A good rule of thumb for Lent: Be childlike, not childish.

Readers respond to the February 2022 editorial about how the listening phase of the 2023 Synod of Bishops should listen to the views of Catholics who have left the church.

“To be a Christian is not only to receive the faith, to confess the faith, but to safeguard life, one’s own life, the life of others, the life of the Church,” Pope Francis said in his Wednesday audience.

“Life is a right, not death, which must be welcomed, not administered,” Pope Francis said during his weekly audience. “And this ethical principle applies to, concerns everyone, not just Christians or believers.”

Not every word or phrase that pops into your head while you are praying is coming from God. But occasionally, we are free enough that God enters our consciousness with words or phrases that startle in their immediacy.

Is the church really interested in listening and learning from former Catholics? Or is it only “listening” to get them to come back to Catholicism?