Skip to content

For Better or For Worse

Some thoughts about God, human family, and church

  • Homepage
  • Author CV
  • Author Biographies
For Better or For Worse

Author Biographies

(This is a work in progress, a scattered series of stories about aspects of my life, grouped and linked as below):

Childhood and growing up:
– Born Dying
– Thinking the World of Mom
– Childhood Memories of My Father
– Blocks, Books, and Radio
– Going to the Movies
– Baby Sister
– There’s No Place Like Home
– Discovering Missing Links
– Driving Lessons
– The Song of Bernadette
– For Those Who Do Not Believe . . .
– What Do You Want to Do?
– The Will of God
– The Birds and the Bees

Formation:
– College Wrestling
– God Needs Men
– A Mountaintop Experience
– Following Orders
– Firstborn Son
– Schoolmate Friendships
– Borderline Living
– Personality Type
– Summer Camp

Ministry:
– A Turning Point
– An Angelic Message
– A Papist at Heart
– Assignment: Rome
– When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do
– Becoming a Canon Lawyer
– Assignator Loci
– Chancery Work
– Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
– Beyond the River
– Join the Diocese and See the World
– Follow Me
– Out of Egypt . . .

Recent Comments

    • REFLECTIONS
    • CHURCH STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION & DISCIPLINE
      • Collaboration
      • Show More
      • Vatican II Pandemic
      • Retirement of Priests
      • Taking Care of the Baby and the Bathwater
      • The Mass of the Roman Rite
      • Church Officers
      • West Point Seminaries
      • It’s Tradition
      • Ruling (the) Class
      • Imperfect Societies
      • The Early Christian Community
      • Teamwork & Middle Management
      • Upstairs, Downstairs
      • Communion Is a Network
      • The Brotherhood of the Orthodox
      • Catholic Varieties
      • Unity – Same Page or Same Place?
      • All the King’s Men
      • Beyond the Pale
      • Sons of Eagles
      • Getting Ahead
    • CLEAR THINKING, WORDS & COMMUNICATION
      • Translation Involves More Than Words
      • Show More
      • Either-Or-ers vs. Both-And-ers
      • Perfection
      • Distilling Truth
      • Fumbling and Bumbling
      • Symbols
      • Testing for Orthodoxy
      • You Think You’re Thinking?
      • Male – Female
      • Frames of Reference
      • Bucket List
      • Outdated Language
      • Calumny vs. Detraction
      • Prizing and Praising and Blessing
      • At Home on the Range
      • Dated Dogmas
      • Loaded Language
      • True or False
      • Cursing the Darkness
      • The Doctrine of Fallibility
      • Changing the Name or Renaming the Change?
      • Righteous
      • For the New Year
      • Be Children No Longer
      • Words, Words, Words . . .
      • Traduttore, Traditore
      • Darmok
      • Holy Places, Practices, People, and Spirit
      • In Seventh Heaven
        • En el Séptimo Cielo
      • Thinking Critically
      • Elder or Offeror of Sacrifice
      • Speaking with Tongues of Fire
      • A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
      • What’s in a Word
      • Theologic
      • Accentuate the Positive
      • On Behalf of God
      • Misunderstanding Religious Language
      • Multiform Mission
      • Already But Not Yet
      • God Bless — Bless God
      • Sacred Cows
      • Doggone It
      • The Insanity of War
      • Intercultural Communication
    • DISCERNING GOD’S WILL & ACTION IN OUR LIVES
      • Fool of a Tool
      • Show More
      • Shout with Joy
      • They Did Not Remember
      • Freedom of Spirit
      • Actor vs. Spectator
      • Discovering England
      • Studying Life
      • Experiencing and Experimenting
      • Entropy and the Evolving Kingdom of God
      • Don’t Be Shellish!
      • Sing Alleluia!
      • Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven
      • God and Me? Me and God?
      • Levi Alphaeusson
      • Insightfully Blind
      • Look Where You’re Going!
      • Snapshot or Motion Picture?
