational companies to sell in the markets for the inhabitants face to face to have a mutual celebration and growth in wisdom and spirituality that would feed and sustain the souls of all humans?

Williams Bush, president

Cem Yilmaz and i know each other from a psychiatry web site. but he does not know about the gold worth 160 billions of USD in the basement.

in his first stand up, Cem Yilmaz asked a rich man how much he earned, the man was a doctor, the doctor told him an amount and Cem Yilmaz made fun pointing his chest and the doctor in turn "doctor, me, doctor, me, the amount of money doctor earned, billions", "ho ha ho", the audience laughed loudest in a theatre.

he never asked a president about the gold in the basement and a pope about his income : ) but i was serious and i dont know which newspaper made this news of gold in the basement. i am sorry. there could be some other means to stand up.

Mrs!

this article smells like "Meet the Press" : )

chain : CH AIN, sorry not catholic,
within Swiss authority

there were chained computers in Turkey once upon a time in public centers, and today there are chained mobile phones in Venezuella.

this means, in the language of Williams Bush, that there are catholics in venezuella.

Hugo Chavez didnot sell the petroleum to any authority and he has given to the public. and the petroleum prices are increasing to 200 USD.

1. shall Hugo Chavez sell the petroleum when it is in an appropriate price?
2. if he sells the petroleum not, then we shall pay the money of the petroleum more than we could afford.
3. if Hugo Chavez sells the petroleum, the income may damage the revolution.
4. if the petroleum prices increase, we shall leave the unconscious desire to purchase goods. and this shall be a part the revolution.
5. electromagnetically we are offered to purchase, even in debt.

could Hugo Chavez sell some of petroleum and increase the welfare of the public with the inspiration and spirituality increasing with at least me contributing to?

1 Corinthians 11

26 For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. 30 Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.

How dare Sally Quinn desecrate the Blessed Sacrament and do it with such arrogance. She indeed gave me a nauseating feeling in my stomach. She has brought condemnation upon herself.

Stop fawning over yourselves, media. It's nauseating.

I liked and appreciated Tim Russert, too. Indeed, Meet The Press isn't going to be the same even with the talents of Tom Brokaw. Still, it's time to allow him to rest in peace, Russert, that is.

No need to attack the Catholic League for pointing out the very serious insult that Ms. Quinn KNOWINGLY visited upon Catholicism.

This is not mere reporter, she is the head of an ecumenical blog!

Not to mention her previous attacks on Benedict and other Catholic traditions via this site.

Her act was one of knowing malice - an affront to one of the major religions that she covers.

She should resign as such bias and arrogance should not be associated with a "major" religious blog.

However, she does accurately reflect the general bias in the main stream media towards Catholics...

Regarding the Passing of Tim Russert -- What a touching post - I truly was amazed by the outpouring of Love that was part of Tim's death. I grew up in another Buffalo, in another school in another parish, but we all shared the true Catholic experience.
In true Irish Catholic Jargon, "every cloud has a silver lining", I was drawn to this site by the ever angry and immature posting of Bill Donahue from the Catholic League. Please Sally, there are many more Catholics like Tim out there than there are like Bill. The actions of the Catholic League are less than Catholic, and please know that the League is not part of the Catholic Church. It is a politically driven organization that uses faith for political purposes and causes great harm to the image of the Church. Please know, us Blue Collar Catholics out of respect for our Church will not drag our faith into every politically driven media market.

At least three times, I personally called the Catholic League and all but BEGGED him to print something about the passing of Tim. He was sure able to do it for Falwell's RIP Release. He sure is able to defend Dobson, Hagee, Falwell, Huckabee and that whole tribe of politically driven preachers. What part of Tim's life made the Country Club Catholics so uncomfortable? His participation in Catholic Charities, His love of his Church, His Genoristy, His Love for children and the sick? Or was it that Tim didn't need to tell the world what he did? Or perhaps was it the inscription on the card that was passed out.

I have the utmost respect for Mr. Meacham, and hope that we will see him more as the election draws near.

My prayer is that the "Three Stooges of Faith for Political Purposes" Buchanan, Scarborough and Donahue, don't dominate the airwaves again this year. Scarborough will be only to happy to use Donahue in a pinch to carry the Evangelical Water during the election, and Pat will be only too happy to faithfully tell us of all the great Christian Characteristics of Nixon and Reagan. If it means air time for Donanhue, trust me, he will become louder and louder, and we will pray that our church survives in spite of them!

I would have preferred you not take Communion, if indeed you knew you realy shouldn't have. Donahue's Raiders were too busy making sure no wayward Democratic politicians were in the line, so you lucked out.

What a lovely and touching remembrance of a man and a life well lived. The joy of his memory will last far longer than the pain and sorrow felt by all at his passing.
May he rest in peace and Thank You, Mrs. Bradlee, for the column.

Ms.Quinn:
Your "performance" at Tim Russert's Funeral, was THE most DISGUSTING I have ever heard of.

I have no clue, how you hold a job, for the Washington Post, because your intelligence is sorely lacking.

You owe the Vatican, and every Catholic, especially Mr. Russert's family, a sincere apology for desecrating a Consecrated Host, and blaspheming the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
For your enlightenment, it is not a Symbol, it IS, after consecration, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Your ignorance is no excuse for your disgusting conduct, and I, along with many other Catholics, find you to be nauseating and revolting, for that performance. Every Catholic saw right through your ignorance. What a fool you made of yourself.

If it is thrill seeking you are after, perhaps you should take up something like Scuba Diving, or Bungee Jumping, but until you apologize for your disgusting performance, I will boycott and recommend to all my famil, and Parishoners, through out the United States, that your show, the newspaper you work for, and your sponsors, are made aware of your behavior.

If you don't know what you are doing, don't even attempt to "get closer to Tim Russert" through such behavior. I am sure you humiliated him, and the entire Court of Heaven, with your lewd conduct, so you really served no purpose but to gratify your own ignorance. What you did was THE most heinous thing I have ever witnessed at a Funeral.

Next time, stay home, you are not appreciated, nor are you a true friend of his family, or Tim Russert. You actually know NOTHING about his Religious beliefs, or you would never have made such a rediculous "spectacle" of yourself, but then again, it is obvious you never took the time to learn about his Faith, so how could you possibly do anything but get further away from Tim Russert who, in life, would never have had anything to do with your kind. If you really wanted to "get closer to Tim" why didn't you sign up for RCIA classes, and convert to Catholicism, in his memory? THAT would have been a more intelligent statement than the performance you put on, in public, for attention.
May God forgive your Narcissistic behavior.

This woman, who purposely and spitefully violated a MAJOR tenant of faith for Catholics, is the moderator of a ecumenical forum?!

Last straw....I am promptly canceling my subscription to the Washington Sundays.

One less subscriber, WAPO, and not many left either.

Welcome to the ash bin of history!

