The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights posted this as their feature article today. I should be flattered, but more importantly I admire them for their sense of justice and support for Pornchai Moontri. -- Father Gordon MacRae
Fr. Gordon J. MacRae (This story originally appeared onBeyond These Stone Walls) I wrote a post recently entitled “Book of Tobit: The Angel Raphael on the Road with Pornchai Moontri.” It was an allegory, like the Book of Tobit itself. An allegory is a sort of genre of Sacred Scripture in which a story is told more for its meaning than for its historical value. Every parable of Jesus falls into this same genre. A part of the story of Tobit, and his son Tobias and their interactions with the Archangel Raphael in disguise were all part of the allegory. That does not mean the allegory did not happen. It means only that the truth of the story does not depend upon someone believing it. There was one aspect of the Book of Tobit story that became a centerpiece of my blog linked above. At the beginning and the end of the Book of Tobit there is a mysterious dog whose presence, meaning and purpose remain a mystery. My friend Pornchai Max and his grueling assimilation to his native Thailand after …