No one asks for anyone's opinion about how to post on TOL. It never stops anyone from doing it anyway.
I think AMR found that amusing, for the most part. And then a lot of it got old for him.
I get it. Just an initial reaction because of the "me" part. Like showing up to a wake to tell people you weren't friends...but I can see now that there was regard in your intent.
I'm just a little touchy when it comes to Patrick. He and red/AB were my first friends here and he went out of his way, repeatedly, to offer me aid and comfort, guidance, and the occasional OK. Forget I said anything about it.
I'm sorry. I hope that you now see that I did nothing but honor him in my post. I can't apologize for not doing anything wrong, but I am sorry that it seemed disrespectful to you. I respected AMR even while disagreeing with him, and if I could converse him now I know exactly the argument tack that I'd take with him, and given his current situation it'd go a lot like, "Told you so." That's a joke, that's inside in as much as he was Excatholic, and I argued with him that his Anticatholicism was incorrect---and now he knows.
He had strong mentor relationships with many on TOL, which I couldn't ever partake in because I disagreed with his theology, having been down the same theological road as him before, spying the hard cases, realizing all those were solved /didn't exist in Catholicism, and wondering what kept him from seeing the same thing, especially him being Excatholic, and a studied one at that (a Jesuit). I think he handled them reasonably, from what I saw publicly.
...On obituaries, I haven't been able to find more than the cursory funeral home bit. I'm not sure if there was a local paper in his Arizona community, but I'm looking.
He's still alive, conscious right now, and if he's been purified /purged he can read these posts I'm sure, even watch us as we type them. If Catholicism's correct. Which I believe it is, and I know that he does now too. We have eternity to catch up with him, an eternity with every other Christian, each. There's no such thing as a "head start" in eternity.
I'm sorry for the loss of your friend /mentor. I know that he is in a better place. My faith has all the saints cheering us on, rooting for us, for all of us sheep as we do our best to follow our Shepherd. He is right now cheering you on, it's possible, if he's refined to purest gold by now, but assuredly every saint in heaven is definitely cheering us all on right now. We're on the 'big screen.' This is what it's all about.