This potted plant caught my eye today. Not the pot so much, though it’s a fine pot; nor, the plant, though it’s a lovely plant, seemingly doing well. No, it was the chain securing the pot to the rail that caught my eye. Because the rail is at the entrance to Christ Church!
Who would steal a plant from a church?
As you certainly know, lots of people would. Hence the chain. This is the world we live in.
I noticed another church-related story today. The Catholics have introduced a new version of their Mass. Predictably, some welcome it, some hate it. But this comment in the New York Times made me cringe: “I have to prepare people to pray the way that the church wants us to pray, whatever my personal reservations,” says Msgr. Christopher Maloney of St. John the Baptist Parish in Yonkers.
The idea that only a group of old men in Rome know how people should pray would be laughable were it no so emblematic of the power-hungry, controlling mind-set that is the Vatican, and is at the heart of all the clergy abuse scandals of the last few decades. Why anyone still pays attention to these old farts is beyond comprehension.
Back to the plant. What else would people steal? Here’s my all-time favorite answer to that question: a friend of a friend came home one day to her New York apartment to find a dead, naked woman on her stoop. She was, of course, horrified and, after calling 911, she took a coat outside to cover the body. By the time the police showed up just a few minutes later someone had come by and – yep, you guessed it – stolen the coat!
Indeed, this is the world we live in.
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