Your Humble Blogger has hardly been idle.

I just posted a little something over at the CBS News blog “Couric & Co.”:

Watching Pope Benedict step out of his limousine this morning and wave to the thousands cheering on the White House South Lawn, one thought crossed my mind: What would my grandparents think?

They were immigrants from Austria-Hungary (later known as Czechoslovakia) who settled in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, where my grandfather spent most of his life deep under the earth, mining coal. Their English was spotty, and their education slim. I don’t think my grandfather ever graduated high school. Together they raised five children in a rickety wooden row house not far from the coal mines. All the Hungarians and Poles and Slovaks clustered in one corner of the town. I don’t know that I’d call it a Catholic ghetto – but it was definitely off the beaten path.

Back then, in the early days of the 20th century, Catholics were considered Papists, or pagans, or worse. They were the cooks and housekeepers and bus drivers and janitors. Some became priests or teachers. A few with money and connections would ascend to higher places – think of the Kennedys – but it was rare. (Even today, you will find high-profile Protestant pastors like John Hagee who refer to the Catholic Church as “The Great Whore.” Some bigotry dies hard.)

So what I witnessed this morning was, for me, moving – and monumental. Not so very long ago, the idea that a President of the United States would greet the Pope at the White House was unthinkable.

There’s more at the CBS News link.