To travel from St. Louis to Phoenix at this time of the year was to go from below zero to a very pleasant low twenties celsius. Before I went to give my talk I watched the Irish news on my ipad, and saw the interview with Cardinal Burke. I had heard so much about him during my two days in St. Louis, where he had been archbishop, and all the hurt people he left behind him, so I was interested.
I had a very interesting second evening in St. Louis. The woman with whom I was staying, who has a long association with the Womens Ordination Conference, invited some people in to meet me.
We ended up with a fascinating group. There were three Oblate priests, from their novitiate, twp diocesan priests, two Roman Catholic Women Priests, an Episcopalian minister, and a few others. It developed into a really interesting discussion on staying with the institution or breaking away, and on how to manage a new group, like the Catholic Women Priests, and keep them to some degree with a shared vision and strategy.
These two stops came on two consecutive days, with about five hours of travelling in between. So it was all fairly hectic.
San Antonio was probably the smallest group I have had, – maybe about fifty people in an annex off a bookshop. But they were a varied and interesting group. Dignity, the Catholic organisation for LGBT people, were the main sponsors. So there were a good few of those attending.