      • The Martha Complex
      • Trying to Do the Right Thing
      • Wise Guys and Gals
      • Listen to the Voice of the Lord
      • “Courageous Priest Speaks the TRUTH…”
      • Backstage
      • Thinking outside the Box
      • Going Round in Circles
        • Dando Vueltas
      • Thy Will Be Done
      • How God Sees
      • Cor ad Cor Loquitur
      • Open the Doors
        • Abra las Puertas
      • Veni, Vidi, Vici
      • Facing Death
      • In Him We Live . . .
      • Varieties of Religious Experience
      • Split Personality
      • Discerning Callings
      • Surviving Vatican II
      • Unique and Uniquely Limited
      • Conversion or Growth?
      • Chosen People
      • Quo Vadis?
      • Way to Go
      • The March of Folly
      • See — Saw
      • On Purpose
      • My Goodness
      • Render to Caesar
      • Back to the Future
    • ECUMENICAL, INTERRELIGIOUS & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS
      • Don’t Discount the Ways
      • Show More
      • Friends in High Places
      • One Church, One Faith, One Lord
      • Role Models
      • Motto-vation
      • A Very Attractive Universe
      • On Being catholic
      • Cover Story
      • It’s a Small World
      • Allegiance to Whom?
      • Unorthodox Orthodoxy
      • Middle East Story
      • Relational Math
      • Differentiation
      • We Need More Pontificating
      • Are Christians Jews?
      • Antidisestablishmentarianism
      • Family Reunions Are Challenging
      • A Rock and a Hard Place
      • Bab Sittna Mariam
      • Becoming Friends — Carefully
      • A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
      • Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd
      • Full Circle
      • Detours on the Road to Unity
      • We Believe in One God . . .
      • Tokens of Love
      • Brotherhood of Believers
      • Distinction Without a Difference
      • Triage
      • Misplaced Pride
      • On Egg Shells in Jerusalem
      • Vatican II Reminiscences
      • Armenia, Tried and True
    • ESTABLISHING & ENSURING LIBERTY, JUSTICE & PEACE
      • Independence
      • Show More
      • Judging Rightly
      • Forming a More Perfect Union
      • Social-Sin Distancing
      • Equal Justice under Law
      • If Foundations Are Destroyed . . .
      • Holy Land Long Division
      • Ambivalent Anniversary
      • Is Peace Possible?
      • Red Riders
      • Through the Looking Glass
      • Not All Are the Same
      • Murder Most Foul
      • Raising the Anti
      • Sons and Daughters
      • The Holy City
      • Ring Around a Rosy
      • Bright September
      • When the Price Is Right
      • Half Loaves, Scraps, and Possibilities
      • Seeing Is Believing
      • Title Searches
      • Love, Liberty, and Justice
      • Providence and Peace
      • Travel, Truth, and Trust
      • The Palestinian Intifada
    • GOD’S REVELATION & OUR UNDERSTANDING
      • Getting a Little Personal . . .
      • Show More
      • Accumulated Meanings
      • Reaching for the Realm of God
      • Zeroing in on the Unknowable
      • Getting in Touch with God
      • R.I.P.
      • Shekinah
      • God Doesn’t Shout
      • Figuring Things Out
      • The Jewishness of John
      • This World or That
      • Lord, Please Let Me See
      • The Devil Is in the Details
        • El Diablo Está en los Detalles
      • Facing God
        • Enfrentando a Dios
      • Seeing Is/Isn’t Believing . . . ?
      • Celebrating Victory
      • To Know Him, To Love Him
      • Dramatis Personae
      • “Macroscoping” vs. “Microscoping”
      • A Shortage of Metaphysicians
      • O My God!
      • Lover’s Leap
      • Awful New Year
      • Heart of the Matter
      • Well Grounded
    • HARMONIZING OUR LIVES WITH OUR MAKER’S DESIGNS
      • Wishful Thinking
      • Show More
      • WTHOGATAP
      • Inundation
      • The Long Road to Emmaus
      • The Last Commandment
      • How’s Your Day?
      • No Strings Attached
      • Ieri, Oggi, Domani
      • Ready, Set, Go!
