During a men’s retreat held over Father’s Day weekend, a 14-foot wooden cross was set into the ground and dedicated at Santiago Retreat Center.
Situated in Silverado Canyon, the 500-acre center serves Catholic communities throughout the region.
The weekend proved to be a special and blessed time for retreat guests. But not two weeks later, on June 29, the retreat center staff made a shocking discovery.
The cross had been cut down and sawed into pieces….
Shortly after the discovery, Mark McElrath, executive director of the center, called Fr. Domenico Di Raimondo, former director of the nearby House of Prayer, a retreat center for priests.
Fr. Domenico had celebrated Mass during that Father’s Day retreat.
The longtime priest offered a spiritual perspective of what had occurred.
“He called me back and left a really sweet message that just said, ‘You know Mark, the cross is a symbol of violence in itself, and out of that violence, Jesus brought all people to God. So, let’s expect that there’s going to be some good fruit from this terrible thing,’” McElrath said. “And that really helped get my head on right as far as how to contextualize what had taken place.”
A GoFundMe page set up to cover the costs to repair and reinstall the cross has collected $8,770 as of Friday, July 14. The remaining funds will be used for camp scholarships, McElrath said.
“More than the amount of money, it’s the large number of people who took the time to make any kind of contribution,” the executive director said.
Fr. Baaten, who has a background in construction, said the cross could be reconstrued, and doing so “might send a really beautiful signal about how the cross of our dear Lord is immortal on some level.”
From OC Catholic
The Cross always wins in the end!
It is a replacement cross, not the original one. So if you think that squares with your theory, more power to you. If a quarterback broke his leg during a game and the replacement won the game, would you say that the quarterback always wins in the end? And what about the other team’s quarterback, who lost? And what about all the crosses in the world that are destroyed, or vandalized but don’t get replaced or repaired? What about all those Fr. Serra statues and crosses that were violently removed and destroyed? What about the County of Los Angeles removing the cross from its official seal? Did the cross win that time? You’re making a universal claim based on one incident. That’s unwise extrapolation.
How about the cross at Ground Zero after September 11? It was the only thing left standing. That might not mean anything to you, but in my almost eight-one years, I have seen the cross resurrected over and over again — like the phoenix that rises from the ashes, the Lord Jesus Christ and his symbols rise again. There are some Muslims who will not even eat tomatoes because if cut a certain way, they form a cross, and Mohammed wanted all crosses destroyed.
By the way, I have a statue of St. Junipero Serra holding a cross in my home.
It doesn’t mean anything to me. It wasn’t a cross at ground zero. It was two pieces of metal that happened to resemble a cross. People see what they want to see. Like seeing Mother Teresa or Jesus or Mary in a potato chip or in the char pattern on their toast. It’s their imagination, not reality. The cross did not appear at ground zero, but some people imagined that a cross appeared.
When religion is silly, it’s hard to win converts and easy to lose young people who want scientific explanations instead of fanciful ones.
It was not a potato chip at ground zero but two very large pieces of the steel frame of the building left standing alone by itself to form a cross. I have had far too many “coincidences” in my life not to believe there are angels among us. Why God takes some younger and other older is a mystery, not necessary because we are better than but because he still has a purpose for us. Often to save lives from our experiences and what we have learned.
And “O Really”, thank you for the kudos.
Kudos for still being a keyboard warrier at almost 81!
The original story said the replacement cost was $12,000. Now with less than $9,000 collected they have more than enough?
It sounds as if there were services and materials given incognito.
Sorry to even mention this, but how long till this one is cut down?