Worth Reading

No matter what you might think of the National Catholic Reporter, you have to admit that John Allen, who reports often on events in Rome, is a real gem: thorough, insightful, respectful of the Church's hierarchy and magisterium. He is good at helping Americans understand the Roman perspective on things - including the Catholic Church in America and the American experience. In an article you can read here, Allen attempts to connect some of the clues (and leaks of the text) that indicate the content of the Holy Father's encyclical.

Allen offers a "key to reading" of "Caritas in Veritate," which will be released on Tuesday, July 7. In a word, Allen suggests a key to reading the encyclical is "synthesis."

Though the pope may not spell it out quite this way, much of Caritas in Veritate could well shape up as an attempt to synthesize three of the most persistent -- and, Benedict would doubtless say, artificial -- dichotomies in recent Catholic experience:
Personal conversion versus social reform;
Pro-life versus peace and justice commitments;
Horizontal versus vertical spirituality.
All three points can be understood as partial versions of one "grand dichotomy," that between truth and love.

I look forward to studying it myself, and with a couple of weeks in one place, I should have the opportunity to do so.

Hidden at the bottom of the article is some news about a new book on the Galileo trial, one of the tragic examples of Church members being challenged to "think outside the box" and failing. What is beautiful to see, however, is how the Church is willing to let the truth be told (although one wishes it could happen a bit sooner at times...although I'm sure there are reasons - good and bad - for it taking this long). Bishop Sergio Pagano was the featured speaker at the press conference.

He was on hand to present a new edition of Vatican Documents of the Trial of Galileo Galilei (1611-1741), the 1984 volume which Pagano edited at the request of the late Pope John Paul II. Pagano said the new edition is the "most complete" and "most careful" collection of material from Galileo's case, including 20 new documents discovered after 1984. (The new material, however, is not exactly a blockbuster; several of the texts are versions of a Vatican edict refusing to grant permission to read Galileo's books. (For the record, Pagano said the requests came from Dominicans.)

The line that it was Dominicans in the past (Allen doesn't mention when the request came) who asked to read Galileo's books was interesting, and made me proud of my Dominican heritage. Dominicans, like St. Thomas Aquinas, are at their best when they're willing to search for the truth in places that others dismiss out of hand. So St. Thomas read pagan philosophers and the works of Muslim and Jewish scholars and incorporated the truth he found in their writings with Catholic theology and philosophy in his great Summa Theologica.

Here's Allen's description of the book on Galileo:

The volume has a 208-page introduction by Pagano which steps through the events between 1611 (when Cardinal Robert Bellarmine first asked Jesuit scientists to look into Galileo's scientific theories) and 1633 (when Galileo was imprisoned for two weeks in an apartment in the headquarters of the Inquisition, today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, while being interrogated. He was eventually sentenced to prison, but allowed to live under house arrest.)
Pagano stressed that his introduction is a work of history, not apologetics, because "the best defense of the church is always the truth." He went on to say that he's not fond of "empty and useless" attempts to paper over the Galileo case. He pointed to a recent book in Germany, which asserted that Galileo was not targeted by the church for his scientific views but rather as a heretic (because he had allegedly denied the omnipotence of God).
Pagano called that claim a "pure fantasy," for which "there's not a shred of evidence" in the documentary record.
Commenting on Galileo himself, Pagano said that the scientist saw himself as a "good and faithful Catholic." Pagano pointed out, for example, that while he was under house arrest, the Netherlands wanted to present him with a fairly valuable gift. Because Holland was a Protestant nation, however, Galileo refused to see the ambassador or to take the gift -- a decision, Pagano said, that was well-received in Rome.
Introducing Pagano, Benedettini had called the Galileo case a "painful chapter for the church." Later on I asked Pagano if he agreed, and if so, what we ought to learn from it.
"Not only was it painful for the church as a whole," Pagano replied, but also "for the people of the church." For example, Pagano said that while some Jesuits at the Roman College had it out for Galileo, probably because of jealousy, other Jesuits were "certainly on his side, but they remained silent" -- out of fear, Pagano said, of the Holy Office.
In terms of what we ought to learn, Pagano said the basic point is to be "very careful" about drawing conclusions about science on the basis of scripture and tradition, without first being sure those points of reference have been correctly understood and interpreted.
That, Pagano suggested, is a point with contemporary relevance.
"When I look at some of what's being said today about stem cells, for example, or about genetics, I sometimes have the impression that it's burdened with the same preconceptions that happened with Galileo."

