text: To respond to only one of your points, and as a religious who works 32 hours a week for a governmental agency, it enables me to carry out a very special ministry that is infused with the values of the Gospel in a secular service.  And I am paid very well that is of significant help in providing for my aged and ill confreres.  With the decrease in religious who staff schools or run hospitals, the number of Catholics who go to our schools or make use of Catholic hospitals has also decreased significantly.  Those institutions, to you, have "crumbled" while to most of us, they have gone through transitions in tandem with the great social changes that rule most of life.  And BTW - the lay men and women who now staff our Catholic Schools, in great sacrifice of income, continue to produce those priceless educations you are rightfully proud of.