Catching up on the news

While Albany Catholic was on hiatus, Catholic News Service reported on Common Ground's anniversary:

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Listening has to be an essential ingredient in relationships within the church, just as it must be in all healthy relationships, said the keynote speaker at an Aug. 11 event at Loyola University in Chicago marking the 10th anniversary of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative.

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, N.M., said that 10 years of seeking common ground within the church has only reinforced the idea of the initiative's founders, that seeking communion in Christ requires seeking communion with one another.

"The past 10 years have given me a privileged place where I have met people, some with very critical views of the church, who yet possess a passionate regard and deep love for the church," he said. "I have come to respect them and have concluded that they are critical precisely because they love that church family to which they belong."

The entire story is here. One of the goals of this blog is to promote civil dialogue in the church, especially in the area of politics. Please let us know if you think we are failing in that effort.