A note to Greg Popcak (whom I really do like in spite of how much I yell at him)

Greg,

I can't tell you how much comments like today's about my archdiocese grate. Imagine if I said "Tell me, does anything good come out of the Popcak family?" and then went on to list the failings of several members, and you'll understand where I'm coming from. I certainly wouldn't want my family to be judged by my own actions. The fact that Rod Dreher can't stop railing against his Bishop--in effect, complaining about his own family--may make it seem okay, but I assure you it is not.

The Archdiocese of Boston is a place where a lot of evil has happened, but that is true of every diocese in the world. But an awful lot of good happens here. For one thing, we still celebrate the Eucharist every day. For another, people still go to confession in about the same proportion as your archdiocese. People in hospitals still receive extreme unction. Men and women are joined in Holy Matrimony. Children are baptised (even, I am led to understand, the children of sinners).

Cardinal Law may be a broken, imperfect man, but the last time I checked, he was still the Cardinal, still my Bishop. (I'm fairly certain the Boston Globe would run at least a classified ad to announce the change.) My father is a man with many failings, too, and if they made the papers, I rather expect you'd be sending me a note saying "So sorry to hear about your Dad," instead of praising God that he isn't *your* father.

I condone not one iota of the protection of abusers and mismanagement of the archdiocese of Boston by Law, McCormick or any of the others. But I'll thank you in future for not confusing their sins for the nature of my particular neighborhood in the Church.