Mystery priest in Missouri rescue comes forward

Jefferson City, Mo., Aug 12, 2013 / 02:12 pm (CNA).- The mysterious Missouri priest who gave anointing to a woman in her wrecked car near Center, Mo. has been identified as Father Patrick Dowling, of the Diocese of Jefferson City.

“I thank God and the amazingly competent rescue workers,” Fr. Dowling stated today in a comment on CNA's original article on the Aug. 4 incident.

“I thank them for making me welcome in such a highly charged situation and allowing me to minister as a priest.”

Katie Lentz was trapped in her older-model Mercedes, which had been struck by another vehicle which passed into her lane. That car's driver has been charged with DWI.

Rescue workers spent an hour trying to get Lentz out of her car, but the solid materials of its construction were dulling the fire department's emergency equipment.

Though the highway was blocked off, “I did not leave with the other cars,” Fr. Dowling commented. He parked as close as he could, “and walked the remaining 150 yards. I asked the Sheriff if a priest might be needed … on checking, he permitted me to approach.”

“When the young lady asked that I pray her leg stop hurting, I did so. She asked me to pray aloud and I did briefly … the rescue workers needed space, and would not have appreciated distraction. I stepped to one side and said my rosary silently until the lady was taken from the car.”

Once Lentz was removed from her vehicle, he explained, “I then shook hands with the Sheriff, and thanked him, as I left. I have to admire the calmness of everybody involved.”

“The Highway Patrol sergeant was amazingly calm and completely in control. Everybody worked with the harmony of a Swiss watch.”

CNA spoke with Fr. Dowling Aug. 12, and he explained that he gave Lentz Anointing of the Sick as well as absolution.

He affirmed that it was in the normal duties of a priest, “except that there was something extraordinary it sounds like, in the sequence of events that coincided in time with the Anointing.”

“You must remember, there were many people praying there, many, many people … and they were all praying obviously for healing and for her safety.”

“I was probably part of the answer to their prayers, I came by and Anointed and absolved, (but) I didn't say another word … I did not say anything like the machinery would begin to work or they would succeed in getting her out of the car.”

“That did not come from my lips, though two people heard it.”

Fr. Dowling was driving by Center while on his way from having said Mass in Ewing. A native of Ireland, Fr. Dowling was ordained a priest for the Jefferson City diocese in 1982. He has served at several parishes in the diocese, as well as its two mission parishes in Peru.

Fr. Dowling currently serves in prison ministry and serves the Spanish-speaking population of the Diocese of Jefferson City.

Pope Francis: What attracts our hearts 'like a magnet?'

Vatican City, Aug 11, 2013 / 10:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Sunday Angelus address from Rome, Pope Francis encouraged listeners to reflect upon the day's Gospel in which Jesus reminds his disciples to treasure the things of heaven.

“We can ask ourselves, where is my treasure? What is the most important reality for me, the reality that attracts my heart like a magnet? Can I say that it is the love of God?” Pope Francis asked the crowds in St. Peter's Square Aug. 11.

Sunday's Gospel reading, he said, tells us that a Christian “is one who carries within himself a great and profound desire” for “a meeting with the Lord.”

This is true for every Christian, noted Pope Francis. Some might protest, “but Father, I am a worker, I have a family, for me it is most important to manage my family and my work.”

“Certainly, it’s true, it is important. But what is the force that holds the family together? It is precisely the love of God that gives sense to the little daily commitments and also helps us to confront great trials,” the Pope said.

He added, “God’s love is not something vague, a generic sentiment; God’s love has a name and a face: Jesus Christ.”

“The love of God is manifest in Jesus. We can’t love the air, the atmosphere. We love people!  And the Person that we love is Jesus – the gift of the Father for us.”

The Gospel speaks of the desire for a “definitive meeting with Christ, a desire that makes us remain always ready, with an alert spirit, because we await this meeting with all of our hearts,” said the Pope.

Departing from his written text, Pope Francis asked the audience, “think and respond in the silence of your heart. Do you have a heart that desires, or a heart that is closed, asleep? Do you have a heart that is anesthetized towards the things of life?”

The love of God gives value and beauty to everything else in life, the Pope said. It even “gives sense to negative experiences, because it allows us to go beyond, to not remain prisoners of evil, but helps us move forward, opening us always to hope, to the final horizon of our pilgrimage.”

“It is at this horizon that we meet Jesus.”

The crowds cheered as Pope Francis exhorted them, “Go forward in life with love – with that love that God has planted in your hearts! With the love of God! This is the true treasure.”

A Mother's Unconditional Love

*By Christina Senour

While browsing the internet for stories this morning, I came across an article that literally gave me chills. An Australian woman gave birth to twins at 27 weeks old; her son, Jamie Ogg, weighing in at just two pounds, was “pronounced dead by his physician after medical staff tried for twenty minutes to revive him.”

Jamie is now three years old and perfectly healthy because of the unconditional love of his mother. Stated in the article, “when Jamie was pronounced dead, the doctor handed him to his mother, Kate, so that she could say goodbye to her son. Kate took Jamie into her arms and tearfully caressed her tiny son.”

Kate held him against her chest, talking to him with her husband, telling him how much they loved him. After two hours, “Jamie began gasping for air more frequently, and then Kate gave him a little breast milk on her finger. The baby took the milk, and then he opened his eyes.” This tiny baby was a miracle.

This story was truly touching to me and gives me so much hope for the pro-life movement. Because of Jamie’s mother, his life was saved, and that is truly beautiful. I sometimes find it difficult to search the news because there are so many depressing stories circulating the media, but when I come across stories like this one I can’t help but smile and think that what truly matters in life is the love we have for each other. When we love each other as Christ has loved us, no evil can triumph over us.

“Keep your love for one another at full strength, because love covers a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8

*Christina Senour, an intern for CNA, is an incoming freshman at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. She spent the past three months in Rome during the events surrounding Benedict XVI’s resignation and the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.