Some years ago, as lowly associate pastor, I had a particularly rough situation at one of my parishes. To go to our bishop of the time would put a lot of people in a very ugly position. So, I turned to Bishop Henry Rene Gracida of Corpus Christi, Texas. He is now 101. This holy man has always given me solid advice. In regards to this case, he advised me, ‘you will have to make a prudential decision on how to act in this situation. But consider this: in regards to matters of Marriage, divorce, & sexuality, you – as a priest of Jesus Christ – should walk with these souls who are in the mired in these problems. The need for friendship is so deep in our being, you can hardly expect them to make this difficult journey without it [meaning friendship]. And you Fr. Tim will have to have the courage to walk with them regardless of any guff you will take from other people because of it.’ I saved his e-mail for a number of years. I would have loved to cut and paste the original e-mail in its entirety into this little article. Sadly, when my computer crashed, it took Bishop Gracida’s wisdom with it. His Grace, Henry Gracida, is very well known for his ardent defense of Church teaching, so he was clearly not telling me to ignore sin. He was in fact telling me that, like Christ, we walk with people to virtue and from there to Eternity with God. I have always remembered his wise counsel. So it is, Fr. Maassen and myself repeat the words of my homily. Christ’s teaching from this past Sunday is as clear as it gets, but we will walk with anyone who has been divorced or otherwise struggles with the meaning of Marriage, using all our resources. We will walk with you! We cannot however give approval to sin; as heaven and hell are on the table, charity demands we not give approval to sin. As many of you know, I pray, as best I can, for any intentions given to me. I already have broad categories for those who have the pain of divorce & so on. But if anyone ever wishes me to pray for their intention specifically, you need only ask. Let us be careful out there.