An out of hand rejection by some Catholics of insights that the study of geology, geophysics, astronomy and other related scientific fields have given into the earth's history is something that tries my patience. Having studied earth science as an undergraduate and graduate student, I am aware of the limitations of the scientific method, and so I don't have patience for scientists who make claims about God's existence based on science. Nor do I find it wise to attempt to use science to "prove" various theological statements, since scientific theories come and go (or at least are heavily modified over time). By the way, I should note that we all have trouble "thinking outside our boxes." The history of science is littered with scientists who would reject new theories that contradicted the hypotheses upon which they had based their own life's work. It's a human trait, I suppose. It's also one of the traits that makes genuine spiritual conversion so difficult!

Science, in a nutshell, helps us come to grips with what is (and that changes as we get new data). Faith, on the other hand, helps us understand why it is. In other words, what God has revealed to us enables us to find meaning in what is - as well as how we are to act in the face of what is. This is especially true when we consider that what God fundamentally reveals to us in the scriptures is his passionate - and patient - love for us, His creatures.

Looking for God II: Catholics Who Leave and Why

Here's a really interesting side aspect to the newest Pew findings that I didn't blog in the last post for lack of time:

Catholics who become Protestant and those who become "unaffiliated" do so for very different reasons. Which means we can't deal with them as though they were a single group with a single motivation. And they leave Catholicism for one set of reasons and chose to enter their new "religious affiliation" for a related but different set of reasons. (Pew asked both why they left and why they eventually chose the religion they chose.)

To repeat a couple of relevant points from the earlier post, two thirds of American Catholics who do become Protestant, become evangelicals. The majority of those who do become Protestant don't simply leap directly and firmly from the Catholic Church into their local mega non-denom or Presbyterian church. There tends to be a time lag between leaving Catholicism and entering Protestantism and the majority make the journey in a series of two or more steps.

And, of course, some former Catholics will come back. But we don't know how many or why. (The 9% figure for reversion in the post below was for all Americans who have left all religious affiliations and then returned, including the "affiliation" of having been raised "nothing". Some people leave "nothing", choose a faith, and then return to "nothing" at some point.) There is no way to know if 9% of Catholics who leave will come back, if the percentage of Catholic returnees is larger or smaller than the national average, nor do we know the primary reasons why former Catholics choose to return.)

What motivates Catholics who leave and eventually enter a Protestant body?

(For the figures below, Pew asked "yes-no" questions and individuals could choose multiple reasons - as many as had been true for him or her). Here were the most important reasons

raised RC, become Protestant

71%: Spiritual needs weren't met
70%: Found a religion they liked more
43% Unhappy with Church teaching regarding Bible
32$ Dissatisfied with worship experience
29% Married someone of different faith
27% Unhappy w clergy sex scandal

The positive reasons why these former Catholics chose to affiliate with a particular Protestant group or congregation?

81% Enjoyed religious services/style of worship
62% Felt called by God
30% Attracted by specific minister or pastor
28% Married someone of new religion
19% Moved to a new place

It is putting the two together that suggests a pattern.

1) for those who become Protestant, there seems to be some sense of personal spiritual investment and search ("spiritual needs weren't met") and of a personal connection with God ( 61% "felt called by God") . People who don't experience some kind of personal connection to God are unlikely to say that they "felt called by God" to do something.