How is it that grown intelligent men like Saint Tim still believe in fairy tales and supermen in the sky? Perhaps a case of arrested development. Some call it "faith," I call it unhealthy hanging on to childhood dreams

It is not up to Ms. Quinn (or anyone else) to "decide" off the cuff to partake of Holy Communion. If you are not a Catholic in a state of grace it isn't for you. Just as chanting the Torah isn't for anyone off the street, or interpreting the Koran to followers on an ad hoc basis.
How arrogant and entitled is this woman? She desecrated the Sacrament and Tim Russert would cringe in embarassment if he knew.
Apoligize and clarify yourself. Dreadful breach of our faith - I am just astounded.

Pure kitsch.

A kind religionist is no more an argument for religion than is a kind atheist an argument for atheism.

Great article that I would love to share, unfortunately I do not know how to retrieve my password.

gogome26@gmail.com

Sally,
That was a nice piece to read and a wonderful tribute to Tim Russert. Though I am born a Buddhist in a devout community, through my modern education (or, is it inborn even?), I have developed a rational and a scientific outlook, that taken to its logical end, can make me a complete aethiest. And I do reject many of dogmas and rituals, not just of my religion but many others also. Yet it is also true that we as human beings have a spiritual need and a longing. I struggle with it often. Does the laws of Karma really hold? Science would indicate no. But then it is also true that if you are a good person and help others, you will be happier person.

What is the purpose of our lives? If there is no life (or heaven for Christians)and accountability after death, then why not be selfish and do what is important to you and your family only, and not worry about others' needs? I have for long thought through about this. Now I know what it is: the purpose of each of our lives is to be a better human being (simple yet profound if you think it through). This is true whether you are an aethiest or a religious person. Even though he died many years before he should have, it appears (from what I have read) Mr. Russert has fulfilled the purpose of his life by being a better father, a better neighhour, a better son, a better colleague, a better boss, and a better journalist (and the best inquisitor). Is that rainbow just a mere dispersion of light through water molecules, or is there a meaning for its occurence at that particular time?

Sally Quinn, if she has any moral decency, should apologize for for her VERY inappropriate act of taking part in Holy Communion.

As for those who say that this is "exclusion" or "elitism", think again.

ALL are welcome to full communion with the Church; however, there are basics steps and understanding that is necessary for for this important act.

As for Quinn, she was not ignorant of this requirement, she was simply arrogant and blatantly disrespectful.

If she insulted any other group in such a grave manner (Jewish, Muslim etc.) she would be immediately fired.

As they say, anti-Catholicism is the only acceptable prejudice left.

Sister Sal,

Thank you for this beautiful and inspiring article.

I propose sainthood for Tim Russert.

Again, muchas gracias.

Sister Sal,

Thank you for this beautiful and inspiring article.

I propose sainthood for Tim Russert.

Again, muchas gracias.

@ Will Jones:

Did Uncle Tom's pamphlet you refer to include instructions on impregnating your slave girls who you profess to love while indulging in financial profligacy and fraud to the point of bankrupting one's estate, necessitating auction of the beloved chattel, sundering slave families, and for some, imposing the attendant death sentence of removal to Louisiana sugar plantations?

As with Jacobin Jefferson and his intellectual heir and namesake William J. Clinton, all that lofty rhetoric about the Universal Rights of Man and "Putting People First", much less spousal "fidelity", comes to exactly nothing in the end. Don't take my word for it, just ask Sally Hemings and Ricky Ray Rector.

If you are not the "secular humanist" I presume you to be based on your invoking Marse Tom as the arbiter of "real Americanism", but rather a Catholic hater of the unironic Protestant "fundamentalist" ilk, why don't you pluck the logs of Pat Robertson and Jimmy Swaggart from thine own eyes since we are on the subject of "filching wealth and power to themselves" and "fidelity"?

The rate of pederasty among Catholic priests is abominable because it is not zero. Can you say with absolute certainty, without committing the mortal sin of bearing false witness, that Evangelical and Protestant churches, are fit to cast the first stone regarding this diabolical scandal? First consider the good Reverend Haggard, and then do what thy will...

Will Jones, I have tried very hard to "carp on poison" as you instructed, but have found difficulty doing so as, among other things, it makes no sense, at least in the English language. Perhaps you can give me some pointers.

The rest of your screed is its own rebuttal.

Sally's tribute to Tim is beyond beautiful. I just hope he sees it, I am sure he will.

Tim was such a unique person, I loved him most for his love of Big Russ and Luke and Maureen.

It will be a long time before we see another Tim Russert.

Thank you Sally for such a lovely and loving
tribute to our Tim.

Thank you, Sally. I have appreciated your interviews of many and looked at the one with Tim. My own grief at his death (as a Upstate NY Catholic school baby-boomer liberal Democrat Hospice chaplain) was more profound than I ever expected. Thanks for your continuing our "grief work" in you remembrance of your friend whose authenticity touched us all.

Papists, victimized by pedophiles, carp on the poison you brought with you from perverse Europe...

America's Founder could teach those wishing to become actual Americans a thing or three:

To Samuel Kercheval
Monticello, January 19, 1810

SIR, -- Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet inclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.

theamericanfundament.blogspot.com

Amen, Sister Sal! Tim was a gem of a man, humble, caring and passionate about everything he did. The twin rainbow was a reflection of the many facets of his humanity rooted in his Christian faith.

I don't know if I've ever read a more inspirational and uplifting column in my life. I used to look forward to watching Meet the Press every Sunday morning and was always extremely disappointed when the show was not on the air (pre-empted by tennis or golf, for example). And while I always understood that Tim was the reason I watched it, I never realized the depth of the caring and concern he demonstrated to others. Like you said in your column, for someone as busy as he was, how did he have so much time for others? I don't know if we will ever see the likes of Tim again and I so sorely miss him already.

teachers of English, Maths and Biology were Irish at middle school.

one was bald with blue eyes, one had black hair and moustache with reddish beard, and one of them had horsetail woven golden hair.

in a movie, a grandson had put a ship onto the chest of his grandfather while he was in bed in his tough times.

Sally - This is a lovely, lovely piece and brought tears to my eyes. He was quite a man, and I knew that just watching Meet the Press. Thank you.

it was a tough article, Mrs.

in Greek and Roman, "in god" is somehow you are on the country side and you have eaten fresh for a few days. in Roman and Greek, "in god" is your high vibration, and this is the sea you are in.

in the countryside in the navy evenings you see the stars in the sky all white, trees are hugging you, you are easily in touch with your friends. you are on board of the ship Earth, the moon is just the next ship in the fleet, this is enthusiasm. this is third dimension, the health.

I, too, was deeply touched by the death of Tim Russert. He's exactly my age, he's Irish Catholic like me, and the things that he expressed about the effects of the Kennedy legacy
are spot on. Russert's sense of humor and
life gave a human-ness to politics, and lifted
from the depths of ugliness to which it frequently sinks.

