Bishop Gerald Kennedy once told about a young girl who lived in an apartment in a big city, and after supper in the summer the children on the block gathered in the streets to play. But after a while one would say that she had to go home because her mother told her to be in before eight o'clock. Or a father would whistle and a boy would have to leave. A mother would call and others would have to go. The girl said, "They would all go. It would get dark and I would be there all alone, waiting for my father or my mother to call me in. They never did."

How sad. There are children who don't know the voice of a caring parent, who never get called in or called home. They can do whatever they want as long as they don't get into any trouble or inconvenience the parents. When what they really want, what they really need is someone to care. Someone to call them by name, with love, not filled with derision, someone to reach out and let them know they matter.