Long article about the Sins of Bishop McCarthy

Thanks to a reader who sent on this article detailing the charge of abuse against the popular John Bertolucci.

If you haven't read it, do take a look at Andrew Vachss' cover story in Parade. It's not online yet (I didn't even know Parade had a website until just now), but I'm sure it must be hanging around somewhere in your house this Sunday afternoon and evening. It's about the difference between "sickness" and "evil" in our assessment of child abusers and predators, and why we're so reluctant to just call evil what iit is.

We are planning a little jaunt for later this week and weekend for Ontario - along the southern shore of Lake Huron, with (I think) Midland and Sainte Marie Among the Hurons Mission and the Jesuit Martyrs' Shrine as our ultimate destinations. Any suggestions for sights to see welcome!

An interesting piece from the Washington Post by a Presbyterian minister about the pros and cons of increased lay power-sharing in church structure

Welcome to my world. As a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I spend every day serving an institution that puts power in the hands of laypeople -- and I'm well aware of the assets and liabilities of such an approach. While having a voice and a vote certainly gives people more opportunities for institutional involvement and may even inspire greater commitment to the church's benevolent works, the process of democratization dilutes the purity of the church's moral message, and can undermine its influence in larger political and social spheres. Furthermore, there is no hard evidence that lay leadership provides protection against church scandals -- which is what many Voice of the Faithful members seem to be hoping.

Well, I stand corrected. We didn't, indeed, return for the race. We stayed out for the entire lovely afternoon, eating fair food, looking at art, listening to music, and letting Joseph run free at times, times which he used to destroy nature: peeling bark of a tree and ripping newly sodded (but dry) grass out one place and dumping it in another. Michael bought me a lovely piece - painting/collage kind of thing which, for some reason, caught my eye and my emotions. Arms from the sky reach down, tossing a ball that looks like the earth to a child waiting below. It's called "Catch," and it captures for me the wonder of childhood and the reason we work with God to bring children into the world - to share it and its possibilities with them.