I like a lot of Americans keep our faith inside, because to wear it on one's arm cheapens it.

With all due respect, Ms. Quinn speaks ill of the dead when she makes the breathtakingly ignorant claim that Tim Russert "would have loved it [her taking the body of our Lord into her mouth, the Doctrine of the Faith and its required 6 month adult conversion course of study and scrutiny leading to the SACRAMENT of Confirmation, which must precede the SACRAMENT of Holy Communion, "notwithstanding."] By all accounts the late Mr. Russert was an unfashionably obedient Catholic in a Cafeteria age. Catholics of his stripe do not take the body of our Lord on a given week if they are in such a state of sin first necessitating the SACRAMENT of pennance better known as Confession. For example, the use of artificial birth control or the marriage to or of a divorcee in circumstances not warranting an annulment would be serious impediments, if not an outright bar, to receiving the SACRAMENT of Holy Communion.

These are the indisputable teachings of the Roman Catholic Church that the late Mr. Russert dearly "loved". As a reader and a Catholic, I am revolted that Ms. Quinn would posthumously attribute that very word to Mr. Russert regarding her flagrant disrepect-in the manner of former President Clinton when he did the same while in Africa by taking communion- demonstrated towards church teaching on who may receive Holy Communion.

With apolgies to Ms Quinn's colleague David Broder, actions such as hers and Bill Clinton's constitute coming into a sacred place not their own and "trashing" it. Somehow I sense that brief wave of nausea that overcame Ms. Quinn as she walked away from the altar may have been of the existential strain, Jean-Paul Sartre "notwithstanding."

This Russert stuff has simply gone absurdly, unseemingly OVER-THE-TOP.

Let's grant that he was a good person, and a top-notch journalist. He was still human, and was not a figure of historical importance (sorry..but let's get real). He was not perfect either -- he actually asked at a presidential debate last fall "what is your favorite bible verse?", which was pitifully inane and utterly inappropriate. He was too fond of gotcha questions.

This is not about what is news,this has become about news people who were friends with the guy imposing their grief on America.

Enough is enough.

All you Catholics who would exclude non-Catholics from communion, ask yourselves this: Whom would Jesus exclude?

Dear Sally,

I am a journalist/communications writer in Western New York, just a year younger than Tim. I have followed his career for years, and like many others, felt that I truly knew him. I didn't. Only in his death have I learned the true depth and beauty of the man. It is my hope that through columns such as yours others will learn that it is possible to be a hard-nosed, ethical journalist, as well as a God-loving man. Our journalism profession needs a boost. So do our religious roots in this country. Thanks for the lovely piece. It among the best I've read in the past two weeks.

Wow, the vitriol and anger I found here surprises me. I am a Catholic (albeit a more open-minded one than many of you who have posted here), and I loved Sally's piece. I think she was being true to herself about what she appreciated about Tim. Despite differences on faith, she connected with Russert (and he with her), and found amazing and simple things to appreciate about him. I believe most of us can agree that the people of faith that make the greatest impression on us are those who don't preach and condemn, but the ones for who faith provides a foundation. I think Tim's faith complemented him well, but he wasn't sanctimonious about it. Instead, he respected others' rights to chose a faith that was right for them. We are all connected by a need for spirituality...whether it is humanistic or divine. What a waste to judge others so harshly.

I feel ashamed that the angry and rigid folks who have posted here are taking offense at Sally's having taken communion and participated in the rituals. I have no doubt that she did so in a respectful way. I believe Tim (wherever he may be) would have wholeheartedly approved. Lighten up people! And take that anger and use it in a more peaceful and productive way.

I loved the description of the rainbow. At a friend's funeral service in late February, we had the same thing happen...and it was awesome. To those of you who cast doubt or have anger...who are you to determine the ultimate meaning of the phenomenon?

Does anyone at The Post take Sally Quinn? I picture the editors quietly cringing whenever they hear, "It's time for another Sally Quinn" piece. What an embarrassment for The Post. The Georgetown dinner party doyenne has finally and fully descending into narcissistic infantile insanity.

As for Sally's behavior at Tim Russert's service, well, to paraphrase Alice Roosevelt about her father Teddy, Sally wants to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening. Indeed.

The more religious a person running for office is, the least likely I am to vote for him/her. Religion is the most successful hoax ever perpetrated on people. "I will SELL you salvation". What useful purpose do clerics serve? Mostly they try to tell you how to live your life while they are often guilty of numerous sins themselves. See the Catholic church and pedophiles.
I am sick of these people for whom we have the Inquisition and the Crusades to thank. We have the KKK who often names their organizations the Church of_______. We have the Mafia who dutifully show up to the church where the funeral of their latest victim is taking place. You folks who are religious, irrespective of the church you belong to, have the right to practice your religion. But quit telling people how to live and quit trying to force your religion on the rest of us.

First off, many of the previous commentators are correct -- Sally Quinn erred by taking communion at Russert's funeral Mass.
Communion in the Catholic Church is only for Catholics who themselves are in communion with the church. However, non-Catholics are NOT unwelcome. Instead, non-Catholics are invited to approach the altar to receive a blessing from the Eucharistic minister instead of receiving a host.
Basic decency requires Sally Quinn to formally apologize for this breach. A simple, handwritten letter to the pastor of the church would suffice.

Secondly, I am continually struck by the comments by media elites such as Sally Quinn (her own bio line indicates she is a "DC insider") that it was somehow miraculous that Tim Russert could talk about "his faith." I am amazed at how amazed you are that a guy who wasn't a phony somehow succeeded in a profession full of phonies.

I grew up in the same Catholic ghetto as Russert. We all talked the church. It was easy, because we were all Catholics. And, the Catholic Church exerted an extraordinary influence on everyday life there.

What is remarkable is that person from THAT PLACE would end up in the upper circles of social Washington, D.C.

All Russert did was bring the folk ways of his part of America with him.

To me, he didn't seem like a particularly devout Catholic -- in fact, and this is the glory of it, he was a typical big-city Great Lakes Catholic. Russert wasn't typical in his relationship to the church -- there are millions of guys like him in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee. There are still a fair amount of them in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

What Russert's life shows is that guys from those places, with his one exception, NEVER get to be Washington media elites. (OK, you've got Matthews and Barnicle, but they're second-tier at best.)

And from what I heard during the long, national Russert mourning period, Sally Quinn and other Washington media elites are pretty sure that mistake won't be made again.

How many times did you hear Brokaw and others say "We'll never see his like again."

The message is clear: One Catholic kid from Buffalo got through. He was kind, honest and not a phony -- just like millions of guys. Let's make that doesn't happen again.

