Pastoral. From pastor, as in, a shepherd. In the Catholic circles in which I run (broadly orthodox in liturgy and theology—though I will be the first to admit that that doesn’t always mean the same thing as traditional does to some. I don’t wear a suit on Sundays. Anyway), pastoral can be a bad word. Whatever it might mean, its connotations are clear enough: uncertain, untrustworthy, basically snake-like. To the most convinced mind, it means something like “wiggle room for... Read more