[Yossarian]

I see you are in California. Do you still have a liberal Bishop or do you have one of the new ones?

I'll get back to answer that tomorrow. I have an interview to prep for tonight....

[Salvation]

Good luck on your interview.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thinking about your problems with the Church, and especially your estrangement from the Sacraments, I feel concerned about you. And I wanted to share this:

We need to keep in mind that what is important about the Mass is not the infidelity of men but the fidelity of God, who makes the Mass valid not by our virtue, but by His promise.

Keep reading.

And the really important, and really interesting people in the Catholic Church, are not the priests, nor even the popes, but the saints.

And with that I say: will you not stay in he Church --- in the Communion of Saints --- with (OK, I'll name a half dozen or so of my favorites)

• the reformer of popes, Catherine of Siena,
• the singular and obstinate Athanasius,
• the tormented Vincent Ferrar,
• the brilliant, honest Robert Bellarmine,
• the mighty-hearted Edmund Campion,
• the tireless inquisitor Turibius of Mongrovejo,
• the driven and inimitable Paul.<

Do you think the "situations," including the religious milieux, in which these sainted people lived, were any less troubled? The Church less conflicted? The times less dangerous? The clergy less compromised? The Powers that Be less menacing? The World, the Flesh, and the Devil less crafty and seductive?

Come on, Yossarian. Even if this Noah's Ark of a Church is full of a thousand aggravating squawks and stinks, even if we have to shovel sh*t off the deck every day of our lives, it's The Ark. We're afloat. It looks like the baboons and macacas are in charge, and (new metaphor) Jesus is seemingly asleep on the foredeck, but He knows everything, calls saints, gives glory to martyrs, and can calm the wind and waves any time He wants to.

Get back on the boat. Stop your "No Thanks, I'll Swim" schism. Trust the saints, who lived in communion with worse popes (Pope Alexander VI, anyone? Pope John XII? Pope Urban VI?) --- and in harder times than yours.