First this sentence caught my eye:
you try to do the best that you can ... This is not taught in Christianity. Grace is through faith in what Jesus did. The only part we have in salvation is believing that or not. I hope that Tim trusted Jesus and not his good works but that is what the Catholic church is about. It is a works religion that teaches a merit based salvation.
And second, is this idiotic line:
Talking about religion, especially personal faith -- at least until this year with Barack Obama -- has been perceived as one of those unfortunate things politicians have to do on the campaign trail in order to get elected.
You don't think he is talking about religion just to get elected? If not then you are a moron. He has a twisted understanding of the bible. He gets a free pass from the media because they hate Bush. Obama knows nothing about the God of the bible or he wouldn't have stayed 20 years in that racist church preaching racist doctrine.

Williams Bush

did you send money to me, to Presidency in Turkey? why is this prime minister in Turkey playing with the money that should be given to clerks? who did give this money to prime minister? to whom did you pay the money of boron mineral for the journey to MArs from Turkey? why has this prime minister not given my money?

for your daughter you tortured me, for his wife sarkozy tortured me, for his stick benedictus tortured me, for his mice putin tortured me, for said nursi army tortured me, for ahmet prophet universities and masonry tortured me, electromagnetically and verbally.

now who do you owe this peace to? who do you owe this church erected to? where is my money? this is a matter of honour, not money. why did this prime minister leave Putin and come to you?

Is anyone more annoying than Sally Quinn? I guess she wins the prize for dredging up yet another column about the late Tim Russert, who one would have thought had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Enough.

Ms. Quinn,

Thank you for revealing a few of the details of your relationship with Mr. Russert, who was a fine journalist and an even finer Catholic Christian. Your stories portray him as we all knew him to be: warm-hearted, honorable, and profoundly guided by his love of God and Christ.

I only wish, however, that you had omitted the final part of the story. Your statement that the consecrated Hosts from the Requiem Mass "represented" the Body and Blood of Christ leads me to believe that you do not fully understand the concept of Transubstantiation. More importantly, your comment that your first Communion was "nauseating" and that your second Communion was taken "for Tim" but "despite Transubstantiation" is a contrarian statement. If Mr. Russert was the devoted and faithful Catholic you portary him as, and that we all know he was, he would not have wanted you to take Communion despite Christ. He would have wanted you to take it because of Him.

Christ's True Presence in the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of Christian life, to quote our late Holy Father Pope John Paul II. It is both the origin and goal of our daily lives as Catholics, and it is a treasure too precious to be received for the sake of another man or woman. Mr. Russert was profoundly aware of this fact, and experienced in his daily sacramental life.

I do not post this comment in order to try to make you feel guilty about receiving the Blessed Sacrament, but rather to appeal to your well developed sense of tolerance and respect for the religious traditions of others and for God Himself. Please don't refrain from Communion because it is a rule that we have established; instead, please wait to receive the Host until you understand and appreciate the Gift of that He offers you.

Thank you for your time, and for your respect.

In Christ,

Douglas Gates

I think the outpouring from people who, like myself, didn't know Tim Russert is because we instinctively knew upon hearing him and seeing him that he was "authentic". He wasn't a persona; he wasn't a pundit. He was authentic. And we responded to that because it called out to us to also be authentic. And we forget that a life well-lived is often the best testament of faith - and from what I've read, Tim Russert's life was indeed a testament of faith. More powerful, more real, more authentic.

You are welcome in our church any time but communion is only for practicing Catholics. You erred in helping yourself and you should apologize. The rules governing taking communion are printed on the inside flap of the booklet you were given or was in the pews.
Please correct your error, It was both misinformed and inappropriate.

Sally, it's Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, not Trinity Church. By the way, which parish was Tim a member of? Why did his funeral not take place there?

this is not about catholics, this article and of Susan Smith came right after i explained the heart attack by "TEAM RUS SERT" that is "TEAM RUS TOUGH", RUS is from maybe RUSSIAN maybe ETRUSK.

so the beauty of electromagnetics and Tesla is that there are authors with electromagnetics in stead of spell and prayers. this is the economic part.

spell, prayers and electromagnetics are the signs of the level of consciousness in community and energy.

when a religious person meets all he practises in electromagnetics, then he shall have a dictionary and vehicle to study to know himself and to grow.

because electromagnetics and internet are the languages developed after psychology, medicine, surgery, philosophy, religions, wisdom, physics, science, maths, differential equations, biology.

they are like crystals used in the Northern America.

You arrogant know it all selfish woman. Only an atheist could be so incredulous!

You sicken me. It really is all about you isn't it.

Proud of yourself Sally?

Talk about full of yourself.

Next time you have a friend pass who is Roman Catholic, could you do him, her, or the Holy Roman Catholic Church a small favor and have your internal debates about the Holy Sacrament somewhere else. Since you are NOT in communion with the Catholic Chruch, you actually denegrated the Sacrament and your friend by taking Communion. You cheapen the Sacrament.

I know you atheists really do think you know everything, but this time, at the Trinity Church and while celebrating the life of your friend, Tim Russert, you probably could not have done him a greater dishonor. As a Roman Catholic myself, I am appauled regarding your lack of respect!

Did I say thanks?

In the end it is always about Sally. How sad!

i am talking about appointment of Embassy of USA besides Armenia has been postponed for a month. and the israelian soldier that used his armament for his head in the farewell ceremony team for SArkozy Nikolas.

and also an advertorial of TurkTelekom that had been purchased by Jordan. any authority has not seen me in public, on TV or face to face, just photos on internet and municipility cameras.

bak Durmazlar AS Volkswagen ve Microsoftu getirdi, sen neredesin canim kardesim?

tebesir Cemcim, tebesir. haykirmak baska konu. degistirdigin kanallar ile yedigin pastalar da afiyet olsun. karikaturcusun, karikaturcu kal kardesim. Cem Uzan ve Urdun iyi para veriyor mu? afiyet olsun. onur lazim, iman lazim. yedigin ekmegin geldigi yeri bilmen lazim. yanlis mi? bak biz siir yazmaya calisiyoruz. bak bize taktilar borcu oturuyoruz burada. RAhmi Koc ile Sabanci simdi baska yerlerde uyuyor. istersen yardim et borcumu odeyeyim. ASELSAN'da olanlar sana da oluyor mu? Israilde toren kitasinda kendini vuran polis icin ne dersin?

Mrs Sally Quinn, let me write in Turkish.

