I've often remarked that every pope needs a good editor. Most papal encyclicals are too long and the typical papal message is often too wordy and sometimes short on clarity.

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Can you be critical of Israel without being anti-Semitic? Sure. It is a question of both substance and style.

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As a Catholic, I’ve experienced discrimination, but I’ve also received what I would acknowledge to be special favorable consideration at times precisely because I’m a Catholic. Add priesthood to my Catholicism and you would find a similar mix of noticeable discrimination at times and special consideration at other times.

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I think it is a false dichotomy to ask whether a physician's primary relationship is to the patient or the patient's religion. Of course, there is a primary relationship is to the patient, but the patient is a person, composed of body and soul, and that unique person's religion must not be ignored in the physician-patient relationship.

I recall asking a psychiatrist one time about religious differences between a patient and his or her psychiatrist and, indeed, whether the religion of the psychiatrist should be a consideration when a religious person sought psychiatric help. The answer I received impressed me. "It is not the religion of the psychiatrist that is key here; it is the religion of the patient. Any good (and ethical) psychiatrist will respect the religion of the patient under treatment."

There may be rare cases where a competent physician will decline to treat a person because behavior in connection to that person's religious commitment may be prompting the person to do unhealthy or dangerous things. Better to choose not to have that person as a patient. But once a physician-patient relationship is established, the primary responsibility is to the whole person, body and soul, whose faith and religious convictions are part of who he or she is.