Marshall Taylor has a piece remembering Fr. Groeschel, called "Fr. Benedict Groeschel Once Read My Soul -- May He Rest in Peace" (TM).
Our underground correspondent on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, comments:
New York has produced some noble Catholic souls. Groeschel seems like he was one of them. His age, combined with his unfortunately tone-deaf comment on priest abuse (one that was to be absurdly inflated in our soundbite hyper-sensitive age of reporting) led to his marginalization these last few years. But his contributions are undeniable. I read his Healing the Original Wound way back when, on my way into the Church. It was blurbed by Thomas Howard and... Cardinal O'Connor! 20 some years ago, but like another century in some ways. I am going to pray for Groeschel, [and] for a new generation of souls to pick up the baton as so many larger-than-life faces pass on.
When a man becomes old, cranky, and less concerned with finetuning the meaning of his every remark, I tend to put more faith in what he says, not less. Groeschel's last years were some of his best.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ralph R-D. Fr. Benedict was quite unfiltered, but you could never doubt that he believed what he said.
ReplyDeleteDespite obsessions with the New York Times and the evils of freemasonry, I knew his context - and endeavored to persevere through his broadcasts. At 58, I'm trying to to be cranky, but am finding it difficult to turn off my own sound bytes of favorite irritations. Is this the license given to age? I had rather hoped to be more like a great grandmother who had raised 4 children on her own - after her husband had perished in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. She smiled occasionally, but was otherwise composed and stoic. Maybe somewhere in-between Benedict and she? God, grant me strength...
You go, godly granny! You're the kind of Catholic grandmother we need in our time! God bless you!!
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