words, uttered the day before, of a goodnpriest, for decades in Rome, whose principalngrievance was the Vatican’s rigiditynin ecumenical matters! I disagreed, havingndifferent views on ecumenism, butnthat was my interlocutor’s chief worry.nIt would be hard to be in the Cardinal’snposition, and to weigh and balance allnthe many concerns.nHard also because we are in Italy,nwhere the classical mixes with thenbaroque, the severe Pantheon with thenJesuitical Gesii, where Catholicism isnhammered into the subconscious. Sittingnnext to the Cardinal, I change thensubject without getting off it. Two daysnbefore, at audience with Cardinal AlfonsonLopez Trujillo—the Pope’s mannin South America, now president of thenPontifical Commission on the Familynand successor to Cardinal Gagnon—Insaid admiring words about J.P. McFadden’snHuman Life Review; to CardinalnRatzinger I praise now the reviewnCatholica (Paris), perhaps the most intellectuallynstimulating Catholic publi­nLIBERAL ARTSnNONRESIDENT VOTERSncation. Ratzinger reads it regularly,npraises it highly—and this means quitena bit because we make it certain thatnthe review has its sic or non right. ThenCardinal’s acknowledgment may alsonmean—in the Vatican where words arencarefully weighed—that the Church hasngotten over the worst (not the light fevernbut the bad influenza, as Maritain concluded),nthat many are coming back tonher (see Dom Gerard’s glorious Benedictinenmonastery in Provence), that thenobstinate opponents are out of breath.nIt has taken a generation, and it will takenmore. I cleady experienced it in Rome:nthe Church is divided, in higher andnlower ranks, just like the rest of Westernnsociety, along the same lines and fornthe same reasons. The windows werenopened too wide by John XXIII. Yet,nthe positive thing today over our timidnyesterday is that the conflict is almostnout in the open; almost because the Vaticannis ever discreet, no blunt statements.nLet time do its work.nHungary is sufficiently small and re-nA bill to enfranchise homeless people has been introduced in the Illinois legislature.nAccording to the Chicago Tribune, House Democrat Jan Schakowsky said, “If anyonenhas an interest in changing the direction of the country, it is the homeless,” and arguednthat a “person’s primary place of residence is a location where they can usually benfound. . . . This includes a park bench, a shelter, a street corner or a space under anbridge.” Republican Senate Minority Leader James Philip expressed concern that thenlack of traditional residence “could lead to widespread vote fraud.”n46/CHRONICLESnnnmote enough to serve as a test case innour conversation. What struck me innRatzinger’s words was the accent on continuity.nThe Church weathered throughnterrible times, yet it needs no “reorganization”—onlynsome replacements ofnpersons, the orthodoxy of new Catholicnuniversities, and resettled religious orders.nThe Church produced, as she usuallyndoes, firmness and flexibility, resistancenand accommodation, Mindszentynand Lekai. The Pope’s visit to Hungarynwas appropriately scheduled to signalncontinuity and a new start. What Romenknows and we forget is the immense resilience-ofnpeople, their return from thenhorrible and the scandalous at the firstnsign of authority and faith. Yet I insistednthat the Church ought to give the sign,nnot wait until it is convenient.nThe Church’s apparent drawback innthese times of demagogue nuns and ofncondom-cum-cucumber curriculum, isnher official silence and dignity. WhennWeakland insists on saving the Churchnthrough the marriage of priests (whatnabout, next time, the marriage of gaynpriests?), Rome cannot, like a washerwoman,ngossip back tit for tat. Therenare other ways, less spectacular. Thencongress at Frascati in the Alban hillsnwas about biogenetics, a critique of then”new medicine” where the curing of thensick takes a backseat behind the idea ofnthe human body as a manipulated andnmodified object of depersonalization.nA general reaction to the century’s insanitiesnemerges slowly, as men of goodnwill join a low-toned crusade.nRome itself offers the right frame fornsuch countermoves. You turn a cornernand find new eye-caressing sites, unexpectednangles, and a gamut of colorsnplayed out by a vivid luminosity on wallsnof ochre, red, golden stones. The quietncontemplation on the Pincio, the vividnessnof the Trastevere, the twilight onnthe Tiber and its bridges. The marvelousncocktail of eternity and time.nOne asks, how can work be accomplished—andnthe faith rescued—^behindnthese sun-beaten windows, facing thenfountains, strolling under Trajan’s Column,nlooking out on the Forum fromnthe Campidoglio? Is Rome the placenfrom where the world may be put right?nYet it has happened, many times.nThomas Molnar is the author,nmost recently, of The Church,nPilgrim of Centuriesn(Eerdmans).n