This is especially striking when we remember that the Pew Religious Landscape Survey of 2008 found that huge numbers of Americans believe in an impersonal God. 29% of self-identified, affiliated Catholics told the Pew researchers that they believed in an "impersonal" God. Only 48% of US Catholics are certain that one can have a personal relationship with God

It is possible, of course, that for some, the language of "God called me" is a reinterpretation of their Catholic past in light of their largely evangelical present. But nevertheless, it is very different language from that used by Catholics who became "unaffiliated" (as we'll see in a moment).

2) Catholics who become Protestant do so because they found a religious alternative that they "liked more" or so 70% of those surveyed told the Pew people. This is a staggeringly different response from that Catholics who become "unaffiliated". Only 10% of Catholics who abandon all religious affiliation said they "found a religion they liked more". For Catholic who become unaffiliated, it is much more about rejection of Catholic beliefs than an inherent attraction to being unconnected to a religious community.

The strongest positive number is the 81% of former Catholics who said they joined their present Protestant church because they enjoyed "the religious services/style of worship". 32% told the Pew researchers that among the reasons they left was the fact that they were "dissatisfied with atmosphere of worship services." (We don't know exactly what they did not like about their experience of Mass and what they like about the services they now attend. It doesn't not help understand their motivations - which is the point of this exercise - to simply project our current concerns and disputes about the liturgy on them.)

Catholics who become Protestant seem to be motivated by a combination of personal spiritual dissatisfaction and having found a religious alternate that they like better. Especially having found a kind of religious service they really like.

Catholics who abandon religious affiliation altogether are another kettle of fish. Here are their numbers:

Why did you leave?

71% Just gradually drifted away
65% Do not believe teachings
56% Unhappy with teachings on Abortion/homosexuality
48% Unhappy with teachings on Birth control
33% Unhappy with teachings on Divorce/Remarriage
27% Clergy sexual abuse scandal
24% Unhappy priests cannot marry

Why did you choose to be "unaffiliated"?

42% Do not believe in God/most religious teachings
33% Not found the right religion


As the Pew people noted, Catholics who leave for "nothing" are much more motivated by a long list of Church teachings which they do not believe. But the most important reason is "drift". They just don't seem to care as much or be as invested in faith issues altogether as their fellow Catholics who left to become Protestant.

Notice however, that 33% are still open to the possibility of finding "the right religion".

There's a lot more on this critical topic in the Pew survey but I must push off and do some errands. In the meantime, check out Pew's nifty summary of their findings here.

Your thoughts?

Looking for God

Welcome Whispers readers. I'm delighted that the good news about Atlanta is getting out!

As I've been doing last minute preparation for our upcoming Making Disciples seminar here in beautiful Colorado Springs, I've been crunching the numbers of the new Pew study: Faith in Flux which came out in May.
The results have been fascinating and encouraging. If we have a mission rather than maintenance mindset.

The long and short of it is that huge numbers of Americans, perhaps 20 - 25% of the adult population, are in a state of conscious or unconscious spiritual transition and openness. They are spiritual seekers now or will be in the near future.

The downside: relying almost entirely upon the religious identity established by childhood catechesis doesn't work when the prevailing cultural winds are driving those raised in any kind of faith at all - or no faith - to re-evaluate their religious commitments during young adulthood. We live in a spiritual culture that rewards those who actively evangelize and penalizes those who assume that religious identity is steady state and that childhood enculturation is enough.

I need to make it clear that the criteria for the Pew study is not practice or sacramental status or whether or not one is formally listed as a member of the religious congregation - but how those answering regard themselves. When a person is considered "unaffiliated" in the Pew studies, it means that they no longer regard themselves as part of any organized religious body.

The basics:

1) 10.1% of American adults are former Catholics. 2.6% of Americans are "converts" to Catholicism. Nearly four times as many leave the Church as enter it.

2) 32% of those raised Catholic no longer regard themselves as Catholic. (Remember this is not about how many are baptized or attend Mass but how many regard themselves as Catholic).

3) The vast majority of Catholics who leave the faith do one of two things: become Protestant or "unaffiliated."
15% of cradle Catholics have become Protestant. Two thirds of those who become Protestant become evangelicals. 3% of cradle Catholics join a non-Protestant faith. 14% of cradle Catholics become "unaffiliated".

