Parish Coordinator of Religious Ed writes in the bulletin that an Old Testament reading is “in” (?) 640-609 BCE (BC). What the heck? No more plain BC (Before Christ)? And insistence on BCE (Before the Common Era), which has appeared before in the same bulletin?

Some fussbudget there is who doesn’t like that BC and has gotten to the parish staff. Or it’s the latest idea at the Institute of Pastoral Studies. Same with AD (anno Domini, Latin for year of the Lord), as in the second reading, Paul to the Corinthians, in 54 CE (AD), CE being, you guessed it, the Common Era.

We are being educated to do away with the B.C. and A.D. designations, before and after Christ, maybe so as not to offend the non-Christians who have been putting up with them for a long time but have finally decided they can’t take it any more. Maybe some other reason, one that makes sense.