C

C for compassion, p for patience, When God made these he made plenty of them. God is already patient with the human race, we might have to learn the various ways of his compassion. God has to balance the forces of good and the forces of evil at times in order to allow for freedom and yet also variety in his universe, so not easy to know when to intervene, as the noted biblical scholar Dr Bergsma outlines the problem of such cases in his commentary on the figure of the Son of Man or filius hominis in Daniel 7, God as the patient presider over free solar systems. Some bishops genuinely felt that they should not impose the chapter in the old western codes called De sanctionibus, preferring to wait until there was some sign of a conversion, some basis for hope, we cannot blame them for that always when things go wrong, a human sign, as Sir Elton sings it in his song "Sacrifice." It is just that the boys were suffering in the meantime. There is the rub. Caught between the rocks and the open sea, not easy to balance these values. But maybe the said bishop could have gone back to credit control and finance in order to learn the lessons of those workplaces about patience.