Weigel shouldn’t dismiss Obama aspirations

Today, when the faintest wisp of optimism is a gift, it’s more than disappointing to read George Weigel, one of the nation’s sharpest Catholic minds, dismiss many of the president’s national aspirations as a “familiar litany of liberal … shibboleths.” (CR, April 23). I would prefer: Aspirations for peace yet unrealized, but worth the striving!

The poem, “Abandonment” of Charles Peguy, speaks to the point:

“God speaks . . . I know man well . . . It is I who made him.

You can ask a lot of him . . . .

You can ask a lot of kindness, a lot charity, a lot of sacrifice.

He has much faith and much charity.

But one thing you can’t ask of him, by gum, is a little hope.

A little confidence, don’t you know . … ”

May He Easter in us!

The writer is the pastor of Our Lady of the Chesapeake, Lake Shore.