All right--the circus is in town!

Well, OK--not my town. More like a continent away, to be precise. But the notorious annual Religious Education Congress begins in Anaheim today. Given the history of such gatherings, it promises to offer further insights into the proverb "a picture is worth a thousand words." Not to mention causing a serious run on Maalox among orthodox Catholics.

This year, Roger Cardinal Mahony will be getting into the swing of things with an online chat, but, alas--no presentations.

How To Get The Most Out of Your PR Firm, Hair Gel and You and Applying Vatican Directives: Birdcage or Catbox? How To Decide would have been both educational and practical.

Since it is ostensibly a religious education conference, I was interested in what the speakers had to say about November 2003's announcement by the American bishops that most of the catechetical books used to educate Catholic children were defective--sometimes grossly so. It wouldn't be fair to have expected it to be an issue at last year's conference, given the short notice. However, they've had better than a year to digest it, surely it's a hot topic of discussion for the 2005 Congress.

So, scrolling down...

Hm.

I see Seeking Healing and Wholeness Through Music, Meditation and Movement--probably not there.

Dry Bones Dancing! (exclamation point in original). Weeeellll...

Homosexuality, Celibacy and the Priesthood: Opening Up the Conversation. It's under "Young Adult Ministry", per the description of Dr. Beaudoin's presentation. Erm--no.

Princess Diana, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Other Short Stories. Sounds diverse, but unlikely.

Enough is Enough! Stand UP! A Rallying Call for People Who Believe in the God of Love, Justice and Mercy (exclamation points and capitalization both in original). Sounds verbose. But still, no textbooks.

Awakening to the Power of Transformative Ritual. Doesn't Sting talk about that?

Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple, Open the Doors, Where Are All the Young Adult People? Scared away by transformative ritual, perhaps? Actually, I think I saw a lot of them there at the Baptist church down the street.

Sister Catechist and Sister Media Visit the Museum. WATCH OUT FOR THE ALBINO ASSASSIN, SISTERS!

This is getting a little demoralizing....

Wait--I think I found it!

Shall We Dance? Grace Incarnate! (Exclama--oh, you know the drill.) Sorry--eye/scrolling fatigue.

I'll keep looking. Surely there's at least one presenter taking the issue head on.

Right?

Right.