It starts to sink in...

One of my favorite topics that the West Wing discusses is the politics of nominating a justice for the supreme court. In the fifth season (generally far more dramatic than the other seasons) the gang really tries to grapple with the fact that the current political struggle between the power of the President and the power of Congress leans that for the most part we will be stuck with moderate and centrist judges who will interpret the law with only what is written and not necessarily considering a bigger picture or a greater responsibility to the living document that is our Constitution. The characters really hope for, and eventually get, the possibility to appoint justices who aren't simply interpreters of the law, but scholars of the law. Justices who will explore the limits and expression of our Constitution and assuring that the law fully protects all whom it governs.

I making this point as an analogy to the Catholic Church. Many priests today are simply interpreters of the Bible, looking only as far as they've been taught to look and not being scholars of a living faith. Today may have been my last day celebrating mass with a man who is quite possibly the best priest I have had the opportunity of knowing. He is truly a scholar of the Catholic Faith and strives to challenge all that we've been told, daring us to look beyond where we've been told to look. Fr. Tom Bonnachi is the kind of priest who doesn't stand at the pulpit and preach, but stands amidst the congregation to . I can still remember a certain mass in which the gospel reading was Luke 15, known in certain circles as the "lost and found" portion of the bible where Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, the woman with the lost coin and the prodigal son. Fr. Tom's homily on this particular day had almost everyone attending in tears because it was so powerful.

He is a kind and gentle soul whom I will miss terribly and who I'd hope to see at Dignity every time I came back to SF over a Sunday.