A Battered, Yet Cherished Church

From Michael Sneed's column of last Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times
-- words of Carlo Carretto. She reprinted it from Winnetka's Sacred Heart Church bulletin

"How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you. You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous and more beautiful.

"Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face, and yet, every night I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms. No. I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.

"Then too . . . where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects, and again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church. No, I am old enough. I know better."