      • Neronic Behavior
      • DDP
      • Persevering
      • A Loving Heart
      • Surrender to God . . .
      • Imperfection
      • Why Did God Make Me?
      • Guinea Kids
      • Saints and Sinners
      • To Be or Not to Be . . .
      • Orphaned
      • The Great King Over All Gods
      • Building Faith
      • Seeing, Knowing, and Understanding Better
      • Uniforms, Uniformity, and Uniqueness
      • Superus, Superior, Supremus
      • Inactive, Dormant, Dead
      • What the Lord Requires of You
      • Apostolic Development Officer
      • Building Sand Castles
      • Time’s Up
      • The Fairest One of All
      • Don’t Stunt Your Growth
      • Master Class
      • Can’t See the Forest for the Trees
      • When the Hurlyburly’s Done
      • Just Imagine
      • Thomases Can Be Good and Tough
      • Life Giving
        • Dando la Vida
      • Watch Out
      • Change: Development or Alteration?
      • Lead Us Not into Temptation
      • Rights of the Body
        • Derechos del Cuerpo
      • The Whale Tale
      • It’s Too Hard
      • Keeping the Sexth Commandment
      • Human Sacrifice
      • Whose Sins You Forgive . . .
      • Torments of Abstraction
      • What Is God Made of?
      • Duodecimal Relations
      • Disoriented
      • False Witness
      • Nationality, Culture, and Religion
      • Mindful of the Poor
      • Respect
      • I’m Sincerely Yours
      • Religious Taxonomy
      • Iranian Messiah
      • Violence Betrays Religion
      • Dead Ends
      • Yester-me, Yester-you
      • Bound by God
      • . . . on the Orient Express
      • This Little Light of Mine
      • Virtual Reality and Worms
      • The Hand of God
      • Lamech’s Policy
      • Excommunication
      • In the Middle of the Night
      • Seventy-Seven Times
    • MINISTERIAL SERVICE & PERSONNEL
      • Why Are We Persistingly Celibacing?
      • Show More
      • Preaching the Gospel
      • Expansive in Folly, Limited in Sense
      • Clergy Retirement Implications
      • Pastoral Burnout
      • Vanishing Clergymen
      • Standing Ready and Waiting
      • Military and Ecclesial Service
      • Guru vs. Cleric
      • When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong
      • The Last Tiara
      • Honor Guards
      • Pope
      • Indian Polyphony
      • The Drama of Lebanon
    • RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS, RITUALS, CUSTOMS & UNDERSTANDINGS
      • Sin, Sinned, Sinning, Sinner
      • Show More
      • Does Winning or Losing Deserve More Attention?
      • Dayzziness
      • Powerful Symbols
      • Coronation and Ordination
      • Remembering at Passover and Easter
      • I’m No Angel
      • Believing in Santa Claus
      • The Theory of Neonatal Proclivity
      • Methodology
      • Judging Rightly
      • God’s Requirements
      • Mairzy Doats
      • Religious Imagination
      • Playing Many Roles
      • Until Death Do Us Part
      • Remembrance Rituals
      • Eye upon the Doughnut
      • From Another Point of View
      • Rights, Rules, and Regulations
      • Thanks Be to God!
      • Missing Mass on Sunday
        • Faltando a Misa Dominical
      • Dreaming the Impossible Dream
      • Lingering Manichaeism
      • Continence
      • Going to Confession
      • The Obligation of Celibacy
      • The Medium Is the Message
      • Melchizedek . . . Priest Forever?
      • Pearls versus Oysters
      • Ecclesial Biodiversity
      • Holy Places
      • Byzantine Catholics in Italy
      • What’s Right?
    • ARTICLES, BOOKS, TALKS
    • CHURCH STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION & DISCIPLINE
      • Ecclesiology in the Canon Law Code
    • CLEAR THINKING, WORDS & COMMUNICATION
      • Standing in the Other Believer’s Shoes
    • ESTABLISHING & ENSURING LIBERTY, JUSTICE & PEACE
      • Where He Was Risen – The Holy Sepulchre
      • Show More
      • Caught in the Middle – Homeland Isn’t Always Home
      • Middle East Christians on the Move
