The most typical symbol of Christmas is a light shining in the darkness. The shep­herds in the fields and the wise men in the east suddenly see the night made bright. It is a season for candles and stars, and its theological sense is caught in one of the readings from the liturgy for Christmas night: "The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all men" (Titus, 2:11).

During the last few months I have been grappling with the complex question of how the different ministries within the church are interrelated. Just when I was tempted to draw an intricate chart with red, purple and black lines, some exciting fold-outs and many arrows pointing this way and that, I came across a very simple story about a monk and a cripple:

There is a nagging, complicated and somewhat technical problem that occasionally springs up when a new papal encyclical is promulgated. All the details of the case need not be rehearsed, but students of Pacem in Terris will recall the unnecessary and misleading questions that arose in 1963 over an alleged lack of fidelity between the so-called official Latin text of Pope John's famous document and its vernacular translations. At the time, there were even hints of some form of foul play with the official text, and the matter became hopelessly confused and controversial before it was dropped by the press.