All public policy issues that affect human dignity and human life have both political and moral aspects to them. In light of this, the Church is compelled to speak out on public policy issues of moral consequence and often does. In fact, the Church has a moral obligation to speak out on these issues. In the immigration area, the Church brings special expertise to the table because we are an immigrant Church and we have helped assist immigrants assimilate into the nation for years.

Over the centuries, the Vatican Museums have accumulated a great collection of ancient Greek and Roman art. Amid the many world-famous statues of the Olympian gods can be found a small marble bust, of a bearded man with two faces. One face looks backward while the other looks forward. It is a representation of the ancient Roman god of doorways, Janus, from whom the month of January takes its name. For the ancient Romans, New Year’s Day was the door opening up to the year to come and so they thought it appropriate to name the month to follow after Janus.

At a recent parish event held at our Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary downtown, I struck up a conversation with one of our parishioners, a fine young blind man who recently moved to the area. During the course of our conversation I learned that he would be walking home after the event. Knowing that he lived down the street from me and that I would be walking in the same direction, I asked if I could join him. He agreed and indicated that he would wait until I wrapped up everything.

This past month I had jury duty. It was my first opportunity to experience the jury process in the state of Alaska. Like all those called to serve on jury duty for the month of September, I was given a juror number and instructed to phone the Clerk of Courts’ office to listen to a pre-recorded message to learn if we had to report or not. Surprisingly, I was only called to appear once in the course of the month. Those of us who were summoned that day to the Dimond Court House were seated in a kind of holding area for prospective jurors on the third floor.