4) The 2008 US Religious Landscape Survey of 2008 probably under-estimated the amount and frequency of religious change among American adults. They had given a figure of 44% of US adults who were no longer part of the faith in which they were raised. For Faith in Flux, the Pew researchers recontacted many of the people they had interviewed originally to find out more about this remarkable pattern of religious change.

As a result, they realized that about 9% of American adults have left the faith of their childhood and then returned to it at some point. That means that approximately 53% of American adults have changed their religious affiliation at least once. Even when taking the margin of error into account, "as few as 47% and as many as 59% of U.S. adults have changed religious affiliation at least once." (Faith in Flux)

5) Many Americans change faith more than once. In fact, the majority of people who change their faith do so in a series of steps, not through a single decision. They are on a journey.

For instance, 62% of cradle Catholics wno now consider themselves "unaffiliated" have made two or more religious changes. 26% have changed religions three or more times.

54% of former Catholics who are now Protestants have changed religion two or more times. 21% have changed faiths three or more times.

And 53% of those who were raised in no faith at all but have chosen one as an adult have also changed religious affiliation two or more times. 21% of what might be called cradle "unaffiliated" have also changed religions three or more times.

6) Religious change begins early. 79% of those cradle Catholics who now consider themselves "unaffiliated" left the Church by age 23. 97% have done so by age 35. However, things are a bit different for Catholics who become Protestant. The majority also leave early although not in the same numbers (66% of Catholics who will eventually become Protestant leave by age 23).

But there is a fascinating gap between the time many Catholics leave the Church and the time they actually become Protestant. While 66% have left the Church by age 23, only 39% have become Protestant by age 23. 41% have converted to Protestantism by age 35. Another 20% do so after age 35.

7) There is a very large population of what can be called "hidden seekers", people on a spiritual journey who make life-changing transitions that fly under our normal ecclesial radar. This would include:

a. The majority of Americans raised without any faith at all will choose a faith as an adult. Cradle "unaffiliated" Americans who choose a religion as an adult make up 4% of our total population.

b. One third of those who have left a childhood faith are, in fact, open to joining another faith. They told Pew researchers that “they have not found the right religion yet.” This group would include 17.66% of American adults.

c) 71% of Catholics who leave and eventually become Protestant said they left because their spiritual needs weren't being met. During the gap between the time they leave and the time they commit to a Protestant faith, many are searching and spiritually open.

d) The Pew Faith in Flux study found that most people who are about to leave their childhood faith do not have a strong faith for one or two years before they actually leave. As Fr. Mike pointed out to me, that means that there is a host of vaguely dissatisfied Catholics and other religiously affiliated people who have not yet left the faith of their childhood but are ripe for evangelization. If we evangelize those still in the pews how, many of them will not became a statistic.

The upshot? Millions and millions of Americans are open to spiritual change right now. And million more will become so during the next year. Consciously or unconsciously, they are looking for good news. They are looking for God.

Comrades Stumbling Along

Bobby Vidal, our team leader in LA, sent me a notice about a new book coming out about the friendship between Dorothy Day and Catherine Doherty: Comrades Stumbling Along: The Friendship of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Dorothy Day as Revealed Through Their Letters

What a perfect title. Comrades Stumbling Along. Bobby knows that I'm a huge fan of both women, pioneers and giants of the lay apostolate in the 20th century. I tell Dorothy & Catherine stories at every Called & Gifted I teach.

Americans tend to be much more familiar with Dorothy Day. Catherine and her husband Eddie, founded Madonna House as part of what was then known as "Catholic Action" in 1947. Here's a brief history of Catherine's ministry and Madonna House.

Although Catherine Doherty was very active in New York in the 40's, she was a Russian émigré and Canadian citizen, and is much better known up north. In the US, I have resorted to calling her "the Dorothy Day of Canada" to get the point across quickly. (Please gentle Canadian readers, it was a strategy of last resort. Her story is so rich and fascinating, you can't do it justice in a few minutes and that's all I have to work with most of the time. If you feel like throwing things at me, please throw money. The Institute could always use the help.)

