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Poets are a Pain
Click here for the whole series I call the Bishop Q&A.
…it is difficult for poets to remain acceptable or contented party men; they ask too many questions.
Dorothy Sayers, in the Introduction to her translation of Dante’s Purgatorio
I just feel it would be a shame to let all these questions just disappear. I wish everyone in the archdiocese would give the Bishop their own answers. If we have 100,000 people (I have no idea how many Catholics in the Archdiocese of KCK), I bet we’d have a hard time getting 100 people to respond. In other words, there’s really no danger in asking questions, because so few people will even answer. And the upside is that you discover the nth % who do respond. They are likely to be willing to do other hard things.
Plus, even a few answers to good questions is better than 1000 answers to lame questions. And, yes, I’m asserting that the questions asked in the Bishop’s listening meeting were lame. Their focus was on eliciting pats on the back for the Bishop, who definitely deserves many, many pats on the back. My point is not that any positive feedback was wrong, as there is so much to be glad for in our archdiocese, but that much helpful feedback was omitted from the process due to what I believe is an unnecessary avoidance of tension. If we cannot be comfortable among ourselves, as Catholics, voicing things that are hard to say, how in the world will we learn to say hard things to the world that is dying for lack of those truths??
I’m sure the archdiocese and the world will go on without my input, and I really do believe that God is at work here. I do not so much despair of some good being done as remain sad for the much more that might be done if we could all communicate with more honesty and effectiveness. I am tired of being told I am ahead of my time. Christ has come, so the time for Christians is now.
Once more, and in conclusion, I would like to reassure everyone who sees a post like this and worries about me (Is she angry? No. Is she dissenting? Absolutely not. Is she disrespectful? Not a bit of it. Is she upset? Nope.). I am fine, happy, content, respectful, orthodox, cheerful, and confident that I’ve done all I need to do in response to the questions I was asked, and those I was not asked. Meanwhile, I will, if you don’t mind, remain sad, because Fr. Giussani taught us that sadness is the opposite of despair. Because I do hope, I hope for better communication and visioning in our archdiocese.
May God bless and keep Archbishop Naumann, and make His face shine upon him, and give him peace.
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