Let me go out on a limb here and say that not only should that caller have been fired, but the firm should have been released and the bad press that has been accumulated by CWF for their fundraising “activities” be examined by an auditor.

Extensively.

There are some organizations that I simply refuse to help or be a part of due to personal ethics. CWF has all the hallmarks of being one of those organizations… and that’s a shame, not because of CWF, but because there are some great organizations out there that really are doing some good that have their reputations tarnished by organizations such as CWF — and that’s a shame, because there are families who really do need the help Make-A-Wish Foundation provides.

Rerum Novarum and Catholic Social Justice theory are favorite topics of mine… and yet, you’ll find that Leo XIII and subsequent popes all uniformly rejected socialism. Efforts to conflate socialism with Catholic social theory falls flat at every turn… and it has little do to with the “conservative” nature of the Church. Rather, it has much more to do with a rejection of political systems and an embrace of true faith and charity over false faith and material handouts.

I completely share your antipathy with Ayn Rand. Weigel’s critique of DeLauro remains very apt, for the same reasons you cite in criticizing the more objectivist leanings of Ryan — political Catholicism is not Catholicism at all.

I always thought it rather odd for Congressman Ryan (or any Catholic for that matter) to base his economic or political views on the works of Ayn Rand. Not because she was an atheist. Not even because of her open hostility toward the church and religion in general. But because so much of her philosophy is completely antithetical to what the Catholic church teaches us.

As a young man, I read an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 called Rerum Novarum. If you have not yet read it I highly recommend it to you. It is much easier to find then when I first read it. Easily accessible on the Vatican website. It is, in my opinion, a wonderful starting point for the development of a political and economic philosophy that is consistent with the Catholic faith.

The church being the very conservative institution it always has been you will read through several pages of the encyclical condemning the evils of socialism. Pope Leo didn’t want anyone to mistakenly think he was endorsing socialism. But then the Pontiff teaches us about the MUTUAL responsibilities of labor and capital. Something that, I’m sorry to say, seems like an alien concept to far too many 21st century Republicans. The Pope also taught us that it is the proper role of the state to promote social justice through the protection of rights.

At any rate, it is a real shame that Congressman Ryan didn’t choose from among the many great minds that the Catholic church has produced when looking for a touchstone for the development of his political and economic philosophy. He would have been far better served than by looking to the crackpot philosophy of an atheist writer of mediocre fiction who was openly hostile to the church. Instead of requiring his poor staff to read Rand he might want to pick from among the many Catholic scholars who offer something much more worthwhile for their reading list.

It might also help keep his faith and his politics far more attuned to one another.