Probably this is naive and quite possibly it is also perverse, but I feel more optimistic about the future of the Catholic Church than I have at any time since I joined it two years ago. As a schismatic, I have never acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope or the hierarchy, and as you may know, when the hierarchy has messed with me, I've done my best to mess back. Now I see people who were horribly damaged by this same hierarchy messing back on a grand scale, and I see other lay Catholics and ...