GOOD Stuff...

The following words could almost be a mission statement for what I seek to do:

"Understanding the complexity of the world and all its people, of God and all his ways is a lifelong task. Yet love can draw us on. In John Paul II’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America reference is made to such mundane issues as drug trafficking, governmental corruption, and the oppressive burden of debt in poor countries. These are not issues one approaches with starry-eyed naivete. They are issues that are so complex that they demand exacting analysis. They also demand commitment to action that will surely bring us to a martyrdom of misunderstanding if not to the actual shedding of blood.... If we approach our ongoing studies as an encounter with the living Jesus Christ, and if we are truly in love with the one who has been given 'the throne of David his father' and whose 'reign will be without end,' we will willingly do whatever is required to help bring about that kingdom of justice, peace and love."

No, these observations are not from some heretic guilty of the mortal sin of not appreciating lace albs. It is a passage from a 2000 homily given by Fr. Larry Silva of the Diocese of Oakland, yesterday appointed the next bishop of Honolulu.

Think about it.

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