Thank you Rita, for the sweet works.  A lot of factors working against posting these days, but I do miss some of the good discussions we used to have here.

As to the direction of the church, I think an almost tectonic shift is under way.  The bishops are well educated, intelligent guys, which is scary.  That tells me they are either willfully blind, OR They have chosen to ride the church down, rather than face up to the possibility that the spirit is at work.  And if the latter, that's a screaming statement of the disdain and disrespect they must hold for the laity...