I promised last week while on retreat with Father Groeschel that I would tell the story of his visit with Walker Percy.
As many people know, the Catholic novelist lived in the small town of Covington, Louisiana where he entertained many visitors on his porch. (I remember a friend at Mercer University who used to say many of the world’s problems would be solved if people still had front porches.)
Percy, a convert to the faith, had a close relationship to St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey nearby, where he was eventually buried. It was from a Benedictine, Father Groeschel received the invitation from Percy to come “for a visit,” as we used to say in the South.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Groeschel told me that Percy turned out to be rather a reserved man, and somewhat severe, at least during their visit (he didn’t divulge the precise issue on Percy’s mind). Groeschel said that since both of them were trained in psychology (Groeschel has a doctorate from Columbia University) they chatted at length about the nonsense often perpetrated among people of faith in the name of psychology. (Groeschel often tells the story about how the theories of Carl Rogers decimated the orders of women’s religious in California.).
As always, I came away from my time with Father Groeschel both amazed and blessed by his learning and his spirituality. No one I know in the Catholic world can move so easily through so many disciplines with such ease, precision, and insight. He weaves everything into a story, thus making his wisdom so easy to drink in.