A birthday wish come true! Mysterious priest who came to the aid of car crash victim reunites with survivor today at her home as she turns 20
- Illinois student Katie Lentz, 19, will reunite with the priest who prayed by her side the morning she was hit by a drunk driver
- Today marks Lentz's twentieth birthday and it will be the first time she has seen the priest since he briefly visited her in the hospital a week after the crash
- At first, Father Patrick Dowling's identity was a mystery since he wasn't captured in any of the pictures taken on the scene that day
- But after Katie's story was picked up by several news outlets, Father Dowling came forward
1
View
comments
The Illinois woman who almost died when a drunk driver hit her head-on in early August thanks the priest who prayed with her at the scene for her survival.
At first, 19-year-old Katie Lentz didn't know the identity of the caring priest, since none of the pictures taken at the scene that day pictured him.
That mystery sparked a search to identify the holy man, and eventually Father Patrick Dowling of Columbus, Missouri came forward.
Scroll Down for Video
Special meeting: Katie Lentz, left, will reunite today with Father Patrick Dowling, right, the Catholic priest who prayed by her side after she was struck head-on by a drunk driver last August
Hanging onto her life: On the morning of August 4, Lentz was hit head-on by a drunk driver and it took emergency crews more than two hours to extricate her from her green Mercedes
Father Dowling briefly visited Lentz in the hospital one week after the crash, but will enjoy a longer reunion with the recovering Tulane student today for her twentieth birthday party at her home in Quincy, Illinois.
'Today is the real reunion,' Lentz's mother Carla told Fox News.
Father Dowling first encountered Lentz on the morning of August 4, after his 8:30am Sunday mass
Lentz, a sophomore at Tulane University, was driving from her parents' Quincy, Illinois home to Jefferson City, Missouri, where she has a summer internship.
Her Mercedes was hit head-on by another vehicle, driven by a drunk driver and the accident crushed Lentz's car in a mangled wreck that left her with multiple broken bones, a ruptured spleen and damaged liver.
At first Father Dowling's identity remained a mystery until he stepped forward after the story was publicized in the media
Recovering: Lentz recovering at the hospital after the crash on August 4. Father Dowling briefly visited her there a week after the crash, but the visit was cut short
Workers from across the county battled for over an hour and a half to extricate Lentz from her car - but she was fading fast and their equipment was not heavy duty enough.
It was then that she asked to pray and at that moment the priest appeared to offer his blessings to Lentz and the emergency workers.
The silver haired priest was reportedly in his 50s or 60s and was wearing black pants, a black shirt and black collar and seemingly stepped forward to answer Lentz's plea from nowhere.
Savior: Since no one recognized Father Dowling, some faithful people hypothesized that the priest was actually the saint Padre Pio
Raymond Reed, the New London fire chief said that it struck him as odd from the start as Highway 19 was blocked off for two miles in each direction and no one from the close-knit community recognized the man.
'We're all local people from four different towns,' Reed said. 'We've only got one Catholic church out of three towns and it wasn't their priest.'
Immediately after the 6ft tall priest gave his blessing, the emergency workers righted the car, stabilized Lentz's vital signs and cut her out once the jaws of life appeared from a neighboring town.
RELATED ARTICLES
More than $100,000 donated in two days to help honest... 
Pope warns Catholic Church may fall ‘like a house of cards’...
Mystery of African-American slave author's identity solved...
Share this article
ShareShe was put in an air ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital but by then the priest was gone.
For a time, speculation become rife that Lentz may have been visited by the spirit of Catholic Saint Padre Pio.
However, despite not appearing in any of the 70 photographs taken at the scene, it was not an aparition who helped Lentz that day, but Father Dowling.
'Their calmness kept me calm as well. So I cannot express my gratitude enough toward them,' Lentz told ABC News.
Watch Video Here:
Prayer: When emergency workers could not free her - Katie Lentz asked them to stop so that a prayer could be said
While Dowling left the scene without any fuss, his disappearance added to the mystery. He was quickly dubbed the 'angel priest' and in his absence he became a national celebrity.
'I have no doubt the Most High answered their prayers and I was part of his answer, but only part,' Dowling, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, told ABC News earlier this month.
When she was recovering in the hospital late last month, Lentz spoke of her pride that her story has inspired so many people across the country.
'I love hearing that support, because it's what drives me to push myself harder everyday with therapy,' she said.
Impact: Lentz says she loves hearing how her story has inspired others, and how that motivates her to push herself everyday with her therapy
Dowling, under the article on the National Catholic Register site, explained he was in fact responsible for the apparent divine intervention.
He said he had been filling in for a sick priest at Mass and was on his way home when he came upon the crash scene.
Authorities had closed off the area and were re-routing traffic but Dowling waited until he could get closer.
'I parked behind a large vehicle about 150 yards from the scene. I asked the Sheriff's permission and approached the scene of the accident,' Dowling said.
Stuck: It took crews more than two hours to get Lentz out of the car which makes it all the more miraculous that she is going to make a full recovery
'I absolved and anointed Katie, and, at her request, prayed that her leg would not hurt. Then I stepped aside to where some rescue personnel and the pilot were waiting, and prayed the rosary silently.'
He said he left the wreckage just as the helicopter was about to leave to take Katie to hospital.
Interestingly, he said he told someone on the scene his name but it must not have been passed on.
Fr. Dowling, a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City in 1982 and has served at parishes in Moberly, Monroe City, Indian Creek, Milan, Unionville and Eldon, Missouri, and in the diocese’s mission parishes in Marcona and Nasca, Peru.
He is currently serving in prison ministry and in parish ministry to Spanish-speaking Catholics.
Progress: At the end of August, Lentz was already able to walk 150 feet unaided
Breaking News | Celebrity News | More ABC News VideosncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2FdX6WamlrZ3uWwaqxjIWcp6yqYr%2Bmwc2iq56rXaLGtMDEq6CoraNivbO1xKyrZn6RqbWmvoyJmK2qmZi4bpDOsKOippdisKK5xGaYopxdmK6zecKrmKygXp3Brrg%3D