A friend e-mailed yesterday after RP’s post on Sheridan: “THIS is what happens when you don’t teach a darn thing for twenty years—and when you squander moral authority by letting your peers who let priests molest children get away with it. (Isn’t it a shock Cardinal Mahoney is welcoming Kerry with open arms?)” That’s exactly the message of all Catholics have learned in the past few years, isn’t it: back to basics, all around. Back to teaching the ABCs, so to speak, of theology–in the parochial schools, high schools, colleges, and seminaries. We haven’t, and here we are. That said, I’ll stick a wee bit with my Sat. knee-jerk reax to B. Sheridan’s flawed letter: At least (am I stretching here?) there are bishops who have a sense of where we need to be, and are headed in the right direction. That’s a change, for sure. I.e. My heart’s not broken by B. Sheridan’s letter, Peter–yet.
Oremus.