In His Name
Parishioners at St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., were startled when several strangers — young men with short haircuts — came to the church during a service, scanned the crowd, and left without saying a word. Skinheads? they wondered. When they came back the next Sunday they called police. Not skinheads, said San Bernardino County sheriff Sgt. Frank Gonzales after checking the men out. They were U.S. Marines just back from Iraq, looking for a battlefield buddy. “They were very polite,” Gonzales says, but one parishioner said she was “upset that they went inside the church.” Fr. Patrick Kirsch tried to calm his flock. “I was reassured by the police that [the men] wouldn’t be back,” he said. (Ontario Daily Bulletin) ...Well no, not after that sort of welcome.
Available in This is True: Book Collection Vol. 11