Cem Yilmaz'in butcesini artirsam iyi olur, baska sozluk kullandigi icin anlasmak lazim.

sevgili Cem Yilmaz, amerikanin ermenistan buyukelcisinin atanmasi bir ayligina askiya alindi ya da ertelendi. MON ne imis bakalim?

ve bu gorev verildi post-phoned.
bir ailenin tesis edilmesi icin, for one month. -th fiil eki. yani MON etmek. evet, ben simdiden yazayim, cimento karma makinesine atarlar belki. senin gibi pasta borek yedirecek degiller herhalde. ne oldu senin kilicinla koltuguna? golf sopasina mi degistin. ekmekci carpar adami yedigin para yuzunden Cemcim.

senin dikkatini cekecek olan chrisanthemum olsa gerek. ve aile. pazartesi icin azizlere dosdogru bakman lazim. budizm ve Kuthumi de goruluyor. sasirsan da gozluk de kullansan bulamazsin zaten format uymaz. ama ben sana yardimci olayim. Ermeintan da Aziz John diyor. ama Aziz John calisirsan ve bilirsen o zaman yedi kafali on borulu canavar nedir, nicin soylenmistir bilirsin. cok mu tanidik, ibrani budizm mi kokuyor? bakalim ne kokuyormus? hani gokten yagip on parca halinde dusecek olan taslar azizler mi? kimlerin azizleri? gel sen bu sorumlulgu ustune al da yiyecek et bulabiliyor musun gor. anlarsin yakinda hadislerden kiyameti.

sana yardimci olmasam bana para oderler zaten. bak Suudi Arabistan vergileri biz koyuyoruz zannetti. yakinda beyaz elbisesinin altinda bulur Ahmet peygamberi. Iran da kurtulur zeval olmadan.

1. Buddhist inhabitant of an area in eastern Burma. title of respect for a Roman Catholic priest. second day of the week. community of monks, residence of a community of monks.
2. Same as Mono-.
3. The badge of a family, esp. of a family of the ancient feudal nobility.
4. The most frequent form of the mon is circular, and it commonly consists of conventionalized forms from nature, flowers, birds, insects, the lightnings, the waves of the sea, or of geometrical symbolic figures; color is only a secondary character.
5. It appears on lacquer and pottery, and embroidered on, or woven in, fabrics.
6. The imperial chrysanthemum, the mon of the reigning family, is used as a national emblem.
7. Formerly the mon of the shoguns of the Tokugawa family was so used.
8. A prefix signifying one, single, alone; as, monocarp, monopoly; indicating that a compound contains one atom, radical, or group of that to the name of which it is united; as, monoxide, monosulphide, monatomic, etc. the Mon-Khmer language spoken by the Mon people a member of a Buddhist people living in Myanmar and adjacent parts of Thailand.
9. Mon. is a written abbreviation for Monday. Mon Oct.
10. Monday. Man. the written abbreviation of Monday. Any member of a people thought to have originated in western China and currently living in the eastern delta region of Myanmar (Burma) and in west-central Thailand. They have lived in their present area for the last 1,200 years and brought Myanmar its writing (Pali) and its religion (Buddhism). Rice and teak are their most important agricultural products. Today they number more than 1.1 million. See also Dvaravati; Mon kingdom. Mon kingdom Mon Khmer languages Mons Jovis Olympus Mons.

Russert still supported those who supported abortion.

It doesn't matter what your faith is, what matters is how you feel about your life. If Tim Russert reached out to help you with your boy, good for him and great for you. Catholics aren't the only ones who take communion. The arrangement of "Over the Rainbow" is by Iz, a sweet voice who left us much too soon in Hawaii.

tckimlik.nvi.gov.tr/Web/VerifyIdentityNumber.aspx

every pain has a budget for a laughter
all to do is to comprehend one another
brother and brother, sister and sister
with two hands given blossoms a flower

in Courier New, on Earth.

Perhaps, Sally Quinn will be bringing pork rinds as a snack to her next Bar Mitzvah...

Then again, of course not!

She saves her irreverently reported disrespect/hate for Catholicism.

@ Jess,

Could you point to the exact lines in the NT where Jesus says the following: "if you know what you're doing, you are blessed"

I assume you are thinking of Echart Tolle or the like.

Really, Jess, your new age, individualistic and selfish version of religion very small.

It is NOT about you. Or Sally. It is about God and obedience to His will.

Quinn's arrogance and self-centered views are an abomination.

As for Holy Communion it is not something to be taken lightly or without grace and, those who do so, are disrespectful of Catholics, but more importantly they disrespect and endanger themselves.

This is not about relativism, multiculturalism, and PC spirituality - it is about the Truth, the Light and the Way.

Enter the Church and do the required learning and penance before you make such grave and disrespectful errors.

In my own experiments with doubt and faith, I went through a time when I took communion at several different Christian churches, including the Catholic church, after contemplating for a long time the words of Jesus, "if you know what you're doing, you are blessed..."
I was never intending to insult anyone, only to find a few answers to my personal faith questions.
Imagining Mr. Russert was participating from his new vantage point, I can't help but think he fully enjoyed and deeply approved of Ms. Quinn's sincere reaching for comfort in this heartfelt private moment with her dear departed friend.
To suggest she was insulting anyone at all is to affirm the many walls and divisions and legalistic distinctions among religions, essentially promoting the argument that those with different affiliations are "other" and therefore "less than" - this is the essence of intolerance. And that the only God is the one who believes and acts according to MY community's understanding and creed.
There has been too much suggestion for too long that we revive shunning and its variants as a meaningful religious practice. Much that passes for discussion is polluted by such bias. This judgmentalism is little more than wedge politics at it's most patently cynical.

I burst into tears upon hearing the news of Tim Russert's death. I didn't know him personally and had never had the good fortune of meeting him (though I always wished I'd had), but I grew up watching him on Meet the Press, and I could not imagine waking up on Sunday and not seeing his smiling face.

Before heading to church (we're Irish Catholic) just two days after he passed away, I said to my dad, "the priest better mention Tim Russert." My dad said, "good people die every day and they are never mentioned by the priest, so don't bet on it." And to my dad's astonishment, the priest's entire homile was about Tim Russert and what a wonderful example he was for all fathers on Father's Day. I could only smile and wipe a tear thinking about how many lives he touched.

Sundays and Washington just won't be the same without him.

What a wonderful tribute. I am, however, disappointed that you consciously chose to dishonor your friend and his faith by disregarding the teachings of the Catholic Church concerning the Eucharist.

Sally has accomplished her goal which was to get people to come to her silly blog that mixes politics and religion to comment on her actions that make a mockery of the Church.

To Sally Quinn:
Thank you for your writings. However, we who did not know Tim Russert are now entering the third week of non-stop public discussion of the death of this man who was not elected to public office. It seems that the mainstream media is engaging in what one brilliant reporter called "nacissism on stilts". This is not so much about Russert as it is about the importance of his media friends, how well they knew this high-placed executive (who was a model for the power the media holds over the public airwaves) and how that fact means they also are part of the power-fraternity. Wolf Blitzer held non-stop news reports, other stations broke into programs to announce the death, each person appearing to emphasize the closeness of his own personal relationship with Russert. Rest in peace.

Sally

You have so uniquely explained Tim Russert. We live outside Hamilton, Ontario only a little more than an hour's drive from Buffalo. I am American born and we, my Canadian husband and myself, always felt privileged to view any of Tim Russert's commentaries be it on Meet the Press, the Today show or the evening news.

