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The Bike.

My young friend Astro Physics major Randy was out of money, on academic probation and just had his bike stolen, his only mode of transportation. He was pretty down and I told him this story.

It was around 1989. I was newly married (2 years in), in Mexico at my wife’s sisters low income are condo in Zamora, Michoacán. I parked my 1969 International TravellAll in he busy parking lot with literally 40 to 50 people carrying activity there. I locked the car (the original SUV) I went upstairs and came back down within 20 minutes. I saw a kid maybe 6 or 7 years old take off for the parking lot when he saw me coming. It caught my attention but just puzzled me, I thought nothing of it. Getting to the car I noticed the drivers side door was unlock and not totally closed. I had a tool chest in the car for emergencies and to use to help my wife’s family if need be. I had tools my grandfather and father had left or given me before they died. It gave me joy to use them each time I touched them. They and some other things were gone. I was devastated because of the sentimental value they represented for me.

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, October 17, 2008 - Vol. 8, No. 4

As the Oct. 5-26 Synod of Bishops on the Bible moves into its "sausage-grinding" phase, working on propositions that will be submitted to the pope and a concluding message to the world, it already seems possible to anticipate several of its conclusions, at least at a fairly high level of magnification.

One might say that the synod, dedicated to "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church," is trying to steer a middle course between two extremes: Biblical fundamentalism, and secular skepticism. Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told NCR on Thursday that he regards these seeming opposites as, in a sense, symbiotic: When fundamentalists make claims about the Bible that can't be reconciled with reason, he said, it feeds skepticism about the Bible in the broader culture.