January 2025

The Road Not Taken

Men's Time Topic Discussion for Tuesday, September 7th

Welcome, Gentlemen of the Village, welcome to September!

It’s Fall, a mysterious time, a time of looking back, a time of possibilities, a perfect
time to wonder, to project, to imagine, a time to envision “…the road not taken…”!

Where were you, what were the circumstances, who were the players, did you
ponder long and hard? Or did you make the decision of a second? Did you go back
and forth, or was it a decisive conclusion with no options!

Did you ever look back? What did you think the outcomes might have been? Who
suffered because you made the choice you made? Who did you leave behind? Did
others have an opinion of what you did? Were some angry? Jealous? Resentful?
Supportive? Judgmental?

Tell us what the choice you made…tell us how you posed the question…tell us
what played into the possibilities…what were the conclusions…how did it work
out? Play it out: how might it have worked out if you chose the “road not taken..”

                                                   THE CHOICE
                                                    By John Tuite

Who would have thought that the Sixties were so distant from the Fifties! The
‘50’s were conservative, quiet, respectful, obedient…the ‘60’s were wild, noisy,
challenging, experimental! For the Catholic Church, the ‘50’s were led by the
traditional Pius XII, pope since 1939. The ‘60’s known by John XXIII of the “open
the windows…let the light and air in”! He instigated the 2 nd Vatican Council to
look at the changes of the world since the 1 st …in 1864…there was so much light
and air that he died in 1965! But before that, he introduced the “modern”
theologians to the Vatican bureaucracy and it was shocking! He asked the
Orthodox and Protestant Churches to sit in as observers and it was shocking! A
four year meeting…a new look at the mission of the church, at the relationship of
the church to the modern world. And then he died…and the bureaucracy began the
retrenchment…until today, Pope Francis is trying to protect the last of the changes
begun by Vatican 2!

I could have stayed! I could have pulled that small group of radicals to keep the
“windows open…and let in the light and air”. But then I met that beautiful, young
woman who was trying to find her way in the post Vatican 2 Church as was I! And
I chose to leave it! Leave it after the generations of my family clinging faithfully!
Leave it in spite of the excommunication that would follow. Leave it in spite of
those who stayed! Leave it without knowing who would be supportive, and who
would be condemning! Leave it without knowing how I would support a family of
five! Leave it without knowing whether this was a momentary infatuation! Leave
it without knowing…

Because that’s the nature of Choice! And this is 53 years later!