Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Mother Teresa, and the Denver priest who was her kindred spirit

Mother Teresa, and the Denver priest who was her kindred spirit

Last updated on: September 5, 2015 at 10:01 am by CNA Daily News

Mother Teresa, and the Denver priest who was her kindred spirit 2015-09-05T10:01:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Denver, Colo., Sep 5, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Mother Teresa visited Denver, Colo. twice in the 1980s. Both times, one of her biggest fans was tasked with picking her up from the airport.

Father Charles B. Woodrich, affectionately known in the community as Father Woody, figured out a way to be assigned to the task for her first visit in 1986.

Longtime friend and parishioner, Dr. Victoria McCabe, recalled him making the announcement at Mass: “My hero is coming, and I get to pick her up and I’m so excited!”

After he made the announcement, parishioners started offering all kinds of help – a policeman offered some of his squad as an accompanying guard, and the owner of a limosuine service offered a fancy ride to pick up the internationally-known Catholic sister. Father Woody, who only owned an old, beat-up Ford, enthusiastically accepted the offer.

But the limo wasn’t Mother Teresa’s style. As the founder of the Missionaries of Charity who went to great lengths to make sure her sisters lived with poverty and simplicity, she politely but firmly declined the ride for herself and the sister accompanying her.

“He was leading her toward the (limo) and she stopped. And she put her hand up and said, 'Oh Father, I cannot ride in a car like this. I am so sorry, but we cannot get in the car.'”

Baffled, Father Woody instead offered to ride in the police car with Mother and her sister, while the rest of the squad piled in the limo.

The next time she visited Denver, in 1989, Fr. Woody had learned his lesson.

“One thing I know is she doesn’t want to ride in a limousine,” he said at the time.

That time, he decided to drive the Holy Ghost Sandwich Truck to fetch Mother Teresa. A man after Mother’s heart, Father Woody worked tirelessly to help the poor in and around his parish, and would use the sandwich truck to deliver sack lunches to people who were hungry.

But on the way back from the airport, the truck got a flat tire.

“Who has a flat tire when you’re carrying a saint?” McCabe recalled him saying.

It was the time before cell phones, so Father and the sisters had to wait for help to come. As soon as they broke down, Mother Teresa hopped out of the car with her sister and asked everyone to join her in the rosary. When that finished, help had not yet arrived, and Fr. Woody was worried that Mother might be getting tired, or hungry.

“And Mother said, ‘Oh Father, don’t worry,’ and he said she fished around in her pocket of her sari and brought out this cheese, this big beautiful cheese wound in a cloth and passed it around. He said it was the best cheese ever,” McCabe said, laughing.

That incident, McCabe said, is a perfect snapshot of the surrender Mother Teresa had to the will of God in every moment of her life.

“Oh, the tire’s flat? Well it’s ok, help will come, and we will pray,” McCabe said.

During her visits, one thing that impressed Fr. Woody so much about Mother Teresa were her hands.

“She was very humble, extremely humble, very serious, and boy when you shook her hand you knew you were shaking a hand! That woman’s grip!” McCabe said. “I mean, little tiny lady, with the hands of a large person! It’s a worker’s hand.”

Fr. Woody was able to snap some close-up photos of Mother Teresa’s hands during her visit, who likely reluctantly obliged, as she didn’t like having her picture taken.

“He just said, ‘Look at those hands! Those are the hands of a worker! Then he would say, ‘Christ didn’t want any lazy people, and we have to follow her, we have to work.’”

And work he did.

In the spirit of Mother Teresa, Father Woody was renowned for his unquestioning generosity when helping people in need. In the record-settingly horrible Denver winter of 1982, Fr. Woody opened up the Church every night to let the homeless come inside to sleep.

“You’d hear the phone ring and you’d pick it up and hear: ‘Yeah, uh, Father Woody here, bring me some blankets and pillows,’ and then he’d hang up and call the next person,” McCabe said.

“And everybody just did it!” she said. “You’d get that call and you stop whatever you’re doing and do it.”

One time Fr. Woody called McCabe as she was taking exams, and asked for soup. When McCabe told him she was busy studying, Father’s reply was: “There are hungry people down here. Bring what you got.”

When Fr. Woody passed away very suddenly in 1991 at the age of 68, it was a painful shock to the Catholic community in Denver. Heartbroken, McCabe looked up where Mother Teresa was staying at the time, which was a hospital in California, and wrote out a 5-6 page letter to inform her of his passing.

“I got a letter back from her and she said, ‘I am so sorry to hear in Denver of the loss of the beloved Father Woody. But he’s with God now, he would not want you to be sorrowful.’”

“So she had about 4 handwritten sentences, but really what she said was stop blubbering and pick up the work. Do the work. It really got my attention because it was like: stop. There are people that need to be fed.”

Father Woody’s legacy lives on through a program called “Father Woody’s Service Projects” at Regis University in Denver, of which McCabe is the director. Among their projects are delivering meals to the poor and elderly, just as did Fr. Woody, and throwing Christmas parties for the poor every year.

The legacy of both Fr. Woody and Mother Teresa has been so lasting, McCabe said, because of their willingness to lead by example and practice what they preached, and because they were simple and practical in their mission.

McCabe said she will always remember that when a journalist asked Mother Teresa how she could ever solve a problem like homelessness, she replied: “Well, you just pick up the next one. No, you cannot pick up them all. You pick one up, you take them inside, you care, you wash, whether it’s a dying person or a child, and you go back out and pick up the next one.”

Father Woody had a similar philosophy, summarized by a quote that McCabe uses in a lot of her work at Regis University:

“Just open your door and help people. You don’t even have to have a meeting about it!”

Previous Post

September 5, 2015

Minn. archdiocese continues to seek justice in sex abuse accusations

Next Post

September 5, 2015 Pope engages Americans on immigration, abortion in pre-trip virtual audience

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who is the coauthor of some of Paul's epistles and delivered them to churches?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Silas Barnabas Timothy Andrew