Clearly Not the Poor's Fault if They are Poor': Georgetown Priests and Protesters Attack Ryan and Budget

The intersection of faith and politics has become quite contentious in recent days.  The secular and the conservative seem as at war within the congregation as they are within congress.  And as the government encroaches more intimately into one's healthcare and pocket book, matters of faith are co-opted by default.  Gay marriage, birth control, prayer, mosques, God and guns are a topic of daily battle, from both sides.

The question of where and how a nation spends its money has become a moral one, and that issue may predictably be the epoch of our era.  On April 26th, a bitter political budget battle was turned into a question of faith on the campus of Georgetown University.  Father Thomas Reese, a fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, drafted a letter to upcoming speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, who is a devout Catholic.  The letter condemned Ryan's fiscally conservative budget as "decimating the poor" and harshly accused the Budget Chairman of "misuse of Catholic teaching."

The language and explicitness of the letter, drafted by this member of the clergy, brought on immense criticism from both sides.  Ryan's speech went on, but protesters showed up. Inside and out, the message was clear, "Paul Ryan is not a good Catholic."  The Blaze was there for the Ryan speech and the protest that ensued.  We could not help ourselves but ask the burning question, "What makes Paul Ryan a bad Catholic?"

Watch the perplexing responses below: