Thursday's Show: Bluto's Birthday

   Happy birthday to comic genius John Belushi. Had he overcome his addictions, he'd likely be with us today and turning 64 years old. My question of the day: What is your favorite John Belushi character? Here's a refresher if you need one.

   Also, why UK fans who are bailing on Coach Cal--you know who you are--are showing early signs of dementia.

   I'll also have Amy Thompson, a parishioner from the Cathedral of Christ the King, on to talk about their marriage ministry team and an upcoming couples' study
   
   More also on Christian unity on today's show, and what Pope Benedict means when he says we no longer believe in an "ecumenism of return," and how we should not hold to a view of Christian unity that involves non-Catholic Christians returning to Rome with their tail between their legs and rejecting their particular patrimony. As the Holy Father states, "This unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not! It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in disciplines."

St. Francis de Sales

   In other words, our task is somewhat different than the man whose feast day is today, St. Francis de Sales, who in the decades after Protestantism began gently returned thousands in France to the Catholic faith. But today's Protestants, according to the Catechism are not culpable for the divisions within Christianity to the degree as those historically closer to the separation (which includes some culpable Catholics, by the way). The Catechism quotes a document from Vatican II: "However, one cannot charge with the sin of separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers..All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church." (Lumen Gentium)

   Our task, then, is to find a way forward to Christian unity that recognizes the fullness of the Christian faith subsisting in doctrinal, apostolic, and sacramental unity with Rome but expressed in the diverse and mutual gifts all the baptized have to share together. The task much continue, quoting again the Catechism, "The Church's mission stipulates efforts toward Christian unity. Indeed divisions among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of Catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the Church herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life her full catholicity in all its aspects.'"