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U p F r o n t
By Karl Keating
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This Rock
Volume 6, Number 1
 January 1995 
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LIFTING a metaphor from my colleague Fr. Ray Ryland, I noted, when interviewed recently by a Catholic weekly, that people leave the train that is the Catholic Church from both the left side and the right side, but when the train pulls out of the station and recedes into the distance, both groups of people are equally left standing on the platforms. It is as easy to err in one direction as in the other.
This thought comes to mind as I work on what may end up being, for This Rock, the lengthiest single article it has carried and what, for me, already is proving to be the most difficult-to-write article I have attempted. The length is demanded by the need to layout all the facts with extreme accuracy; the difficulty arises from having to write about people I know and admire and have read and have worked with and whose welfare I pray for and worry about. Their spiritual journeys have led them to the chasm at the bottom of which is schism.
They are now dissenters on the right. Most of us are familiar with dissent on the left, which, in numeric terms, is the larger problem. The two dissents are related. The former is in large part a reaction to the latter and to the Church's seeming inability to deal with the latter. I share many of the frustrations of those who exit onto the right-hand platform, but I have no intention of getting off the train until it pulls into its final station.
I hope, a few issues hence, to convey with accuracy a situation that is doing grave harm to orthodox Catholics. I'd appreciate your prayers that the article may turn out as it should.
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