
BEND — It might be a perception that my active rejection of safe environment programs for children as an unjustified intrusion on both the innocence of the child and the integrity of the family reflects a glimmer of courage. But there too, I simply am responding to the courageous resistance to these things already manifested by hundreds of concerned and faithful Catholic laity.

BEND — Forty years ago, a Pontifical Commission reported to Pope Paul VI that in their estimation the Church’s long-standing prohibition regarding the use of artificial contraception was no longer justifiable.
The sense of the Commission was that science and technology had changed and that the Church needed to change to keep pace with the progress of the culture.

BEND — Be holy, be faithful, be firm, be compassionate, be available, be generous. This is a list of the attitudes of being which I would consider important for anyone in ecclesial ministry and especially priests. It is not by any means an exhaustive list but it is a beginning. Today I will comment on just two of these.