Some people really do:

The Rev. Dave Casaleggio doesn't apologize for the company he keeps.

The 60-year-old Roman Catholic priest and chairman of the Las Vegas Housing Authority remains steadfastly loyal to his most controversial friends, even when questions about the friendships land him in the newspaper or, in one recent instance, before a federal grand jury.

Casaleggio, known to many as "Father Dave," doesn't seem to care much what others might think of his hanging out with the likes of former Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo or former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald, each of whom has borne his share of negative press over the years.

He uses the example of Jesus to back him up.

"It wasn't the perfect people Jesus went after," Casaleggio said. "It was the prostitutes, tax collectors and public sinners he cared about. I'm not saying they (Rizzolo and McDonald) are public sinners. But church isn't about perfect people. It's about struggling and failing."

No doubt about it, Rizzolo and McDonald are men who need the Gospel brought to them - and it is a priest or pastor's job to preach the Word of God everywhere, not just where convenient and polite. Still, as the article goes on to note, Fr. Dave did loan McDonald 30k, which is odd for a priest to do - but not as odd as a non-Catholic might think: Fr. Dave is a diocesan priest, and thus can hold private property, like the house he inherited from his parents and borrowed against to loan money to McDonald. No matter how you slice it, it took a lot of guts on the part of Fr. Dave to loan that money - to stick by his friend, even though it would certainly raise eyebrows not just amongst outsiders, but even amongst most Catholics, at least initially.

Jesus did not call the sinless to repentance, but the sinners - and he doesn't abandon anyone, no matter what they've done. So, Fr. Dave is living the Christian life, and I hope that no harm comes of it - but this is one of those situations where "judge not" really comes into play - if we don't know all the details (and we can't) then we have to suspend judgement and work on the assumpting that Fr. Dave and his friends are on the level. The hard part, of course, is actually doing this - of actually looking at the McDonalds and Rizzolos of the world and seeing Christ in them, rather than just looking at their surface sins and wanting nothing more to do with them.

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