Sunday, June 16

It's that time of year

At Mass this morning, we heard, through the early-Moderne/Eames speakers and above the din of babies in the back (ours included), our pastor announce that he is being transferred. My daughter whispered, with great urgency, "That means we won't have a priest!"

Not yet. In another twenty years that might be the case, but not yet.

We've only been in this parish for two years, and have no strong feelings one way or the other about this priest. Didn't know him, except through his homilies. We could do better, we could do worse. My husband later raised the quite alarming possibility that we might get the idiot Franciscan who presided here at Easter . If that transpires, we've got a real problem, my friends.

From Albany to Tampa:

Poynter has a thorough collection of wrap-up stories from today's papers.

Seminarian Steve Mattson helps us with the NYTimes piece I mentioned below.
Cranky Professor has a first hand report of Padre Pio's canonization!
An interesting analysis from the NYTimes, maintaining that the bishops did something unique for them in Dallas:

they followed public opinion.

Ultimately the church's leaders decided they had to become followers of public opinion in the hopes of regaining their credibility as leaders — a situation attested to by some bishops in their remarks from the floor and in interviews. They took this route because they felt they had no choice. They took it because it was good public relations, and they had spent untold thousands on public relations consultants who were working both behind the scenes and quite publicly at the Dallas conference. They also took it because they wanted their prophetic voice back.

I think this is a rather strange piece, but I'm too tired to figure out why. Maybe you can....

Demand for Catholic schools increasing, according to the WaPost:, including in the DC area, with these interesting new schools:

In the District, two specialized middle schools will open this fall: The Jesuit Academy, a small, rigorous, tuition-free middle school for impoverished boys on North Capitol Street, joins a similar school for girls that opened with little publicity in Southeast Washington three years ago.



St. John's College High School in Northwest Washington, operated by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, will open San Miguel Middle School, an all-boys program that is part of a growing national network designed to serve the burgeoning Latino population.


Thomas Gerrow, president of St. John's, said Latino boys are being targeted for help because they are the most at risk to drop out of school before graduation; indeed, only one-third of D.C. Latinos older than 25 have a ninth-grade education, according to the Council of Latin Agencies. A full 50 percent of the Catholics in the District are Latino, but only 6 percent of the students in the archdiocese's Catholic schools are.


From Sunday's WaPost:

Unfinished Business from Dallas:

With every indication of sincerity, including tears, the bishops accepted collective blame and apologized to the survivors of clerical abuse. But not one of them tendered his resignation or had the audacity to call on a brother prelate to step down. Instead, the bishops referred the question of their own accountability to an internal committee for six months of study, knowing full well that on Earth, at least, bishops do not answer to anyone but the pope.

It's amazing to me (should it not be? Probably) that the particularly egregious offenders in the Priest-Shuffling Dance can, in good conscience, vote for this policy which, while falling a bit short of what some called for, is still pretty tough (if applied) - and not resign themselves.