Hope springs eternal: Benedict Groeschel on Dolores Hope

“When I first met the Hopes 30 years ago, I was very impressed with the fact that their home had a chapel.  Obviously it had been placed there completely by Dolores.  Although the Blessed Sacrament was not reserved there in a private home, nevertheless the local pastors, who were great fiends of Dolores, often offered Mass there as I also did.

“I had a warm friendship with Dolores because she was a girl from the Bronx and I grew up across the water in Jersey City.  We had all kinds of chats about old New York, but mostly we would talk about life and the spiritual aspects of life. Dolores was very careful, as far I can remember, never to be critical of private or public persons. Her sister, Mildred, came to live with her in her fragile old age.  After Bob’s death, the house was very quiet and prayerful.  The help were kind and gentle.

“Dolores represented a group of remarkable people who were clear-sighted and determined, and well-balanced Catholics of the old days.  It was a wonderful time in Church history; with many public figures both in the clergy and the laity.  There was always a healthy sprinkling of devout Catholics in Hollywood.  They were led by people like Bing Crosby,  Loretta Young and Dolores Hart, who is now a cloistered Benedictine nun.

Toward the end of her life, nearly 100 years old, one would be startled by the clarity of Dolores’s mind. She had very decided points of view on her own faith and could not be described in religious terms as a liberal or a conservative.  She was an old-fashioned Catholic.”

— Fr. Benedict Groeschel, on the CNS blog.  Read more.