Menino fires back at critics over issues of faith, politics

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/10/menino_fires_back_at_critics_over_issues_of_faith_politics/

At Catholic Charities event, he delivers personal address

By Ralph Ranalli and Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | December 10, 2005

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, responding to critics who have questioned his Catholicism, last night offered an unusually pointed and personal address, saying that Jesus didn't showcase his piety or ''tell us to go around talking up God."

As a dozen pickets protested against him in front of the Catholic Charities Greater Boston Christmas dinner, Menino distanced himself from Christian politicians who seek to put God ''on courtroom walls." He said that ''a lot of political God talk makes me a little uneasy."

But the mayor, as the dinner's keynote speaker, put forward his own notion of what it means to be a Catholic in public life, saying that he draws on the values of humility and mercy in his daily work as an elected leader.

''Tonight is a rare public event outside of my parish church in which it is appropriate for me to say quite simply -- I believe in Jesus Christ," Menino said in a prepared text of his comments, which was released by aides.

''And what moves me most about being a Christian is what Jesus taught us about being religious," Menino said. ''He did not give priority to piety. He didn't make holiness the big thing. And he did not tell us to go around talking up God, either."

The speech was a relatively rare discussion of faith for Menino. It also underscored the intensifying debate nationally and in Boston about the role of faith in politics and recent efforts by more liberal and moderate Catholics to counter conservatives' success in defining Catholic values.

"Despite the protest campaign and O'Malley's withdrawal, Catholic Charities officials said that last night's dinner was sold out, and the $200,000 raised was a slight increase over previous years."

It's good to see that most here in the NE still understand what the founding fathers set up for us all those years ago. The others want to go back to a time when live & let die was the rule and people were mostly savages. I think Obama called it social Darwinism today.