So the world needs a MOM ?

 A maudlin way to make the point : " Carefully fingering a

    string of rosary beads ... "  Professor Mark Miravalle whispered,

    " The world today is in desperate need of a mother . "

        He  and 6 million other Catholics  want to promote the Virgin

    Mary to  FIRST MOTHER of the whole world. ( see PROJO , Dec. 26,

    page A6 ) .

             In the interim  may I recommend Barbara Bush as a worthy

    candidate  of the FIRST MOTHER role ?  She might secretly believe

    that HER son , W , is indeed  DIVINE , but my heart went out to

    her when she insisted in public that HE was not stupid . Motherly

    pride is powerful stuff !

            A biography says of Barbara : "  She started volunteering

    in hospitals long before she became famous. She did the kind of

    work - even emptying bed pans - that gave her up-close experience

    with many patients .

            Barbara Bush is well known for her long campaign for

    literacy. She learned that a prisoner " got caught because he

    couldn't read the exit sign on the door of the supermarket

    he was robbing. "

           " She urged him to develop his reading skills - "

           Yes, indeed nothing  like a good mother !

        By the way, there is a correlation between sightings of

    the Virgin Mary and  a high level of illiteracy in the

    witnesses and the spectators:  " It's a Miravalle ! "

               But I have great respect for the real Madonna !