Cardinal Dolan on the Colbert Report

I don't normally watch TV but I happened to turn it on tonight because the wife is out of town and I was a bit bored (never a good reason, feel free to give me crap about that). I watched the end of The Daily Show with John Stewart and was staying tuned for The Colbert Report when I noticed on facebook that Cardinal Dolan of New York was going to be the guest. Interesting! So I kept watching and quite enjoyed the guest spot.

A lot of the guest segment was devoted to Colbert asking Cardinal Dolan questions about Pope Francis. One of the questions was regarding Pope Francis saying something regarding Christ saving atheists. Colbert jokingly asked why he should go to mass then if he didn't need it to get to heaven (Colbert is Catholic). I quite enjoyed Cardinal Dolan's answer regarding that we don't go to mass to "win heaven", we go to mass to give thanks to God.

At another point Colbert brought up the "Who am I to judge?" quote from Pope Francis regarding homosexuals. Cardinal Dolan gave a very good answer regarding that Christ told us that we cannot judge people. We can judge actions, but not people. He gave a good example of Bernie Madoff, that he (Dolan) cannot judge Madoff as a person because he does not know his soul or his heart. He can judge Madoff's actions, but not Madoff as a person. Excellent example in my opinion.

The guest segment was nice and long. They even took a commercial break in the middle of the segment, which I haven't seen on the Report before. Cardinal Dolan was in very good humor throughout, he laughed a lot at Colbert when Colbert was putting on his thick satirical personality.

I am sure that some will be a little put off by a Cardinal going on a comedy news show (on Comedy Central no less). In the end though, I thought that it was quite excellent. Dolan was able to show a side of Church authority that most people never see in their lives. He was humorous and good-natured but clearly cared about the content that he was giving. He was very approachable and reasonable.

Colbert went pretty easy on Dolan, which is to be expected. It is telling that Cardinal Dolan was Colbert's first guest after a short hiatus. Colbert does not attempt to hide his Catholicism, though it could be questioned how in line his views are with the Church's teaching on several issues. An interesting clip to watch if you haven't seen it before is his interview of an atheist named Phillip Zimbardo. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/149094/february-11-2008/philip-zimbardo

I believe that good will come of this particular interview. We need more engagement of the culture while not watering down truth. Bravo to Cardinal Dolan for being willing to do this interview.