      • Turkey and Its Christian Communities
      • On the Road to Damascus
      • Religion, Politics, and Jerusalem
      • Georgia on My Mind
      • The Church in the Soviet Union
      • Law and Justice in the Holy Land
      • The Christian Presence in the Holy Land
    • MINISTERIAL SERVICE & PERSONNEL
      • How Priests Came to Be Celibate: An Oversimplification
        • Comment les prêtres en vinrent à être célibataires: Une simplification abusive
        • Como llegaron a ser célibes los sacerdotes (visión panorámica del proceso)
        • Como os Padres chegaram ao Celibato: Simplificação exagerada
        • Genesi del celibato sacerdotale: semplificazione eccessiva
        • Hoe de priesters celibatair werden: Een sterke simplificering
        • Wie die Presbyter zum Zölibat gekommen sind: Eine übermäßige Vereinfachung
    • RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS, RITUALS, CUSTOMS & UNDERSTANDINGS
      • The Order of the Roman (Tridentine) Mass
      • Show More
      • Aggiornamento, Renewal or Revolution?
    • ORGANIZATION RELATED
    • BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY
      • BU Governance – Historical Overview
    • CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
      • CNEWA History
      • Show More
      • CNEWA’S Bifurcation
      • A World of Difference
      • CINC CNEWA
      • A Rascal for God
      • That All May Be One
      • Who Are We?
    • NEW YORK ARCHDIOCESE
      • Bienvenidos, But . . . Hispanics and the New York Archdiocese, 1952-1982
        • Bienvenidos, But . . . Hispanos y la Arquidiócesis de Nueva York, 1952-1982
      • Show More
      • Hispanics and New York Happenings and Pastoral Plans
      • The Archdiocese of New York and Hispanic Americans
    • PONTIFICAL MISSION
      • Pontifical Mission at 50
      • Show More
      • Pontifical Mission’s Pontifical Mission
      • Pontifical Mission History
      • The Pontifical Mission — for Palestine?
    • SOUTH BRONX PASTORAL CENTER
      • The South Bronx Pastoral Center
      • Show More
      • Cursos Bíblicos
        • I. La Biblia y el Pueblo de Dios
        • II. El Reino de Dios en Israel
        • III. Judaísmo antes de Jesús
        • IV. El Evangelio de Jesús
        • V. La Iglesia Apostólica
    • SYNOD OF BISHOPS – SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
      • The Special Assembly and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
      • Show More
      • Responses to the Preliminary Questionnaire
      • Initial Intervention – Communio
      • Suggestions concerning Goals
      • Proposals for Discussion

    Search

    Topical Search (Tags)

    • Abrahamic Faiths
    • Belief
    • Change
    • Clergy
    • Common Ground
    • Communication
    • Communion
    • Customs
    • Development
    • Difference
    • Discernment
    • Eastern Churches
    • Ecclesiology
    • Ecumenism
    • Extremism
    • Faith
    • Forgiveness
    • History
    • Holy Land
    • Holy Spirit
    • Hope
    • Identity
    • Interreligious Relations
    • Islam
    • Israel
    • Justice and Peace
    • Limitations
    • Love
    • Mercy
    • Metaphors
    • Middle East
    • Misunderstandings
    • Orthodoxy
    • Palestine
    • Permanency
    • Politics
    • Priests
    • Purpose
    • Relationships
    • Sacraments
    • Sharing
    • Trust
    • Unity
    • Values
    • Witness
    • Homepage
    • Author CV
    • Author Biographies
    For Better or For Worse Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress
    Manage Cookie Consent
    To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
    Functional Always active
    The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
    Preferences
    The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
    Statistics
    The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
    Marketing
    The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
    Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
    View preferences
    {title} {title} {title}