When he died aside from our terrible personal grief we felt a distance between political truth and The Truth. Tim gave us all a unique gift in his lessons, and one which we would hope can garner those gifts and use them as armor in future political challenges.

Now we are less protected given his absence, less truthful, less hopeful. His loss will taste bitter for decades to come. However his memory will never tarnish.

Linda & John Jamieson

Just so you know --

Sally is the wife of one-time great Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. This is the ONLY reason her stuff gets on line or in the paper.

I once talked to a Post reporter about her. He said there were two schools of thought about Sally in the newsroom. One said that she would be fired the moment Ben left the paper. The other said that they might wait three minutes.

Poor Tim. Do you think having to hang out with Sally was the straw that broke the back?

With all due respect, Herz, what an Episcopalian believes the rules of the Catholic Church should be is irrelevant. Or no more relevant than my sense of whether the Jews should continue their dietary regulations.

Neither is the issue so simplistic as to be about Sally Quinn being in need of some bread and us denying her that tasty, nutritious bread. Of course, Jesus would feed the hungry, even the incredibly rich hungry, I suppose. But communion, as its name implies, is about communion with Christ and Christ's Church. As Sally Quinn is not in communion with the Catholic Church and, by her own admission, does not even believe that communion is what we believe it to be, it makes no sense for her to partake in it.

A side point: I am not aching to participate in religious traditions of other faiths from which I am excluded. Not only do I not chafe at being excluded; I could care less. Why the passionate need to participate in religious exercises the fundaments of which you do not even believe?

Enough Russert! i can't think of any other business whose members spend so much of their time hugging themselves.

Sally: This is a beautiful article about a genuinely decent fellow. Apparently he did not have a phony bone in his body.
As a Catholic, I know you're not supposed to receive Holy Communion, but stuff happens. The commenters who are ripping you for this are missing the forest for the trees.
Keep the faith Sally!

What would Jesus do ...

... if an unbeliever, out of the desire to be close to a recently dead friend whose faith she admired, had the nerve to come to His table and ask to be included?

Would he say, "Away from me, you unbaptized unbeliever, shame on you?"

Or would he say, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest"?

Geez, people, get with the spirit of Christ.

Signed, an Episcopalian who is struggling with the whole issue of eucharist for the unbaptized, but has NO doubts about this particular instance.

As for Tim N's comment about the "loveliness" of Sally Quinn's "mistake" in receiving communion in a Catholic Church in violation of the Church's plain and long-standing and well-known regulations.

A mistake? Then Sally better turn in her "on faith" credentials. This was a knowing decision on her part.

I wonder if Ms. Quinn would consider a trip to Mecca (in contravention of Islam) in order to "feel closer" or "more in communion" with her Moslem friends. And then I wonder if she would announce to the world this insult to Islam.

But I forgot. This is only the Catholic Church. The intelligentsia should feel free to brazenly violate its rules, even within its own walls. And there will be plenty of excuse-makers, even within the Church, who will call such an insult "lovely."

The Catholic faith welcomes all to the table, but limits Holy Communion only to those who profess to believe. The Catholic faith also teaches us not to judge you.

So as a Catholic, I prefer to view your knowingly accepting Holy Communion as an attempt to BE in communion with Tim Russert. It was a mistake, but a lovely mistake.

I remember Tim Russert. He's the one that could not tell a lie because Sister Teresa told him to always tell the truth when he was in the seventh grade. It was him who caused Scooter Libby to need that pardon from W. It's a shame everyone didn't get instructions from Sister Teresa like Tim.

So much for honesty at NBC.

Let me add to the chorus: Perhaps you meant well, but it is not acceptable in many Christian denominations to take Holy Communion if you are not an adherent of that faith and adequately prepared (such as having confessed your sins according to the precepts of that faith). This applies not only to Roman Catholics, but to Protestant denominations as well. You should have known better. But it's clear that you don't because of the way you wrote about your selfish decision to take communion at Russert's mass.

Everybody has mentioned that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was played from Tim's iPod. The musician is the late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, who was born and died in Honolulu, Hawai'i. He was a member of the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau.
Credit where it's due :-)

Dear Sally,

Loved reading your article on Tim Russert. He lived his Faith and Beliefs. Praise God!

Are you a Christian now Sally?

Claudia

It is completely impermissible for Sally Quinn to have taken communion at Tim Russert's funeral. Only Catholics and Orthodox Christians are permitted to do so and, even then, they must be in a state of grace when they do take part in the Eucharist. This is nothing new. Sally Quinn either does know or should have known this (after all, she presumes to host a blog on faith.)

Were I to walk into a synagogue or mosque or Protestant church and blatantly ignore the requirements of those religions, I would rightly be considered at the very least boorish if not intentionally insulting to the religion in question.

But I suppose we are only dealing with a Catholic church. So Sally Quinn should feel free to do what she pleases. The arrogance is breathtaking.

Thank-you for sharing. I have heard many stories of his kindness and thoughtfulness. I am encouraged to share my faith in the same way he did. Treating others as I would want to be treated.

Sally is the head Catholic-basher on the Washington Post.

Sure, there are others, such as Susan Jacoby et al, but Sally Quinn takes the cake.

Who else would dare to insult and profane Catholics by taking Holy Communion when she knows this is a major violation of tradition and conscience?

Try to imagine her attacking the Jewish people the way she attacks Catholics...or desecrating one of their holiest ceremonies in a similar manner that she has done with Catholic communion.

I am writing the editors of the Washington Post to request the removal of this bigoted and intolerant moderator of "On Faith"

I suggest you do the same.

the last Inquisition against Templers because of Witchcraft and Spellers, as they did in Temple of David and Solomon, was in Spain.

CAida is Fallen in Spanish.
FAllen is "to become, to come, to happen" in German.

Katastrophe is the Land Register Man.
is it similar to Tax Collector, St MAtthew, teacher of St MAtthias the 14th?

and now i see what happened in Ankara after 1987 around 1991 with electromagnetics of mobile phones and Hydrogen atom as it is used in MAgnetic Resonance Imaging and Cha-llenger Space Shuttle 2.000.000 liters of liquid hydrogen!.

the problem is how did the 111th Pope, Pope Ben-edictus differentiate the messages that had been presented to Him! some nuclear energy using countries didnt hesitate to please Pope Benedictus till His death!

