I recently accompanied my wife to a conference. We stayed at a hotel just a building away from the convention center but, it was also just across a strip club. The name itself was appropriate for the idolatry of the flesh.
During the conferences, I would drop the older kids to a play center and stroll around with my toddler. I noticed a steeple with a golden cross a few blocks away. It became a source of comfort, a ray of hope that God has not abandoned us.
So, we headed towards it and saw this sign along the way. FYI, when I went out to buy milk at the neighborhood convenience store the night before, I made a wrong turn and ended up where there was a drug bust and later a possible drug sale. This wasn't that location but as you can see, it is probably just as notorious.
But I walked on and saw young folks. My former confreres would have thought St. John Bosco's motto, "Give me souls." Unfortunately, the youth in the US and possibly elsewhere have been victims of church folks who thought, "Give me bodies."
I reached the church but it was closed for restoration - quite an apt metaphor for the Catholic faith in the US.
Yet the Lord promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church. So, it will neither be destroyed from within nor from without. Let's just pick up the pieces and rebuild it brick by brick.
