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Article: James Shannon loved the church all his life: Bishop who resigned over Humanae Vitae and married is laid to rest with honors.(Appreciation)(Obituary)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- September 19, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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My friend had only days to live. She had made peace with everything in her life but the Catholic church. The church, to which she had once given so much of her generous self, had torched a great, lingering anger in her when it annulled her marriage. In her eyes, the legalism of the church was telling her that her many years as a wife and mother of their children did not amount to a real marriage. She felt, she said, like a pariah.
Those of us who loved her could never convince her that it didn't matter what the canon lawyers said, She was as much a part of our church as she had been her entire life but she didn't believe us. Until, that is, her friend Jim Shannon ...