We taped "the practice" on Sunday and watched it last nite. They were representing a man who had been molested by the Church. The moral of the story was that regardless of how many good priests there are, that is not the point, lay people cannot simply stand by and watch. They must do something, leave the Church.

In a meeting I was at yesterday, someone asked, "why can't pastors spot a dying parish right before their eyes?"

I'm really interested in finding out what Bishop Gregory really thinks. His speech yesterday gave shot to the arm of all priests and he got a rousing applause from the Bishops. Basically he sounded happy that "the charter has been strengthened" and there will be more protections for priests. My spin here is that since Rome gave the US Bishops a spanking (to the Vatican's eternal shame [Bishops are not middle managers but co-bearers of apostolic responsibility]) and sent them back to the drawing board, Bp. Gregory had no choice but to complement Rome's decision. I'm sure he can't surely mean that it strenghten's the charter that an unreasonable statute of limitations was placed in the document.

Here's my church-future prediction. Chruch will retreat into the trenches like at Trent and re-institute fortress mentality for another couple hundred years. It'll shore up its traditional and conservative base. Liberals will eventually be forced to leave. Moderates will whittle down to a negligible minority. A couple of Church councils will retread the tires as the Church seeks to regroup, ignoring the secular world. Church emerges from trenches and fortress one hundred and fifty years from now. Church will then need a Vatican II type council to update itself. Post council years will make the last 30 seem like cup cakes. Too many changes, different society, not enough engagement. It'll emerge stronger but smaller and less relevant . . .