Sally, Blaise Pascal, one of the most lauded scientists and mathematicians, in 1670 wrote "Pensees" ("Thoughts"), a treatise on skepticism, reason, and knowing God. He maintained that God chooses to not have His existence provable by reason and material science's evidence. Instead, Pascal says that God is detectable by the human heart: "274. All our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling...277. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and also itself naturally, according as it gives itself to them; and it hardens itself against one or the other at its will. You [atheists and agnostics] have rejected the one [God] and kept the other ["your own heart" - yourself]. Is it by reason that you love yourself? [No, it is by your heart's decision.] 278. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason." The hypothesis that that God's existence must be demonstrable by material means or else He must not exist is not demonstrable by reason, and so to maintain it as true, one must BELIEVE it - give one's heart to it. So don't think that you are ABOVE believing because you may profess yourself to be an agnostic or atheist - you simply have chosen to irrationally limit the breadth of your search for God. I am praying for you.

R.S. Newark

do you know where Mars is?

in Spanish MAR is SEA, MARY is the Ocean of Compassion, a name substitute for Jesus Christ with open consciousness.

in Turkey is Marmara Sea where there are 12 islands in the Following Sea. also in Marmaris Irish and British are living all year long.

MARS is SUKUT, FALLEN,
MARS is those who have fallen

there is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a planet that had collided with another planet.

now can you tell me, R.S. Newark, who did fall because of the Roman War God, Mars? to fall in German is to come, to happen.

in Istanbul is St Anthony, patron of passengers, sailors and lost ones.

now who are those asteorid stones between Jupiter of Asian Mythology and Mars of Roman Mythology? Uranus is Father and Son, Jupiter is Holy Spirit Universal Godpsed.

did you get, R.S. Newark, at least the language?

we are talking about whether on MArs the white mass under the sand is ice or salt.

and to MArs, the fuel was the boron mineral from Turkey. now, do you know where MArs is?

R.S.Newark,

to whom you address must be Phoenicians, not Americans, if you know the difference.

Dear Sally: you are so presumingly hateful of Roman Catholicism. Should I attend an athiests convention I wouldn't have anything to do with their sacraments. Please tell us all why you knowingly profane catholics by accepting the euchrist. People must be prepared for the reception of a sacrement. You are trully grossly ignorant. But then I'm sure you enjoy being so. Rather than hatefully bashing catholic beliefs try loving them, that's what they try to feel for you.

how is Your Son today, Mrs SAlly Quinn?

we didnt talk about Canada, Alzheimer, Ubuntu, Africa, France, Hillary Clinton and Her Opponent Tim Russert.

sometimes, planets are weightless as are astronauts in the space journey, i think Pope Benedictus may with His prayers invite the Planets to visit the Earth. this is a project of NASA, so easy to perform. or is this in the Mythology for Africa? the person who has verbalized the Life of Ahmet prophet must be from the family who verbalized the Greek Mythology!

do You agree with me, Mrs Sally Quinn? everytime it is getting easier.

Dear Sally

Since Tim Russert meant so much to you and you will miss him, I send you my heartfelt condolences. The interview you did with him was so moving for you helped bring out the authenticity of Tim Russert even to a complete stranger like me who never watched him on American TV. Thank you for this beautiful tribute so beautifully expressing your deepest emotions for Tim Russert.

Best wishes
Soja

i dont want to be busy, i dont want to be disturbed by God and God cases, where there is not any astronomy and where people are not on board.

so calm down any one and provide with any necessity for any one on Earth to be able to be on board in peace. any one comes on board where there is good music.

calm Pope Benedictus and Israel down and take their heads up to the astronomy. if You may, give children a telescope, a sleeping bag and a tent in stead of a computer. we dont need a car.

the King of Mongolians is in UK, and Mongolians live in Anadolu, high percentage of the population and religious practise.

Mrs Sally Quinn, how do You know Greeks? Prime Minister, Foreign Minister? Karamanlis? Bakoyanni? King of England Husband of Elizabeth the Queen? You know She had visited Bursa on MAy 14th.

do You think there shall be a nice concert on Earth? i love planets. they are the only accompany on this journey on ship in space.

now Williams Bush, when the noise ends, we shall be able to go on. should You? do you want to hear the music of planets? or would You like to taste Ulker Chocolate Wafer, Ulker is Seven Sisters Pleiades Poetry, You know, wine grape kangoroo.

i want United Nations, Belgium, not European Union. may Peace be in Europe, but i want to be in United Nations. European Union already has appeared to be disgusting, i speak as an individual in Bursa, personally, You know.

shall "Air Force One" in France help You with the earthquake? or shall we begin with St MArkus Lighthouse Earthquake Astronomy Egypt again?

in a chorus, especially in case of Yom Kippur and Atonement, considering the 11. day the concert shall be performed on, all parties come to harmony. no other party overcome each other.

even the music stand and also the one leaning onto the Venus Column in the Concert Hall.

Nikolas Sarkozy had been appointed as Honour Bishop besides Vatican. each party should insist on their partition and they should provide with fluency and harmony, in accordance with other parties.

now, Mrs SAlly Quinn, did You get me? did i get Nikola Tesla? did You get Israel? did Israel get Vatican? did Williams Bush get me?

do You drink beer, wine or milk, Ms Sally Quinn? have You watched Brother Bear? i love honey and pear, but the problem is a bear may crash your head with a rock while you are sleeping and a fly is on your face, just in order the fly not disturb you in your sleep.

why do polar caps melt and the bears are in water and on land again? fresh water source according to Enoch-Ra is ice caps on the mountains. and flood is known with Noah-Hathor, known after Atlantis the Mediterranean Sea, that Nikola Sarkozy had offered to unite again.

do You know any one in Switzerland and France around CERN Experiment Plant? the energy shall be measured with flappings of a mosquito. what shall Pope Benedictus do? shall He be in harmony?

or shall He go on insisting on his piece of music? or which party shall quit the chorus? smoking boy that burnt the roof of the school? he was never in the chorus, but he didnt steal money. but the other one is music stand. Mos? Mu? Mosque? Church? Moses? Zeus? Enoch? Flies?

have You read the Tenth Day of Lobsang Rampa, the Tibetan in England with a second body, Williams Bush? the tear-line under the Atlantic Ocean that shall shake USA with an Earthquake?

we have not talked about Greeks, have we Mrs Sally Quinn?

yesterday, as You have supervised, we talked about South CArolina and Milk under "i know You can do that" article of Claire Hoffman. Budget and Cheese reminded me Budwise beers.

i sometimes think about this Phoenician CArthadian Roman Byzantine Ottoman city i am in under a mountain.

in wikipedia, Phoenicians are from Persia. Barack Obama is in relation with Armenians, Hillary Clinton left to support the magician. according to Obama, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Kirk Kerkorian has increased the share in stock market for FIAT motor company that had supported Hitler against Russia and Israel in the second world war. Armenians had died in the first one.

is John Edwards an available atonement, Mrs Quinn?

israel newspapers have captions as "Carla Bruni with Her Husband is visiting Israel", and we are talking about the phoenicians and romans. such a caption is like Huka Dance in New Zealand.

i greet John McCain and Mike Huckabee today.

www.illusionlicensing.com/books/Masters.jpg
this is de-caption

exception, conception, deception
www.seslisozluk.com/?word=caption

"lafla peynir gemisi yurumez"
(ship of cheese dows not walk with speech)

(gemstone of astronomer does not move with planets but speech)
(vehicle of master with bridle does not walk with speech but laugh)
(sheep of cheese does not walk with deception but speech and laugh) planets?

