The Pope's new book

In honor of the publication of the Holy Father's new book there was a panel discussion at the John Paul II Cultural Center. Rocky and I decided to go at the last minute and I'm glad we did. Raymond Arroyo sat next to me for a short time. He's actually handsome in person and is quite charming. Arcbishop Sambi, the Papal Nuncio was the first speaker. He was adorable, like your favorite uncle. I'd love to have dinner with him. He talked about how personal this book is to the pope, how much it is an intimate peek at his heart and his own intense search for the Lord.

The next speaker was Bishop Lori (not a bad speaker) and after him came George Wiegel. As a speaker, he's dry as graveyard dust but hey, everybody can't be entertaining. What he had to say was quite impressive though. Finally John Allen spoke. Allen is tall, very thin and as pink as a newborn piglet. I think he'd make a good college professor. His talk was lively and informative. He's also very funny.

There were numerous priests in attendence and we saw three different orders of nuns. If you're ever in DC do visit the John Paul II Center and make your way to K Street to visit the Catholic Information Center which sponsored the event.

I have just started reading the book. It's different. It is not lyrical like an Archbishop Sheen book, it's not full of meaty historical details like The Life of Christ by Ricciotti. It's a lot like sitting on your teacher's lap in kindergarten after falling down and scraping your knee. Sr. would speak very kindly and get you stop crying while explaining that if you hadn't been running around like a wild pony or trying to do that flip or skipping with your eyes closed the fall never would have happened.

The pope was a school teacher (okay college) and with this book he is talking directly to us in a tender, simple way about the Lord. Interesting and surprising.