No, my friend is a fallen-away Catholic, and the sad thing is, people like her often have good cause to be angry at the Church. But what you say about your friend makes me glad I don't live in Britain! Isn't that sad? I love England, and would love to visit Scotland again, but people need to understand that atheism isn't the answer to religious intolerance and bigotry. A doctrinaire, bigoted atheist can be just as hateful as a doctrinaire, bigoted Catholic or Muslim or Jew. I really think the first thing any religion should teach us is that God is far greater than our comprehension, and that we'd better be very careful and humble if we presume to speak in His/Her name.

End of lecture! As to the Belfast post, I hope to get to it next week, now that livejournal is back online. Really, the chief reason I wanted to go there was C.S. Lewis! I told my aunt, "I'd like to do a literary pilgrimage." I also wanted to see the Giant's causeway, of course. :)

speaking of Lewis, a colleague just put his Letters to Children in my hand. I think I'll enjoy that!

Thanks again for your comment; good to hear from you.