The Cardinal Takes a Flight of Fancy

 From the New York Post:

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, in his midnight homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, welcomed two “refugee families who are here tonight.”
“They’re being resettled by Catholic Charities,’’ he said.

 
Dolan said he would not mention their names or ask them to stand. One of the families, he said, was from El Salvador.
The other, the cardinal added, is “a Muslim family from the Ivory Coast,’’ in Africa.
“Jesus was born into a family that had to flee and become refugees,” Dolan told the congregation.
“We welcome them here tonight.’’

Sorry, Cardinal, but I think this is a bogus comparison.

First, El Salavador is more than 50% Catholic. Do they not provide social services to those in need? If not, why not? There was a brutal civil war raging there....which ended in 1992.  The CIA Fact Book states:

The smallest country in Central America geographically, El Salvador has the fourth largest economy in the region.

The oppressed Ivorians are from a country that is a MAJORITY Muslim. See comments abut the Church in El Salvador.

But here's the thing that sticks in my craw. To my way of thinking, Jesus was a refugee in a sense that an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to go to Egypt. Why?
 

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:6).

So there was a direct threat to the baby Jesus. And they moved to Egypt and lived happily ever after, right? NO. We all know that the Holy Family moved BACK to Nazareth. Any chance that Cardinal Dolan's refugees will ever return to their native lands?

And lastly....what's up with the rose chasuble? On Christmas Eve? NO! Liturgical abuse! Not really...my guess is the New York Post pulled some stock photo from Gaudete (or maybe Laetare) Sunday and didn't have any Catholics on the staff to correct the mistake.