Second Printing!

The Faithful Departed is now in its second printing!

I have not seen it, but Phil says that the mistakes have been corrected! Yes!

People often ask Phil if he's interested in writing a sequel. For sure, the story of the scandal is not over.

And Phil has been talking about a follow-up book. I think that some readers have the thought that has occurred to him as well: what to DO about the whole mess.

And the follow-up book would be an answer to that question, which has to do with reviving Catholic culture.

You know, for a long time people "on our side" thought that the problem was with orthodoxy -- that if people had their doctrine straight, there wouldn't be problems with practice.

I know I thought that as well.

But as The Faithful Departed shows, many orthodox priests were very much at the center of the scandal.

I remember very clearly a friend from Hingham telling me that the reason "they" were after Fr. Geoghan (the priest who molested hundreds of children and died in jail) was because he was "so conservative".

Yes, I think we've learned that the problem has to do with how you live. Of course, what you believe is a big part of how you live -- but not all!

And how you live is about your culture, which shouldn't just be sentimentally attached to your religion, but an organic outgrowth of it, encompassing your whole being -- not just how you worship, but how you live in your family, how you work, and how you rest.

Anyway, that's some of what we've been talking about in the Lawler household these days. We'd love to hear from you!