Cardinal Mahoney: "I return to Los Angeles a different disciple of Jesus than when I left"

Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles found Benedict XVI's visit "quiet healing grace":

For me personally, the two most memorable moments of grace with our Holy Father were ones shrouded in quiet prayer, silence and few public words: his meeting with victims of sexual abuse in Washington, D.C., and his visit to Ground Zero in New York. Both of these events had the dignity of silence, the depth of sadness, and the promise of hope-filled prayer - and both captured deeply the most wounded parts of our Church and of our country.

Yes, the great outdoor Masses were inspiring, the meetings with ecumenical and interfaith leaders were moving, and the gathering with young people and seminarians was memorable. But the power of those times of quiet healing moved me more deeply than all the rest of the Holy Father's many public appearances.

At first, I didn't know why. After all, concelebrating Mass with the Pope and tens of thousands of people was surely uplifting and a source of joy for us all. Slowly the realization became real: those times of quiet healing grace were exactly what I needed at this time in my own journey of faith. My own mistakes and failures over the years had continued to burden me - a weight that I failed to realize was holding me down.

The gentle and quiet manner of Pope Benedict touched me in the most vulnerable depths of my soul. I felt uplifted by our Shepherd and my heavy burdens somehow seemed lighter. How did our Holy Father accomplish this? Through his consistent call to faithful discipleship in Jesus Christ, and his reassurance that we are truly saved by hope in our loving God! His recent Encyclical Letter, Spe Salvi [Saved by Hope], continues to point us forward and upward on our journeys. He does not allow us to remain mired in our sins and faults, but instead, kept repeating the call to "true freedom" in Jesus who has come as "the way, the truth, and the life" for each one of us.

I return to Los Angeles a different disciple of Jesus than when I left a week ago. Thank you, Lord, for sending us not only the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of Peter, but also a brother and friend who knows Jesus personally and gave us six extraordinary days of grace and hope!

Thomas Peters gives voice to the impressions of many a Catholic -- within Los Angeles and across the nation:

[Cardinal Mahoney] has a long history of doctrinal selectivism, allows and and promotes liturgical abuse, by many accounts has been deeply involved in abuses related to clergy sexual misconduct (during which he has often thrown the interests of the Church under the treads of civil law to protect himself), and is guilty of such deeply imprudent things as the construction of an ugly, vacant, $200 million cathedral in an archdiocese which could ill-afford such expenditures.

Has Mahony learned that it's never too late to begin acting for the best interest of the Church? Has he internalized the full range of Pope Benedict's teachings and exhortations? I hope so, on both counts.