Author: Steve

I was doing some research on Church reform groups for our list and happened upon this.

In a system that cared more for its clerical image than it did for the people it purported to serve, theologians, canonists, scholars and women all went unattended with their questions, ignored in their concerns. The balance of hierarchy, laity and scholars, which Thomas Aquinas defined as the fullness of the church, seemed lost forever. The clerical culture of silence, exclusion and sacred domination simply stopped the church cold, struck questioners dumb, drew up the drawbridge on discussion after discussion: birth control, homosexuality, celibacy, married clergy, divorce, the role of women in the church. Those questions, we were told, had been answered once for all, were determined in heaven, were answered in male clerical synods, were not to be broached by the likes of the barbarians at the gates.

It was St. Teresa of Avila who said “God preserve us from stupid nuns.”

3:00 pm yesterday – my home computer becomes unbootable, looks like a hard drive problem
3:01 pm I reboot. I reboot a couple more times. I fiddle with the startup options a bit. Nothing.
3:30 pm I leave to meet a friend for a visit before Latin Mass. I try not to worry about the data I don’t have backed up.
11:00 pm I get home after the Latin Mass and party for Father Chris. I turn on my computer and for no good reason I yell “Sursum corda!” Nothing. I begin to fret and pace around the house.
1:34 am The fretting and pacing ceases as I fall into a restless sleep.
6:54 am today. I resume trouble shooting. I buy and download data recovery software from winternals.com for 300 bones. I monkey with that for a long time. It don’t work.
3:18 pm I investigate the return policy for the above company. “If not totally satisfied contact us for a refund within 30 days of purchase.” Yippie. Make a note to contact them on Monday.
3:20 pm I download the trial version of more expensive data recovery program and determine that, yes, I can recover most of the data.
3:54 pm I fork over 500 bones for the software that will do the trick.
4:08 pm I am copying about 15 GB of files from the dead drive which hopefully contains all my documents, digital photos, email, my resume, etc. That will be done in about an hour.
If you are anywhere near by please come see me – I need a hug.

Like a block party – get it? I know there are a lot of local bloggers in the Washington DC Metro area and one that I know of whose heart is here most of the time even though she lives a couple of states away. We should have a gathering this summer. Now we just have to work out the logistics. Who is with me?

but I have to figure out how I am going to post it without using the parish name. It’s still a somewhat touchy situation and I don’t wish to create any difficulty for the reader and members of the parish. I’ll try to post later today.