After all, our womb and crucible had been the real-life blood, sweat, and tears of some of the finest, most courageous men and women of this century. Our teachers had stood larger than life and ignited a fire in our bellies that would impel and explode our search for meaning decades later as we entered mid-life. And it is good to be here now. In the early spring of 1993, David Fortier resigned as editor of The Catholic Transcript over issues of censorship. Even today, five years later, the idea of censorship in this forum makes me uncomfortable.
Catholic censorship is an oxymoron raised to the nth degree.
Fear-based, closed in upon itself, striving to maintain a status quo, it is stands in opposition to the Catholicism I taught to my third grade CCD students that is universal and open to the whole world and from the truths for which Jesus had lived and died. I did not know David personally then, although I do confess that I had been having a relationship of sorts with the photo of him that appeared at the top of his weekly column. Fascinated as I was by the world of publishing and editing, I would look at this photo and wonder about what kind of person he was and how he came to be editor of this newspaper. And while I admired each of them from my woodland home in Burlington, I also did not know any of the members of the editorial board who resigned in support of him. What I did know is that my imagination had been sparked.