A friend of mine just let me know of a frustrating and seemingly unfair issue in his neck of the woods: A popular and much-loved priest in South Dakota is apparently about to be deported due to what seems to be a pretty lame bureaucratic snafu (pemanent residency application accepted but later lost/misplaced). An advocacy site is here: HelpFather.
But nothing is quite as simple or as black-and-white as it seems, of course, at least in my mind :-)
Here are reasons why I was tempted not to post this on my blog:
- I’m agnostic, and am not a fan of Catholic doctrine / influence / etc.
- This matter’s already gotten press. What more could my humble blog do?
- Speaking of my humble blog, and selfishly for a moment, would my readers really care about this somewhat-local-oriented issue at all?
- This guy’s a priest. Can’t he just pray for this to get fixed? If that’s ineffective, maybe it’s God’s will for him to return to Ireland?
- There are always at least two sides to every issue. Can we trust that the folks advocating on behalf of this priest are telling the whole story?
And reasons why I ultimately posted this:
- A favor to my friend :-)
- Someone’s gotta help the little guy. And this one seems like a nice fella, mired in an uncaring and often-crappy bureaucracy.
- I do have some power as a blogger. Perhaps by helping get this guy’s predicament known outside of South Dakota I—and my readers—could make a difference.
- Sometimes it’s the little things in life that matter. Is this guy really important in the grand scheme of things? Maybe not. But he means a lot to my friend and my friend’s family. Lots of small things, “small people”... they all add up, all contribute to the richness of communities, to our planet.
- And, let’s be honest here… I bet people are more interested in this story than in my swinger blatherings, no? :-P (hmm… I’m combining a priest-related posting with a swinger reference; it’s a good thing I am agnostic, or I’d be going to hell :D).
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What about you?
What do you think of this priest’s situation? Of me posting this on my blog?
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