Nine Days... Three Months

Good Tuesday afternoon, gang… and with Labor Day behind us, just like that, the September gust's kicked in, and the Wide World of Church springs back to life.

Welcome to Fall and the scene's traditional, action-packed 12-Week Sprint. Highlights to come -- at least, the ones we know about -- include the long-awaited release of the text of the freshly-approved, ever-controversial Roman Missal in English that'll hit every Anglophone pew worldwide over the next year; November's election of a new president and vice-president of the US Bishops; another slew of appointments (as of this writing, three Stateside Latin sees stand vacant, with another 12 led by ordinaries who've either already turned 75 or will reach the retirement age before October's end); Hatman's debut in Rome and Pharaoh's jubilee back home; the distinct possibility, if not likelihood, of a consistory to create new cardinals over Christ the King weekend; an October Synod of Bishops on the Middle East -- and two years since the 2008 Synod on the Word, B16's final text on the Scriptures (reportedly tipped for a next-month publish) -- and...

...above all, right out the box, this season's Big One: against a charged backdrop on multiple fronts, the pontiff's pilgrimage to the UK -- likely to be one of this papacy's defining road-shows -- set to begin in nine days' time with the Volo Papale's wheels-down in Edinburgh (and, for which, a locally-produced Visit Missal is already posted).

Again, that's just the top line of what we know to expect... knowing how this beat's had more than its share of surprises of late, though, you might want to buckle up for way more.

On a personal note, even if your narrator's feeling a bit rusty at the keys, it's good to be back from a very eventful, (losses aside) tremendously blessed hiatus -- and, seriously, all thanks for your patience and kindness during it.

Suffice it to say, after almost six years of tackling this work (or trying to) as the bulk of practically every day, I needed to work on my life for a change... and much like the task you see, that could only happen by devoting to it the time and energy it needed. Bottom line: behind the scenes, let's just say the reboot's off to a pretty good beginning... out here, meanwhile, once again, here goes nothin'.

Hope everything's great on your end and the rev-up's going smoothly… again, welcome back to the full-tilt circus; for all the rest, as always, stay tuned.

PHOTO: Getty

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