BROTHERS
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOUNT ANGEL ABBEY
SEVERAL YEARS ago Brother Andre Love, O.S.B. found his way to Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon—a place he now calls home, with men he now calls “Brother.”
Hard road to the monastery by Ed Langlois
Brother Andre Love battled fierce inner demons before he returned to the church and found his way to religious life.
Ed Langlois, of Portland, Oregon, is editor of the Catholic Sentinel newspaper, where he has worked since 1993.
L
IPS QUIVERING, nose running, and tears flowing, Bobby Love read through his notebook. The priest listened. The pages detailed 25 years of drug abuse, sexual excess, heavy drinking, and divorces. Love had treated scores of people shabbily. He couldn’t believe he was uttering his deeds aloud. Head resting in heavily tattooed hands, he finished the list, then looked up, expecting the priest to be dialing 9-1-1. But Father James Coleman, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Salem, Oregon, said only, “Is that it?” Love was surprised and even a little offended by his reaction. He thought his list of sins warranted a stronger response. Apparently, Father Coleman had heard worse and so offered absolution and a penance the penitent thought too light for decades of debauchery.
130 | VISION 2018 | VocationNetwork.org