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Entry: When in Doubt . . . Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/when_in_doubt#6223 Post contents: What bishops do and say... In the past bishops have been wrong, and sometimes spectacularly so. But sometimes I wonder if we got at this issue from the wrong end. Somehow we cannot visualize the child, and when we do, we have trained ourselves to callousness. A few years ago I was one of those who helped bring a homeless shelter to Annapolis. Until it was done, the homeless played "musical churches". When it was my turn to keep watch we had as a guest a very young woman and her baby, just released from the hospital It was heartbreaking to see that baby on the grey cot, all alone, with its mother in the cot next to it, so small, so helpless. A few weeks later there was a debate at City Hall about opening a permanent shelter, with too many voices opposing it. I spoke for it, as you can imagine, and I mentioned that baby spending his first days on a grey cot in a church basement.. It struck me that not anyone saw something precious in that baby, that they only saw a social problem (both mother and baby were black). Words like "welfare mothers" or "underclass" were bandied about. If we cannot see a little baby as precious, when it is there to be seen, what hope is there for it when it cannot? Sent at: 2008 11 22