I have to say how impressed I am with the new documents. They are tackling some key issues in contraception, homosexuality, and communion. Each of them clearly states Catholic teaching without hiding behind and careful language. It seems to me they are getting more orthodox and more courageous. This is a very good thing. Now they need to go back to their parishes and sit down with their priests and tell them this kind of teaching needs to happen at that level as well. Don't duck the hard topics. Don't be afraid to talk about mortal sin. When viewed in the light of what so many other churches are going through it is could be viewed as miraculous. Large protestant churches have all seen the forces of liberalism increase in recent years. Sometimes they make you wonder if those churches have lost their mind. The trend isn't happening in the Catholic Church and I don't think it is because we are so much better than them. I think it has to do with supernatural intervention. God is saving us from ourselves once again.

Your Sufficiency, of insufficiency, 'here' doesn't go-there . . . BTW, I am very, very, very critical of our American hierarchy - I really, really, really need others who will tactically and faithfully defend them and even if necessary whack me down - okay? My prayers seem to result in ennui and inertia, USCCB-wise. (BUT, too, there - I reminded myself to stronger prayers . . .) I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)

PS: Of course, our posts are now re-arranged after my correction (quotation marks are important!) so it will be a bit difficult for others to follow...but the link works now. Michael "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried" "The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." - GK Chesterton

PS: Here's another beautiful document from some of the "Southern" bishops: http://www.archatl.com/archbishops/donoghue/20040804.html. Michael "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried" "The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." - GK Chesterton

The excuse, Randy, of the Offertory collection . . . Most parishes make do on very slim margins, what with physical upkeep and all. Any with a school nowadays really struggle. ('Nowadays' - what an old-fogey term . . .) However, it is in part their own faults. Miseducation in religion is coming to haunt them. As others and I have noted, at least two generations of purported Catholics need evangelization, so ignorant of doctrine and dogma are they. It will take a bold subtlety to get this 'new look' into pulpits. My own spiritual director - a widower with grown children with a late-life call to the Dominicans - admits that he wishes he could preach like I do. It isn't easy to both 'preach' and 'love', but I have learned how to express and project both well, especially in speaking. (I thank a certain lady once wed to me . . .) He has used my expressions in his homilies, and been inspired more than once by my writings to look to how to say what can be said with more 'heart-and-head' than many use, even among priests. Time will tell - right now, when a priest goes boldly into this 'new look', he simply must remember that Christ and His Spirit are with him, no matter how 'alone' he feels. Living martyr to truth, he will be given what to say. I know - I practice that when I speak - to permit the Spirit to use me. And, when I write, I am but His pen and paper . . . I remain your obedient servant, but God's first, Pristinus Sapienter (wljewell @mail.catholicexchange.com or ...yahoo.com)