Read this on Emily Stimpson’s site. She is so, so, so right.

The most important things that happen in Dallas, the things that God cares about the most, will not happen on TV. EWTN cannot show us the hearts of the bishops or of the victims who will attend the meeting. The television cameras won’t be present during the hours of quiet private prayer. We won’t hear the confessions these men make before God. We won’t see the rekindling of the Holy Spirit in their souls. We won’t know if one simple act of courtesy by a bishop will start the renewal of faith in the life of a victim.

Tell everyone about the Baptism this weekend, Alix!

I might add that the good people at Foxnews.com are calling it a scandal rather than a situation:

The scandal began enveloping the church after revelations that the Archdiocese of Boston had shuttled now-defrocked priest John Geoghan from parish to parish despite repeated allegations that he was a pedophile.

We do need a catch-all term but “The Situation” isn’t cutting it. “The Crisis” is an apt description. Would you prefer another word perhaps?

straits, exigency, emergency, turning point, urgency, necessity, dilemma, puzzle, perplexity, pressure, embarrassment, pinch, juncture, pass, change, contingency, plight, imbroglio, impasse, deadlock, entanglement, predicament, corner, decisive turn, decisive moment, critical juncture, critical situation, trauma, quandary, extremity, disaster, trial, crux, climacteric, moment of truth, hour of decision, crossroads, climax, clutch, pickle, stew, fix, mess, big trouble, kettle of fish, hot water, crunch

See also my earlier post on this and John’s response.

Steve – I think you are being cranky. We need some sort of catch-all term for what’s going on because you can’t constantly refer to it as “Priests abusing kids and teenagers” “Bishops convering their tracks and shuffling priests around” “High-dollar hush money and settlements” “Some still in office even though they’ve obviously not been good shepherds” “More concerned about the priest-perpetrators than the victims” “Hiring PR Company to try to sort things out” etc.
Now do you understand why “The Situation” is the catch-all term? Everyone knows what’s going on. It’s so huge it has it’s own name that packed with the issues above.