Catherine had more lives than a cat. She nearly died in the Russian revolution before escaping to a new life of grueling poverty in Canada, survived a horrific and abusive first marriage, was a witness to the horrors of the Spanish civil war and was in Warsaw when the Nazis marched in. She was raised Russian Orthodox, became Catholic as a young woman, and spent much of her life fostering relationships between western and eastern Christianity.

Catherine was a fearless pioneer of racial justice in Harlem in the 1940's. (A telling story: in the 40's a white Catholic group in Georgia rose up, beat Catherine, and tore her clothing to shreds after one of her presentations on racial justice. She was rescued by the black janitor.) She was a mystic, a big woman with a big personality and evoked very strong reactions - positive and negative in other people. Both she and Dorothy, although completely orthodox and faithful, were so far out on the left hand edge of the Catholic world before the Second Vatican Council, that you could barely see them.

Although they were profoundly different in personality, Catherine and Dorothy Day were friends and comrades and especially close during the 1940's when their respective apostolates were only 5 miles apart in New York City. As Catherine put it later:

"When I moved to Harlem, Dorothy Day and I became even closer. There were only about five miles between her house and my Harlem house. So occasionally when we both had enough money, let’s say about a dollar, we would go to Child’s where you could get three coffee refills (for the price of one cup), and we used to enjoy each cup and just talk.

Talk about God. Talk about the apostolate. Talk about all the things that were dear to our hearts.

"But we were both very lonely because, believe it or not, there were just the two of us in all of Canada and America, and we did feel lonely and no question about it.

"Periodically we would have a good cry in our coffee cups. We really cried, I mean honest, big tears. We would sit there, and the waitress would look at us. Dorothy and I would hold hands, and we would cry. We had had it! But we would always rally. And I think rallying is a sign of perseverance."
- (Restoration, February 1981)

Last weekend in Kansas City, Matt Karr, who is responsible for evangelization and catechesis in the Archdiocese, made an important observation. He said that our failure to evangelize our own and to foster true Christian community - a community centered around the following of Christ - are Catholicism's two biggest pastoral gaps. I think Matt hit the nail on the head and the story of Day and Doherty illustrates the power of discipleship to transcend the natural basis for friendship.

As Fr. Bob Wild of Madonna House (author and editor of Comrades Stumbling Along) described the relationship of Dorothy Day and Catherine Doherty:

Dorothy Day titled her autobiography The Long Loneliness, and at the heart of Catherine’s spirituality was her desire to assuage the loneliness of Christ. I think one of their strong bonds was their loneliness, caused by their being pioneers in an area of Catholic life that was little understood or appreciated, even in the Church.

They met in the loneliness of Christ.

Snip.

As I (Fr. Wild) delve more deeply into their relationship, it strikes me that if Catherine and Dorothy hadn’t been so united in Christ in the lay apostolate and in zeal for the kingdom of God, most probably their differences of character and approach to life would not have drawn them together in any kind of friendship.

Their friendship is a profound example of how Christ can draw and bind together people of very diverse temperaments and backgrounds, and unite them by the power of his Holy Spirit.

In one undated letter Dorothy wrote to Catherine, "It is good to urge each other on to virtue, but remember, we are comrades stumbling along, not saints drifting along in ecstasies."

Hot Spots

Enough butter cup twirling already . . . (Mark Shea has accused me on more than one occasion of being a classic English romantic.)

I was meditating during my most recent trip on the various Catholic "hot spots" that I have become aware of around the country over the years. We have worked in 40% of US dioceses now and there are great things happening all over the country. But some areas seemed to have developed a cluster of initiatives that are working synergistically together to transform the general spiritual atmosphere of the place.

