I was editing some fiction pieces I was working on, as well as the usual slate of government conspiracy, environmental abuse, and amazing technology stories.
But the damn Catholic Church couldn't let it be.
After the story went viral, and garnered international attention, with believers and skeptics alike finding common cause for hope in the "miracle," the Church brought forth a priest who admitted to being the mystery "angel."
It all unfolded around 9 a.m. on Sunday morning August 4th near the town of Center, Missouri. Katie Lentz, 19, had gotten into an accident and was pinned beneath the steering wheel of her Mercedes. A rescue crew arrived at the scene and worked to get Lentz out of the mangled car for 45 minutes, but they were unable to free her.
As time passed, Lentz' condition worsened. Eventually she asked if someone would pray with her. That is when a gray-haired priest, dressed in black with a clerical collar and carrying anointing oil, appeared and said, "I will."
Shortly after, the rescue workers were able to free Lentz and send her to the hospital. When they turned to thank the priest, he was gone. No one was able to identify him.
"I think it's a miracle," New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed, one of the rescuers at the scene of the accident said. "I'm good with it."
“I think that this time I’ve actually witnessed a guardian angel at work,” Jeremiah See of the New London Fire Department said.
The Mercedes Lentz was driving collided with another car (the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested a 26-year-old male on charges of DWI, and second-degree felony assault). The accident crushed Lentz's vehicle into a ball of sheet metal. After 45 minutes, the team was running out of choices. A helicopter waited to carry Lentz to the nearest trauma center. Though Lentz appeared calm, her vital signs were beginning to fail. "Her condition looked grim," said a rescue worker.
The silver-haired priest in his 50s or 60s in black pants, black shirt and black collar with visible white insert stepped forward from nowhere. It struck Reed as odd because the street was blocked off 2 miles from the scene and no one from the nearby communities recognized him.
"We're all local people," Reed said. "We've only got one Catholic church and it wasn't their priest. I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after that accident happened — bystanders, the extrication, our final cleanup — and he's not in them," Reed said. "All we want to do is thank him."
When contacted by reporters, Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of My Life with the Saints, had a different theory. "Most likely the priest will be identified, and people will be able to thank him. If he's not found, that may mean he wants to remain anonymous. Could it have been an angel? There are angels, of course, but human beings do incredibly loving things in hidden ways every day."
And well the story could have sat. But Father Patrick Dowling, of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo. came forward as the "angel" priest. Dowling has acknowledged that he was the priest who anointed and prayed with Katie Lentz at the scene of the accident. He was unaware of the controversy until reading an article about the crash and mystery priest in the National Catholic Register. Father Dowling explained that he had driven as close to the accident as he could (“I parked behind a large vehicle") before approaching, and then "absolved and anointed Katie, and, at her request, prayed." When asked about his disappearance, Father Dowling said, "I stepped aside to where some rescue personnel and the pilot were waiting, and prayed the rosary silently.” Then, he left the scene just as the helicopter was about to leave. "You must remember, there were many people praying there, many, many people."
Why would the Catholic Church wish to debunk an occurrence that would seem to bolster its relevance?
First of all, I must point out, that the Church could not have picked a better man to come forward. Father Dowling is a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo. in 1982. He has served in the diocese’s mission parishes in Peru. He is currently serving in prison ministry and in parish ministry to Spanish-speaking Catholics. Even the name is almost too good to be true. Many Americans fondly remember the "Father Dowling Mysteries" TV show that ran on NBC and ABC from 1987 - 1991, starring Tom Bosley as Irish Catholic priest, Father Francis Dowling.
Also, an artist from the local paper, composed a sketch of the mystery priest from descriptions given by witnesses at the scene. The sketch is available for viewing online, and looks nothing like Father Dowling, whose photo is also widely available.
I am no theologian. And I really do not want to spend more time researching this subject. (After all, I still have those conspiracy theories to get to.) If Father Dowling was there at the scene to give hope and peace, my hat's off to him. But I for one would have preferred a good, old fashioned, unexplained miracle--the moldy cheese notwithstanding.
Will the real Father Dowling please stand up . . .
What a fun read!
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