St. Francis

By Frank Weber

Copyright ©2026

I was raised and schooled as a Catholic.

Eight years of Catholic grade school.

Four years of Catholic high school.

Many years thereafter working to be a ‘better person’.

Many years of enduring guilt and self-sacrifice because it was hoped that it would make me a ‘good person’ who could ‘someday reach Heaven’.

After all of that, after that unrelenting battery of religious doctrine, I now consider myself a recovering Catholic.

But don’t get me wrong. I still hold close the greater parts of all I learned.

All of the better qualities are still ingrained in my psyche.

Nevertheless, there are things that happened that I will never question.

First, my little kitchen statue of St. Francis sitting on top of the “Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi”.

St. Francis has been sitting on my kitchen window ledge for over twenty years…it’s pretty worn but he stays right there to this day.

It comes from the time, way back when, that my father wrecked and flipped his Harley over on himself. He was pretty close to death from that. He lost control – due to a mini-stroke – and his front wheel hit a drainage ditch, flipping him off the bike and at the same time sending the bike straight up in the air above him. It came down on his head and chest.

He survived – and eventually sold that bike – but one thing always stood out to me.

One day when he was still in ICU, he told me that he was lucky to be alive. He said it was only because he had just put a little kitchen statue of St. Francis on his window ledge. In short, he believed his survival was a matter of divine providence.

Here’s one very important factor in all of this…St. Francis was namesake for both of us.

It made sense to me because I was still going to church regularly, going to the Stations of the Cross and the cemetery EVERY Good Friday and a lot of other stuff like that.

Second was the St. Francis garden statue that STILL stands out on the edge of yard, in between some bushes where I first placed him twenty-six years ago. This statue was a house-warming gift, and he has never been moved.

Why is THAT so important to me?

Because when the tornado came through Millcreek back on November 5^th, 2017, it dropped down on, leveled and demolished my garage, left full trunk, uprooted pine trees in the middle of the street and just missed my house – and a parking lot full of mail trucks – by less than fifty feet.

Through all of the debris, one shining light could be seen.

My St. Francis garden statue was still standing, never having been moved even an inch, right where he had always been. We could all see him still standing there, but it took a few days before we could even close to him – there was that much of a mess.

Still he never moved.

As my father did before me, I believed – and STILL whole-heartedly believe – that our survival was no doubt a matter of divine providence.

But over the years, through self-realization, self-discovery and historical studies, I’ve come to shed the confining notion of the ‘supreme infallible authority” of the Roman Catholic Church on Earth and all of the sacrifice it demands.

It’s actually quite a bit more first-hand modern examples of hypocrisies than it is historical evidences…but they do run a close race.

Historically speaking, one glaring hypocrisy stands out.

Back in 1633, Pope Urban VIII had Galileo condemned as “vehemently suspect of heresy”, ordered him to renounce his beliefs – this alone most likely saved his life – banned his book, “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” and placed Galileo under house arrest for the remainder of his life.

Why?

Because, in general terms, Galileo’s book had the AUDACITY to claim that the Sun – not the Earth – was the center of the known solar system…in DIRECT CONTRADICTION OF CHURCH TEACHINGS.

That’s bad enough, but the larger problem was that the Pope felt personally betrayed and insulted by Galileo – they were once friends – for ever questioning the POPE’S VIEWS AND SUPREME AUTHORITY AS GOD’s REPRESENTATIVE ON EARTH.

That doesn’t sound like too loving of a religion or world, does it?

That single episode started me thinking and researching more and more.

There were many such cases and instances, all of them orbiting high ranking members of the clergy, over hundreds of years.

The second impetus to distance from the Catholic Church in general is the entire scope and realm of the Catholic Priest “scandal and whitewash”.

Before anyone rolls their eyes about it being cliché, I would remind you that I spent four years in a Catholic high school.

No, I was never abused or approached, but I SAW THINGS AND I SAW WHAT WENT ON.

One priest in particular took a very obvious shine to one of the boys.

I remember him doting on him and ushering him into his car after school on several occasions.

He didn’t do it as someone simply offering another a ride.

Their exchanges were visibly much more personal than that.

This same kid was once suspended for bringing a fifth of vodka to school and drinking damn-near the whole thing in the bathroom. At the end of that day, guess who was there to ‘counsel’ him and ‘care’ for him?

He was much more than just a ‘troubled kid’.

Many troubles that should’ve been ironed out – properly.

This same priest LOVED to cruise the dock on Saturday nights.

Back in the day, the dock was the spot to be for every kid looking for fun on the weekends.

This priest wore street clothes and was almost always accompanied by – you guessed it – the vodka kid.

He was always asking other kids if they wanted to go for a ride with them.

He never wore his clerical garb on those nights.

Creepy.

And he was my Theology teacher for a year!

The church always seemed to turn a blind eye to guys like this, but then when the whole abuse scandal broke loose, the witch hunts went after priests that really WERE good, religious men.

Again, I knew two of the targets as they were both teachers of mine over those four years.

They never did ANYTHING that would suggest ANY form of impropriety.

Yet they were attacked and ‘crucified’ – well after retirement, one well after his death – based SOLELY on groundless, baseless, ‘pay attention to me’ accusations. No evidence was EVER offered, yet they were both still condemned as pedophiles.

Lifetimes of work smeared and sullied.

Sacrificial lambs as it were, but never a charge ever filed.

Because of the classroom teachings of one of them, I still read “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. I bought more copies than I can ever remember over the years because I end up giving them away to other people who need to read that book. If you ever feel that life has lost its meaning, read it.

After you read it, you’ll understand EXACTLY what I mean.

The teachings of this GOOD priest still resonate and still have profound bearing on the world.

Nowadays I look around at so much devastation and misery throughout this world that goes unmentioned – or even noticed – by the church. Not a word said.

All of the horrors swept aside to make room for political maneuvering and position.

After so much reading and research, THAT is nothing new to the church, either.

It dates back before Galileo to the days when animals were hanged by the church for heresy just for being animals.

TRUE Church teachings would demand quite a contrary approach and presence from its clergy.

So forgive me if I refuse to rattle a saber for ANY clerical authority that wants to wield the ‘power of the papacy’ for a political view.

With so little substance, it all falls flat.

After all I’ve learned and experienced – and experienced firsthand – it means very little to me.

So take this as a caution…NEVER blindly fall in line behind ANYONE no matter who that person may be…no matter who that person claims to represent.

Look at the world for what it is, not what a political opinion tells you it should be.

POLITICAL OPINIONS have absolutely NOTHING to do with the Word of God!

Personal, political opinions are NOT infallible. They are offered by men to sway other men by forming them to conveniently fit scripture…much like ignoring ten atrocities to pontificate on one assumed, solely because it holds a differing personal, political opinion.

Yes, I am a recovering Catholic.

But above all else, I still hold the faith that St. Francis and the Good Men I’ve known will always be with me.

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