In response to several articles and in particular a column by Robert Novak about pro-choice Catholic politicians receiving Holy Communion during the papal visit, Edward Cardinal Egan this week issued a public statement admonishing Mayor Giuliani for breaking an understanding they had about receiving the Eucharist.

The cardinal had stated earlier: “I don’t believe in getting into politics. I don’t believe in getting into political conflict. I do believe in getting into matters of morality and ethics.” Conversely, another pastor is embroiled in controversy for doing precisely what the cardinal seeks to avoid.

Senator Obama’s former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., has been making appearances before the press and on television defending his sermons, which have been described as anti-American and advocating black separatism. Mr. Obama has had to distance himself from the man he’s known as his pastor for more than 20 years. When Rev. Wright’s sermons were first publicized, Mr. Obama attempted to excuse the fiery speeches as the rantings of an “old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with.” He now has been forced to condemn them outright because they are harming his presidential ambitions.

Cardinal Egan has shown true wisdom by refusing to add fodder to controversy, instead dealing with his flock on a one-to-one basis. Thus his statement reads, “I deeply regret that Mr. Giuliani received the Eucharist during the Papal visit here in New York, and I will be seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding.” That should be the end of this headline story, unless Mr. Giuliani publicizes it even more.

I found Rev. Wright’s recent interview with Bill Moyers very revealing, though Mr. Moyers did nothing to elicit this epiphany. Answering the critics who call his Trinity United Church congregation a cult, Rev. Wright said: “They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison ministry. They know nothing about our food share ministry. They know nothing about our senior citizens’ home. They know nothing about all we try to do as a church and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to be together — the world before church and the world after postlude. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.”

These performances of charity are key to the message of Jesus Christ, who also said, “Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” Rev. Wright is making the mistake that many Catholic priests of the 1960s made: an adherence to liberation theology, forgetting that Jesus Christ was not political. Judas betrayed him for that one reason.

Many of Rev. Wright’s comments in the Moyers interview involved politics, not the works of mercy that his congregation engages in. Perhaps that is why he’s drawn fire from pundits on both sides of the political spectrum. It is a pity that a man with his intelligence and strong personality uses the pulpit to promote a victim agenda and divisiveness in the black community. He and other preachers like him do a huge disservice to their congregations if they do not embrace the philosophy of personal responsibility. Instead they shill for politicians with “walk-around money” who promote programs that perpetuate dependency.

When I was a parishioner at Our Lady of the Scapular Church in Manhattan in the 1970s, a young priest, Father Jim, held “Dignity” meetings there, unbeknownst to the pastor. Dignity is a national lay movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Catholics that diverges from the church-approved Courage ministry because it sanctions homosexual activity. During Mass one Sunday, Father Jim asked us to pray that Anita Bryant would lose her battle in Florida against hiring gays in public schools.

The following week, Father Jim railed against a parishioner’s letter to him criticizing his use of the pulpit for his own agenda, and he spent an hour on the issue of gay rights instead of preaching about the gospel. My husband was on the altar, providing hymn music for the service, and when he heard the priest turn the Mass into a rant, he walked out.

That’s what Mr. Obama should have done at least once in those 20 years, but I don’t blame him for not having the fortitude to do so. He is, after all, what Rev. Wright called him — a politician.

acolon@nysun.com