I'M BACK!
Its been a long time since the last issue if this newsletter. I'm sorry for the long delay. I don't have a really good excuse, other than that the last quarter of the last academic year was a very busy one and that I wore myself out with two trips to Europe (both on sociology business). I'll try to return to a regular schedule this year. I now have an Internet address at which I can be reached: Internet:Agreel@aol.com. If you're on America On Line, you don't need the initial word "internet." I also have a home page on the world wide web: http://tekweb.com/greeley.html. The latter will have display chapters from new novels, a homily for every Sunday in the year, various articles and, if I can figure out how to do it, this newsletter.

THE POPE IN NEW YORK
I spent the first week in October in New York, allegedly covering the Pope's visit for the Today show on NBC. I say "allegedly" because the Los Angeles trial upstaged the Pope, at least in the minds of the decision-makers of Today. I was impressed by the quality of the liturgy in all three cities. After years of practice the Church in this country has figured out how to conduct massive public liturgies that are tasteful, intelligent, and appeal to those who are not Catholics. Moreover, the various priestly commentators on the television stations were smooth and not "preachy." In some matters we progress, though it has taken a long time. More impressive was the Pope himself whose defense of the poor and the immigrant and the United Nations was something that our country needed to hear in this time of meanness and immigrant bashing. Finally, it seems that the national media have at last caught on to the fact that Catholics remain Catholic because they like being Catholic, though on their own terms. They cheer for the Pope because he is a "sacrament" of the Catholic heritage, but they also reserve the right to follow their own consciences on matters which they believe the Pope does not fully understand. This style of "communal" Catholicism has been around for a long time in the Mediterranean countries. Now it has spread to the most Catholic countries in the world -- Ireland, Poland, and the United States.