Atlanta:
One of the healthiest dioceses I've ever worked in where the diocesan staff are openly disciples (yes, I am implying that this is not always the case.). Orthodox, wonderfully creative and not driven by fear. This may be one consequence of living in the Bible belt where it is normal for Christian faith to manifest in public and where Catholics don't feel as besieged by the culture. The renewal in Atlanta started about 15 years ago and one of the major catalysts seems to have been Eucharistic Adoration.

Update: Here's something I wrote in 2003 on Mark's blog when I was fresh from working in Atlanta:

"I just returned from 10 days in Atlanta and want to spread the good news. Of the 51 dioceses that I have worked in so far, Atlanta has to be the healthiest. A spiritual renewal has transformed the dioceses over the past 10 years but it has yet to attract national attention. Archbishop Donoghue, who is, I was told, very low key, has been effectively re-shaping the diocese with the collaboration of some high-powered clergy and laity without any of the public outcry and fireworks that we have to come to expect. Episcopal leadership, it seems, doesn't have to be in your face like Bruskewitz or as high profile as Chaput to be effective.

The Archbishop's first move was to establish Perpetual Adoration in the cathedral which has spread to 8 or 9 other parishes while Adoration on a more limited scale is now held in over 40 other parishes. An annual Eucharistic congress was begun on the Feast of Corpus Christi which attracted 20,000 Catholics last year and filled the Convention Center. I understand that they have invited Cardinal Ratzinger to speak at the next Congress. Religious orders who refused to teach with the Church have been removed from the diocese without any fanfare. Pastors who resisted were quietly exiled to small rural parishes or sent away to study for a very long time.

Atlanta has 48 major and minor seminarians and a large and very active Serra Club. The pastors I met are both orthodox and pastorally effective. (Archbishop Timothy Dolan was leading a priests retreat for the diocese while I was there, so priests were scarce.) The lay movements such as Regnum Christi and the charismatic renewal are very active. Parishes are huge and full of life. Local Catholics would enthusiastically recommend 3 or 4 dynamic local parishes in the same breath - something that I have never encountered before in any diocese. They aren't traditionalists - I didn't encounter any complaints about the liturgy or significant hankering for the Latin liturgy although some Latin was incorporated into the liturgy in simple, unostentatious ways. They are just reverent, whole-hearted, Novus Ordo-JPII Catholics.

The lay staff that I got to know at both the parish and diocesan level were most impressive. They are orthodox, smart, high-powered, and well-formed. They love their archbishop, were thrilled about the renewal of the diocese, and have played a major role in fostering that renewal with the support of the archbishop. For instance, there are three full-time lay staff at the cathedral dedicated entirely to adult evangelization and formation - a first in my experience! This team knows their stuff and is both pro-active and creative. One example: They refused to do Renew or Alpha because of legitimate concerns over content but have created and are currently piloting an alternate, fully Catholic Alpha-style outreach to the unchurched. For all the leaders I met, Jesus Christ is the center.

If you visit Atlanta with visions of Scarlett O'Hara and the ante-bellum South in your head, forget it. Atlanta is swarming with transplants from the northeast (I only met one native-born Georgian while I was there)who talk like they are from New Jersey and drive like bats out of hell and Sherman eliminated most of the plantations. But if you'd like to see what authentic Catholic renewal looks like at the parish and diocesan level, make a pilgrimage to northern Georgia. The South is rising again!"

Detroit/Ann Arbor area:
While the city of Detroit is practically a third world city, southern Michigan is humming with serious, creative Catholics. The starting point here seems to have been the enormous charismatic covenant communities that began in the late 60's. Despite a well publicized break-up in the 80's, many former members of the communities still live in the area. Ave Maria radio, Renewal Ministries, Domino's Pizza, and Sacred Heart seminary are among the premier Catholic Institutions in the area. To give you an idea, one local Ann Arbor parish I visited has two houses of vocational discernment (one for men, one for women) - and it isn't the Newman center.)

