archives

When I’m on the lecture circuit, there’s a story I like to tell to illustrate the sometimes surprising diversity inside the Vatican. It’s set in the summer of 2002, when Pope John Paul II was in Mexico City to canonize Juan Diego, the Aztec visionary in the Our Lady of Guadalupe devotion.

At the moment in the canonization Mass when John Paul read out the Latin formula declaring Juan Diego a saint, pandemonium broke out in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Confetti fell from the ceiling, drums beat and horns blared, and a knot of indigenous dancers began to gyrate down a catwalk. Inside, it felt like Michael Jordan had just hit the winning shot in Game Seven of the NBA Finals; an American TV correspondent standing next to me, who happens to be Jewish, shouted in my ear, “If they did it this way every Sunday, even I would show up!”

I don't know exactly how long the moderated discussion tables have been in effect, but I was wondering, from both ends, how it is going?

As one who submits posts, sometimes it is frustrating to have to wait 24 hours to have something posted. It kind of slows down the conversation.

From an administrative side, I wanted to ask if you have found if the values or benefits are greater than the risks of instant messages? Also, has it had an effect on the number of posts that have been submitted?