PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times
Kate Fratti
There are subjects my 70-year-old mother and I cannot discuss without offending one another. Religion is among them.
I admire Mom's sense of humor, her strength, her intelligence and her wizardry when it comes to eliminating tough laundry stains. There are few women I respect more when it comes to sense of family.
But sit across a table to talk religion or politics with this devout Catholic and staunch conservative? Not a chance. I've attempted it, and it always ends up badly.
I gave up trying to convert my mother years ago. She took longer to give up converting me. She stopped for good after the last presidential election. An exchange between us about what constitutes morality ruined a perfectly good shopping trip for both of us.
We used to argue about church. Not anymore. She's getting too old to get that mad. Now she just prays for me. Hard.
I have not and probably won't ever broach the subject of the results of the three-year grand jury investigation of the Philadelphia Archdiocese with her. Talk about a minefield.
Still, I know without asking that the report pains her deeply.