Day after the day after

So things are settling down, both in the USA in the aftermath of the long and hard-fought presidential campaign, and in my little corner of the world (which just happens to be Rome: not a shabby place for a corner!).

Well, it really needs to settle down. I have been trying to catch up on a large number of things, and this has let me lose track of some appointments, deadlines, and such things. For instance, I was convinced that I was attending a seminar on youth studies today, but I misread the date. It begins tomorrow. This gave me a few hours of free time today.

With these few extra hours, I attacked some of the odds and ends that were getting beyond me. Besides doing laundry, recycling paper, doing a 45 minute work-out, correcting some group discussion summaries from the class on Youth Spirituality that I'm teaching this semester, I've also taken time to read the comments of the U.S. bishops following the election of Barak Obama.

Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, sent a letter to Barak Obama almost immediately following the election results. As bishop of Chicago (Obama's city) and as president of the U.S. Bishops, the cardinal offered words of congratulations, support, and appeal for those who are the most vulnerable in America and the world. This Letter of Cardinal George was made public today.

As can be expected, in the statement of the U.S. Bishops, there is a re-issuing of their appeal on behalf of the unborn. The tone sounds to be more one of dialogue than of wholesale condemnation, and this is encouraging. It seems to me that, in this way, real progress can be made on this issue. I would have loved to have heard such a tone years ago.

[Photos of President-elect Barak Obama and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago]