Dear Papa Francesco,
Around my neck I wear a medal that belonged to my uncle, Father Michael G. Pierce, S.J. He was a prominent Jesuit of the New England Province, which I realize is pretty well down the pecking order from where you’re sitting these days, but it still made him a pretty big deal in the Society, as he called it. I grew up with him, and with the Jesuits of his generation. These included Father Finnegan, a onetime Navy chaplain who, as far as I knew, was the leading clerical expert on the New York City gang wars of the 1950s. At various family gatherings, which Finnegan used to attend as an honorary member of the family, I learned that when arguing anything with the members of the…