General Motors Company in USA (GeMiSi GMC)
and General Medical Council in UK

www.classicsnetwork.com/showcreativeprint.asp?IDNo=1261
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePfedTu544

motor : engine
engano : deception
engino : engineering

the fiancee of the mother was engineer

oh, we are talking about Cheese of GMC.
St George, M and C, the georgeous energy : )

Les Christes, it was May 14th, may you too : )
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQg-3wkzJ3s

every pain has a budget for a laughter, Mrs Sally Quinn.

the quality and level of consciousness in a community is known with the elders.

there is not any letter for you today, Mrs Sally Quinn, in my bag, because my colleague who is responsible for your district shall render the letter with your address.

but yesterday in the office we talked about frankness and intimacy should be replied with frankness and intimacy.

if we have come once, then we have come many times and may come many times. the difference between human beings is this. otherwise if it were just for once, then we should have met similar beginnings. the difference is between the tasks, as you have met with Tim Russert.

the problem is "why did god let this happen", here at this point let me remind being community and the consciousness and this re-imbodiment.

dyslexia may be related with phoenicians and romans. the hole in the heart, we had a joke with my colleague "for the chimney or for the woods", St Nicholas was with me yesterday, he is the chief in the office. he told me about St John's Wort "1001 holes" but later medicine reminded us the cave that Jesus had rested with medicine after the tough investigation.

Seven Sleepers have been teachers in the cave, the golden money that dates back to grandgrandfather of the empire and the bread are the seven sleepers have wanted to have a daily life around with the education of grandgrandfather's time, but the community has changed much, has not been rendered sure from heart to heart.

after this explanation of the cave we may talk about lexicon and D-Y-S, i am not familiar with letters much, but maybe you know these letters.

in Mevlana Rumi, "be how you appear or appear who you are". for this transaction we need the language, the language of courier and bridge. and we have been learning, practising and developing this language of appearance, some say materialization with respect to Maternity and Earth.

Look at that evil, plastic smile that Sally Quinn paints on every day to hide the blackness of her soul...

Perhaps the hag will be the queen of hell in ten years.

Tim Russert served Rome's Fifth Column well. Were he an American patriot he would not have permitted the Anti-Christ's minions to slide by so easily after the proof surfaced of their having committed 9-11, nor would he have left this life without using his great intelligence to independently deduce the murderers of John Kennedy and Dr. King who sent us to die for his pope in Vietnam.

As none of us leaves this planet alive, it's better to live with honor than to die without it.

www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com

Sally -

One more thought about Tim's Rainbow: what kind of god thinks that it's more important to provide a rainbow for the elite of DC upon the death of a newsman while at the same time, people are dying and losing all of their possessions to floods out in the midwest? You'd think that god would have his priorities straight, even if the DC elite's opinion of themselves is so inflated that they entertain thoughts that god paid a special visit to them on 6/18 while the simple folk of the midwest were left to fend for themselves.

Perhaps you felt queasy after Holy Communion because you are filled with evil and malice?

The two do not mix.

But you will personally find out this truth in a couple of years...unless you change your heart.

Sally Quinn,
I find your article great, but instead of "communion" I prefer "Holy Communion".
Rudy Giuliani is being denied to receive Holy Communion because of is pro-choice stand.
That raises a question mark about you receiving it.
Tim was an expert in many fields but not in religion. Nobody can be an expert on every subject. You could have put him in bind also by asking him when was the last time that he read or re-read some of the very important books ( non-fictional) by historian Robert M. Price.

"Tim's rainbow? Even the atheists were blown away?"

Good lord, Sally. Are you kidding?

Here's an item for you: a guy named Scott from Cohassat, MA was hit by a bolt of lightening on Friday night (video on CNN right now). It was his 49th b'day! His b'day!

Now, would you call that a pure coincidence, or does god have something against Scott...or against guys named Scott turning 49?

Should we be speaking of "Scott's lightening bolt" the way you speak about "Tim's rainbow?" After all, the only difference I can see is that Scott was around to experience his weather event while Tim was not.

Why do I get the feeling that were the entire DC press corp in Cohassat to witness Scott being hit by a lightening bolt, that they would have called it a coincidence, while an occurrence as common as a rainbow gets labeled as "Tim's rainbow"?

I know you all loved and admired Tim, but, c'mon.

I have been reading and re-reading the interesting comments regarding Tim Russert from everyday people, some good some not so good, however, I would say instead of questioning "Why?", I would say "Why Not?". This was a man of great faith, great strength, a wonderful sense of value, and a man that did not just give to others but gave more than any dollar amount, he gave of himself. I watched the memorial service, and was so moved by all those wonderful tributes, and reminding myself of not only of my father's death when I was just 16 but, again, 23 years later last year of my mother's passing and how the Psalms brought my family comfort during both of those times. We as human beings are walking through the Valley of the shadow of death, but, knowing the reward of the table that is prepared for those who believe, just as Tim Russert, what great joy to know what meets us on the other side!

The communion is not about you, Sally, or being close to Tim....

You really are outrageous and disrespectful.

The idea that you are a "moderator" on this page says a lot about Newsweek and the Washington Post...

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Uh, you do know, Sally, that non-Catholics are not supposed to take Communion, right? That, in fact, it might be considered disrespectful toward Catholics to take Communion?

I suppose, though, that since you consider yourself an atheist, it's OK to disregard the Catholic Church's rules and be disrespectful toward Catholics, right?

Sally,
That was a wonderful article. Belief in the unknown God(s) is human I suppose. Though there is no proof of such, for people of Tim Russert’s visibility to even have a faith shows how similar we all are. There seems to be a bug in the human brain that has a need to believe. Eventually we all have to live out lives and make peace with that nagging intangible sense. As long as no one can prove God, religion must remain private. No country should be allowed to mandate ones faith let alone disseminate one.

I hope Sister Sal appreciates that the rainbow was a gift to her (and probably other mourners, too) from God, as well as an invitation to reach out IN FAITH (not hubris) to Him, The One Who Is. I am praying for her to summon the courage to be honest (which will lead her to humility) about what ultimate truths humans REALLY can ever know about REALITY using only sensory evidence. Sufficient honesty will produce that humility which, I am certain, combined with her intelligence and current knowledge of the evidence, will lead her to the same reasonableness for hope that her friend Tim had (and now, probably no longer has need of because he is probably in heaven - experiencing God's presence with no more need of Faith or Hope. And so, for Tim, only Love, the greatest of the theological virtues, remains. And God IS agape - selfless Love.

Wow! Really lovely rememberance. thanks.