Curtain call.

Here's what I know after 20 years at this place, now that I am on the verge of moving onward and elsewhere (though my pen will remain active in these pages). I know that there are a lot of things I don't know about people, my faith, living in the USA. I know that I owe, I owe, I owe--a lot--to a good-sized gang of compassionate and committed people whom I have worked with over the years.

I know that I am a very lucky person to have been the sole enrollee in the world's most expensive evangelization program; what else do you call 20 years of on-the-job religious ed? My work here has reinvigorated my faith, introduced me to wonderful people who are accomplishing so much more for the good of humanity than I ever will, and frustrated the hell out of me at times.

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I have had my heart enlarged by this job; I have had it wrenched. I watched families build up their lives from nothing with nothing but a little help from the church. I wept like a broken thing after three or four too many interviews with adult survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of men as trusted as parents. I pray I'll never have to listen to such stories ever again.

I have watched the homeless, housing, health care, budget crises come and go and go and come, keeping me employed, engaged, and exasperated. I have found myself wondering what difference 20 years of this vocation has made in the world--still do. I don't doubt some regular subscribers to this fine publication wonder the same.

I have learned from good people that being Catholic makes a difference (or at least it should). I have been wowed by their intellect and integrity, warmed by their humor, blessed by their friendship. Let me name a few: Tom McGrath, Patrice Tuohy, Tom Wright, Mary Lynn Hendrickson, Meinrad Scherer-Emunds, Heidi Schlumpf, Cathy O'Connell-Cahill, Fran Hurst, and Bryan Cones. And let me not forget some of the good Claretians I have met through this ministry: the late Father Marty Kirk, Fathers Mark Brummel and John Molyneux, and the Fathers Tom: Joyce, Moran, and McGann.

These editors' notes are intended to intro some of the fine feature writing you'll find in every edition of U.S. CATHOLIC. I'm afraid I've shamelessly squandered this one on myself--typical--and have no room to say anything about this month's contents.

But here's what I can say without even looking at the index because it is true about every issue of U.S. CATHOLIC in the 20 years I have worked here: It is fearless, it is passionate, it is kind, it is fair and thorough. It is not condescending or patronizing. It impugns no one. It is what the church needs to hear, it is what you need to read, and it is what the people in the pews are really talking about.

It's all about keeping this faith of ours, ours.

God bless all here.