Should I apologize to my readers for relating so much that's negative? It's a bit overwhelming at times, I admit. Sometimes it would be nice bury one's head in the sand and just wish the problems would all go away.
I'm reminded of our local town newspaper in NC where I taught for many years. To combat the constant barrage of negative news, the paper always featured on its front page a large photograph of something benign and heart-warming, like a child on a playground swinging, or a grandmother leading her grand-daughter by the hand. A nice thought.
Time is short, however, and I do not think that even if I wanted to I could compete with the Care Bears and their "Care Alot Contests," or with those religious voices who speak always and everywhere of our time as the "new springtime" of this or that, or of a new and improved "Evangelical Catholicism," as professional clerics pursue "business as usual," and many in Europe and the West have stopped pretending that the Catholic Church even exists in their countries.
Retrospectively, then, in view of my own pilgrimage over the last two decades as a Catholic, I view my approach to the headlines of today as a chastened (and, hopefully, charitable) realism.
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