Moto G6

As I mentioned the other day, Michael’s phone died. Powering it on would just put it in a boot loop, and no amount of trying to boot into Android recovery would work. I’d chatted with Google Fi’s online help and they agreed to expedite another one right away.

The replacement Moto G6 arrived this afternoon. I asked Michael to put it on a charger so it’d be ready for activation later. After dinner and just a bit more work wrap-up, I brought it downstairs, and with some assistance from Michael (fingerprints, PINs, and such) got it setup again more or less like before: transferring messages, photos, his old phone’s SIM card and microSD card, etc. It took about half an hour to an hour. A lot of “hurry up and wait” operations as the phone restored everything and updated all of its software to the current versions.

I imagine it’s got to be tough these days to be a 19 year old without your phone for a few days. I don’t think I’d ever seen him use the laptops and his Gameboy quite as much. :-)

Anger

I found this article helpful today:

6 Things to Keep in Mind When (Not If) the Church’s Human Element Lets You Down

When initially we had “15 Days to Slow the Spread™”, I understood the Catholic churches taking a week or two off. We’ve done so briefly for extreme weather related events. But when it turned into months, it really started to make me lose faith in the bishops as a whole.

When the Priest Scandal came out, I knew that – like any cross section of humanity – some small percentage of priests were corrupt. There are corrupt teachers, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, police, engineers, etc. The best thing we can do is work for more transparency, expose corruption, and promote the virtuous aspects in those vocations. Many supervisors in charge may have not acted as we’d like [and I look down on those that shuffled and enabled], but overall the hierarchy condemned the actions of those who violated their calling. Just try to get involved in any of our parish Youth Programs and you see the overcompensated efforts to Protect God’s Children.

When COVID-19 came on the world stage, for a little while we didn’t know much about it. As time has gone on we’ve come to know it is infectious, but not very deadly. One could go to get groceries, alcohol, and even abortions, but now suddenly public worship was forbidden – A fundamental right enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Well technically the Congress didn’t make a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion or the right to assemble. Most of our states did. I didn’t see much pushback from the US Bishops. If anything, it was the President, who many of them do not look favorably upon, who pressured the states to open up our churches, temples, and mosques. Had “The Orange Man” not made a very vocal stand of support for re-opening public places of worship, who knows how long Catholic Masses would’ve been suspended??

I’ve spent over half of my life teaching and advocating for the Sacraments, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the healing in Confession, and the importance of an active Catholic community of believers. And suddenly – poof – we need to shut it all down for an unknown number of months because someone might die. It was very difficult to accept. Watching a Mass on TV or via my computer is just not the same.

So it’s taking me some time. I’ve not waivered in my belief in the long held teachings of the Faith. But with the way a few weeks extended into months, I started to wonder if the leadership was believing all of the worse case scenarios (2 million dead, etc.) and forgetting about the power of the Sacraments. I’d read enough stories of brave Catholic Saints who administered in far deadlier epidemics, and wondered whether any of that fortitude existed today.