"Maybe we don't have to tell people they're wrong...."

I am not going to caricature the position of this Catholic media commentator the way she see fit to caricature Cardinal Burke's.

Because she is, after all, appearing on a secular news program.

And maybe she has to soft pedal hard truths, and even dumb down what the Church teaches, since her audience is not people who are already committed to Catholic teaching, like,  the readers and viewers of Catholic media, or say... oh, I don't know, another cardinal or even a whole group of senior churchmen discussing dogmas, doctrines and disciplines,  like, you know, say... a synod.

Because if you weren't playing to, let's say, people who are either ignorant of Church teaching, or people who have already made it clear they don't believe in Church teaching, you would be able to, in fact you would need to speak a little more.... pardon me, Pope Francis, but meticulously.

We already have plenty of putative Catholics who haven't a clue to what the Church teaches. Do we really want to affirm them in their cluelessness?

I don't know about you, but most of us Catholics don't minister to our brothers and sisters in the same words with which we express our beliefs.

But if we can't know and define and express those beliefs than how can we ever share them with those who don't yet belong fully to the Body of Christ, what are we going to be able to do for our brothers and sisters? give them a hug and a piece of meatloaf? isn't there more to the Church than making people feel okay in this life?

Don't you think, or won't you at least give him the benefit of the doubt, that Cardinal Burke knows how to speak pastorally when being pastoral is called for?
But when discussing doctrine, don't you want him to be able to say a bit more than, Oh, sin, schmin, what's it matter as long as you're a nice person?

And don't we need doctrine?
Don't we want the lost sheep to know what's waiting for them when they come home?

One last thing, Miss Ambrosio, are you telling us that there are people who "might not be quite perfect in our eyes" as if there were people who ARE "perfect in our eyes"?

"Our eyes"?
Who's the "we" here? 'Cause I don't know of any Catholic leaders making distinctions between these people who are or aren't "perfect."