No one moved. Everyone simply stared at me. After a moment, it became palpably awkward, and then unnerving. Another moment passed before Monsignor Tom, my childhood priest, stood up at the back of the room and began walking forward. Everyone’s eyes followed him until he was directly before me. With a warm smile that I had come to know over the decades, Monsignor Tom exclaimed, “Christopher [you’ll have to imagine the Long Island accent], what a fine message. This is precisely the good news that we need at a time like this. I am so proud of you and thankful for the way you have served your family.”
It was a kind gesture. By putting his personal (and clerical) imprimatur on my message, Father Tom delivered me from the familial scorn that would have inevitably followed. But it was more than that. It was also a statement about the Roman Catholic capacity to recognize Christian faith in the Protestant tradition. The question, however, is whether evangelical Protestants can reciprocate.
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