Response to Patrick / The Sounds of Silence

Re Patrick’s entry on 6/16, “Cardinal McCarrick’s Silence”—and whether it means that efforts come “to nothing”… Just to offer another potential read.  It could be that they’d like to leave room for more personal and more pastoral judgment and action for how to engage Catholics in public life, depending on the circumstances.  I just spend a semester reminding my Catholic Social Thought & the Law students that official institutional documents are not all there is when it comes to thinking about what constitutes the life of the Church – and it seems that in some areas, it might also be that vehicles other than institutional statements might leave more room for listening, understanding, and creating lines of communication and trust.  (Which was, I believe, the upshot of their previous statements).  Amy