Carlo Carretto on the Church

Cardinal Dolan quoted the following moving passage from Carlo Caretto, the mystic who was a leader in Catholic Action Movement in Italy and who later became a brother and wrote a book entitled Letters from the Desert. It is a fitting Lenten meditation. It is entitled Letter to the Church.

 "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 to 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 or 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."