More on Offering and Sacrifice

CWR: Priest diagnosed with brain tumor offers his sufferings for abuse victims by Bree A. Dail

Last week, Father John Hollowell announced to readers of his blog and followers on Twitter that he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and that he will be offering his sufferings for the victims of the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis.

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CWR: When you announced your diagnosis, you said that after the revelation of clerical sex abuse scandals in the summer of 2018, you asked God to let you share in the sufferings of the victims. This self-offering is not one that is taken lightly—were you afraid of what God would send as a cross?
Father Hollowell: That day I did it, yes. I was in the rectory saying Morning Prayer. It was clear, this calling. There was a part of me that—looking back on it now makes me smile—even then a part of me knew I was in trouble…in a good way. It’s not something to enter into lightly. I guess everything that I have read, and come to know—all the theological studies I was able to take in the seminary, reading St. John of the Cross and being really formed by him, and Mother Teresa’s autobiography—all of these seem to have gotten me to this point, being totally comfortable making that prayer. I said, “Lord, if there is something I can suffer to bring healing to the Church, I would do that willingly with great joy.”