Posted on 08/17/2013 9:21:52 AM PDT by marshmallow
The Rev. Patrick Dowling was driving near Hannibal, Mo., on a two-lane highway flanked by corn stalks on one side and soy beans on the other.
Dowling had just celebrated Mass on a Sunday afternoon earlier this month, filling in for a sick colleague when he saw the accident. He pulled over, got out of his white Toyota Camry and walked toward members of the New London Fire Department who, for 45 minutes, had been having difficulty extracting 19-year-old Katie Lentz from a crushed, 24-year-old Mercedes 300E.
What he did next would unexpectedly trigger an international media frenzy over miracles, angels and divine intervention.
After officials allowed him to approach the accident, Dowling reached his arm well into the car to touch Lentz’s head with oil. “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.”
The prayer was the Anointing of the Sick, an ancient ritual with roots in Judaism that is one of Catholicism’s seven sacraments.
As the priest walked away from the Mercedes, Lentz — a member of an Assemblies of God Pentecostal church — asked him to return and pray aloud with her, which he did. He then moved out of the way so rescue efforts could resume.
Dowling said in an interview this week that he was only doing his job at the sight of someone hovering near death. “You stop and anoint because that’s what Jesus told us to do,” he said.
That casual attitude about the incident may partially explain Dowling’s unceremonious departure from the accident scene. After staying long enough to see the teen evacuated to her hometown of Quincy, Ill., he got into his.......
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Oh, more than that. It permits one to live.
This particular priest spends most of his time on the road, criss-crossing the state, doesn’t watch TV, doesn’t often see a newspaper. So it says in the article. He didn’t even hear about all the publicity until days later.
He asked for the young woman’s name as he was leaving -— according to another article -— and was told she would be taken to the hospital in Quincy. That’s when he made plans to visit her. It seems he was interested.
To tell the truth, I’ll have to look it up. I’m not really faulting the guy, considering the circumstances.
Certainly, in ordinary circumstances, only Catholics can be absolved and anointed.
Or if she were not already baptized, he could baptize her on the spot if she requested it. I don’t think the medics would have any reason to object to her getting her head wet.
Spit it out.
There’s a reason I quit the Catholic church.
I wouldn't define optimism as "permitting" life. Promote, maybe, but not permit. Even pessimistic realists live.
No doubt.
A society without faith, hope and love which transcends the here-and-now won't even barely procreate (if they can help it) let alone flourish across generations. A person without faith,hope and love -- I don't know. I won't go there.
Just saw this, and had to share it. From an interview with Walker Percy.
Q. What kind of Catholic are you — a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic?
A. I don’t know what that means. Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the Catholic Church proposes for belief?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes.
Q. How is such a belief possible in this day and age?
A. What else is there?
Q. What do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism, Marxism, behaviorism, materialism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, Sufism, astrology, occultism, theosophy.
A. That's what I mean...
Q. I don’t understand. Would you exclude, for example, scientific humanism as a rational and honorable alternative?
A. Yes.
Q. Why?
A. It’s not good enough.
Q. Why not?
A. This life is too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, “Scientific humanism.” That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don’t see why anyone should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed him.
Q. Grabbed aholt?
A. A Louisiana expression.
A society without faith, hope and love which transcends the here-and-now won't even barely procreate (if they can help it) let alone flourish across generations. A person without faith,hope and love -- I don't know. I won't go there.
Just saw this, and had to share it. From an interview with Walker Percy.
Q. What kind of Catholic are you — a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic?
A. I don’t know what that means. Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the Catholic Church proposes for belief?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes.
Q. How is such a belief possible in this day and age?
A. What else is there?
Q. What do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism, Marxism, behaviorism, materialism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, Sufism, astrology, occultism, theosophy.
A. That's what I mean...
Q. I don’t understand. Would you exclude, for example, scientific humanism as a rational and honorable alternative?
A. Yes.
Q. Why?
A. It’s not good enough.
Q. Why not?
A. This life is too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, “Scientific humanism.” That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don’t see why anyone should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed him.
Q. Grabbed aholt?
A. A Louisiana expression.
The problem is in blurring what 'faith' means.
Muslims 'flourish', in spite of total faith in the wrong god. Most of them even seem to have more stable families from my experience, at least in comparison to Western single motherhood which has just about become the norm (almost half of all new births are to single mothers in the US).
Afghanistan has one of the highest birth rates, too.
What's actually funny is that the idea of humans 'flourishing' is similar to an argument I made about the necessity of humans thriving (term that I used). A lot of people here had a problem with it.
I wouldn't have had a problem with it.
Christian Scientists are neither Christian nor scientific. They believe that sickness and death are all just mistakes of the “mortal mind”. But “mortal” means subject to death, so how can something be subject to death, if, according to them, there is no such thing as death?
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