Corpus Christi, Texas:
I've written about CC at glowing length here. Here the renewal began about 8 - 9 years ago with the emergence of a series of gifted evangelizers who have been given support and the freedom to be creative by their bishop. Several of the approaches that have had a huge impact are home-grown. This is a heavily Hispanic city but in a very bi-cultural way since many citizens are 3rd and 4th generation Latin immigrants so the divide between Anglos and Spanish speakers is greatly softened. Charismatically flavored evangelizing processes from Puerto Rico and Mexico are part of the mix.

Boise, Idaho:
Renewal began in Boise about 14 years ago when a particular evangelization process (called "the Evangelization Retreat") reached a couple major parishes in the city from a parish in California. Two years later, one of the parishes, Sacred Heart, came looking for help with discernment as the first question that newly awakened Catholics started to ask was "What does God want of me?" So the Called & Gifted process has played a significant role in Boise.

Denver area:
Here the catalyst was the 1993 World Youth Day. In the years since, Archbishop Chaput has invited a number of lay movements and other leaders to the city which has built upon the foundation laid 16 years previously.

(One of the things that I am just beginning to grasp is just how much of a Christian hot spot the Colorado Front Range area is. It isn't just Colorado Springs but the Denver area and the foothills and eastern side of the mountains are also brimming with fascinating Christian initiatives.

For those interested in some serious number crunching on why Catholics leave in the first place and some fascinating insights into the millions of "hidden" spiritual seekers in America, read Looking for God.

Any other areas in the US or elsewhere that you would consider to be a Catholic "hotspot"?

Morning in the Garden

Catmint overhanging the wall



The fruit of last year's mega-planting: California Poppies on the left won't open up till the sun hits them.



Blue Columbine - the state flower

What does it take....

...to apply for a passport for a 2-week-old baby? After you have the birth certificate and social security number in hand, that is?

First, you need two 2x2 regulation passport pictures of baby. This takes:

Three trips to the local big-box store:

1. One to try (and fail) to get a passport photo taken there; sorry, with babies you're better off with a white sheet and a digital camera at home....



[Go home, take at least 50 different pictures, trying to get baby to open eyes, look straight ahead, and keep hands down. Eventually swaddle baby in blanket to keep hands out of picture. THINK you've finally got one that will work....]




2. One to try getting a regulation 2"x2", white background, eyes open, looking into camera, both ears showing, one inch from chin to top of head, centered print from one of the several candidates you THOUGHT would work but turn out to be too large for the ID-picture-printing software at the photo kiosk to handle....




[Go home again, feed everybody lunch, get the camera out again, take yet more pictures, this time from a few inches farther away. One hand holds camera, other hand tries to hold baby's head straight from behind. Who knew photography and contortionism had so much in common? Take many more pictures. Review them; AHA! This one ought to work!]




3. One more to print out the one that finally worked - even though a bit of Mom's hand is visible, it passes muster:

Now, fill out the required forms, bring along baby's birth certificate, Mom, Dad, both their drivers' licenses, and baby to the local title office (which doubles as a passport office), sign the form in the presence of the requisite official, write sufficiently large check for expedited processing, get everything sealed into an overnight mail envelope....

Drive to post office, get requisite postage on overnight mail envelope, and entrust it to the postal service, which promises it will be delivered by noon tomorrow....

Now, wait to find out what "expedited processing" really means.

Didn't get much else done today, but at least I finished the one thing I really needed to get done. Thanks be to God for that, and for Grandma and Grandpa who made it possible to make trips 1, 2, and 3!

Telling

A telling anecdote from last weekend:

One of the attendees - a serious Catholic with a sophisticated knowledge of and devotion to the Church's social teaching - told me of having a passionate young evangelical over to dinner a couple weeks earlier.

This evangelical was leading an intentional Christian community in the city and was intensely interested in Catholic teaching and spiritual practices. He was reading Thomas Aquinas, very knowledgeable about the Church's social teaching, etc.

As the evangelical man told his new-found Catholic friend: "You are the first Catholic I've ever met who actually believes what the Church teaches."

Ouch.

Jury Duty

I've got jury duty today. Hopefully it will be one day only and I'll be blogging tomorrow.

Was excused and home again. So blogging will begin shortly - after I get the groceries put away.