God Hung Among Thieves

Sometimes a retreat that is intended to follow one direction takes a different path. Because of the sad attacks on the Catholic Church and more specifically on the Pope, my prayers and intentions have for now shifted. Mine is still very much a Holy Week walk; but the cross we are carrying as church has taken on an inescapable form. All of us, the members of the Catholic Church, carry this cross together. To distance ourselves from this cross would be to echo the denials of Peter. When our Pope is attacked, we are attacked, and so we must pray with renewed fervor for the Pope, and for ourselves, the body of Christ. And equally we must pray for the the New York Times and other media outlets who are so blinded by prejudice and ignorance they cannot now seemingly tell the difference between the truth and calumny.

Below, a quote which is making the rounds of the blogosphere:


“To be connected with the church is to be associated with scoundrels, warmongers, fakes, child-molesters, murderers, adulterers and hypocrites of every description.







It also, at the same time, identifies you with saints and the finest persons of heroic soul of every time, country, race, and gender.



To be a member of the church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul because the church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves.”

— – Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., “The Holy Longing”