+Friar Ivan Rohloff, OFM Conv. near Tashkent, Uzbekistan takes a moment with a Missionary Sister of Charity (Sisters of Mother Teresa). Photo courtesy of Province Archives.

A Dream and a Hunger Fulfilled

By friar Bob Roddy, OFM Conv.

I had the privilege of listening to our late friar Ivan Rohloff deliver a homily in 2008 in which he shared the following story from his time as a missionary in Uzbekistan.
When this Central Asian country gained its independence from Russia in the early 1990s, friar Ivan jumped at the chance to go there and serve as pastor of a parish in Tashkent. One day, after Mass, a man approached Ivan and told him that a very old woman was near death and that she wanted to see a priest more than anything before she died. Soon, friar Ivan was in her apartment.

Friar Ivan heard the woman’s confession, anointed her and gave her Holy Communion. The woman told friar Ivan the following, `Father, I was very young when the soldiers came and murdered our priest and desecrated our church. We had to hide our faith or face certain death. I can only remember one prayer, the “Our Father,” and I have said an Our Father every day of my life in the hope that before I died I would be able to see a priest and receive Holy Communion. Today, my prayer has been answered and I can now go to God in peace.’

May all of us draw inspiration and hope from this faithful woman’s example.