Sure, you’re thinking Golden Eagles and Badgers in the Sweet 16; I’m talking about Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan’s appearance on “60 Minutes.” I haven’t heard/read which received higher ratings in the Milwaukee market: The archbishop’s appearance or the MU/Syracuse game.
The interview answered at least one question: The archbishop deals with the national media, i.e., a “star” like Morley Safer, the same way he did the Milwaukee media: self-effacing, addressing reporters by name, letting them know he’s glad they asked the questions they did. Interwoven with that was the archbishop making his points about clergy sexual abuse and about Catholics leaving the church.
It is evident that there is no other bishop in the U.S. who can be simultaneously as entertaining and enlightening as Archbishop Dolan; he provides good television and good catechesis.
The most disturbing part of the segment was seeing the archbishop’s bodyguards accompanying him during the recessional at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. That’s an indication of the world in which we live.
He called the archbishop what?!?! I do wonder what the archbishop’s response would have been had Safer called him “burly, overweight, cherubic” to his face in the course of the interview instead of during a voiceover segment. It might have been, “Gee, Morley, you say that as though it’s a bad thing.”
A question still to be answered: When will the archbishop get a guest spot on the “Late Show with David Letterman”?
And then there was one: When the NCAA men’s tournament started, it included seven teams from Catholic schools. Two first-round, Catholic-Catholic match-ups knocked out two of the teams, but did anyone think that this far into the tournament Marquette would be the only Catholic school remaining?
Inspirational reading: It is classified as a memoir, but Lisa C. Paul’s first book, “Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope” is a story about the practice of faith, hope and love. Read here www.chnonline.org/news/local/10219-memoir-highlights-work-of-faith-gift-of-hope.html how Lisa practiced them as a 22-year-year-old student in 1985.
Planning: Friday is the Feast of the Annunciation. Only nine months until Christmas.
