not to be dignified with a headline

yesterday Boston's archbishop spoke at a Catholic version of the Promise Keepers called "the Boston Catholic Men's Conference." One of the speakers there, a high school counselor, was applauded when he said, ''You are called to be the spiritual leaders of your home, not your wife." (We'll also note that this week an Italian Cardinal denounced the novel The Da Vinci Code because, among other things, it claims that Mary Magdalene was at the table of the last supper, and was a spiritual leader in the early Christian Church.)

it is difficult to explain how alien to christianity this sort of talk is. since it was a catholic event, let's just state that it's an affront to the Blessed Mother.

Perhaps more interesting, though, is how the bishop described contemporary society as ''a world where too often the father is absent spiritually, emotionally, and physically." Since this message was transcribed by the Globe from a speech, we are wondering whether the bishop was referring to an absence of the father or of The Father.