"It is probably too late to pull the plug on this event," says NC Reporter man, meaning the impending Eucharistic Congress . . .

. . . which is one of the last things the church's NCReporter branch has interest in.

@MichaelSWinters. "I warned the bishops 17 months ago not to let this congress turn into 'a very expensive, very nostalgic boondoggle.' It appears they did not listen."

When will bishops learn? When will they ever learn?

We writers expose ourselves now and then. Caught up in the wonderful people we are, we let it out there for the world to see.

Yet there is also at least the hint of self-mockery in the above, this bemoaning our God-given shepherds' turn to the right in their slating right-wing Catholics for the coming congress, their effort to counter the report of rampant disbelief in the Divine Presence.

Being of the NCR branch, he is alert to such turns as a preponderance of conservatives on a panel. And at same time arguably clever in i-d'ing them as Steubenvillians. Made this writer chuckle.

Of course, where should the shepherds go for a major gathering to promote the supernatural life, if not among Steubenvillians and their brothers and sisters elsewhere who take it seriously?

My sense of the matter is that NCReporter people are not big on liturgical issues or for that matter on where they fit into the Catholic scheme of things beyond celebrating solidarity with each other under the Catholic flag.

I used to be one of them, and once called kiss-of-peace time the high point of the mass and was also edified by the sight of everyone holding hands during the Our Father.

Those were the days, my friend, of buying into Everything New, and why not? Vatican 2 had opened the way to The New, the Accessible, the reassuring and comfortable. Not that I was riding high on the Everything Goes scale. But I was going along while getting along, busy indeed with the business at hand, wife, children, hustling for cash. Nothing to be ashamed of, and I wasn't.

But a part of me was beginning to feel the pinch, going to church expecting bread and getting a stone. Began to read about it and writing, chronicling my unsatisfying if not annoying experiences in my liberal parish or parishes.

Served me right, I told myself. I'd had my chance to preach better sermons etc. and blew it. See my book Company Man for details.

Dominus Vobiscum was (and remains) my blog on the subject.