A Pilgrim’s Guide to Sodom, by Francis X. Maier

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing, February 28, 2025

Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church.

This is a column about Betty and Les Ruppersberger.  To the eye, they look like any other ordinary married couple.  And in a way, they are like other ordinary couples.  Keep them in your memory because I’ll come back to them in a moment.  But first, consider the following.

One of the most vivid chapters in Scripture is Genesis 18.  In the course of its thirty-three verses, God hears of the wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah – the biblical “cities of the plain.”  He comes down to investigate for himself in the guise of three travelers.  On the way, he appears to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre, resting at Abraham’s tent and promising his wife Sarah a son despite her advanced age.

Then, as Genesis notes: …

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