Barbie and the Franciscan

A story from my friend Mike Aquilina:

I remember one of ours giving a gift of naked Barbie dolls to a saintly Franciscan friar who was sitting in our living room — then going on to explain the varieties of Barbie bottoms . . . how some had built-on panties and some didn’t. I don’t think he could make out the words as well as we could. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.

The Franciscan was the late, and great, Father Ronald Lawler, O.F.M.Cap. He was, besides being Peter Augustine Lawler’s uncle, the only American member of the Pontifical Roman Theological Academy, inducted in 1982 with Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac. And an expert on the underwear of America’s bestselling doll.