ORLANDO, Fla. — Father Benedict Groeschel, co-founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, has been known to joke about his death. In fact, he often quips that he looks forward to it.

“The mean age of our community is about 32,” Father Groeschel told the Register last year. “When I pass on it will be about 29.”

Since he was hit by a car Jan. 11, members of his religious community and admirers worldwide have been praying that Father Groeschel's passing won't be anytime soon.

Father Groeschel, 70, was in Florida to give a retreat for 128 priests of the International Institute of Clergy Formation at the San Pedro Retreat House in Winter Park. He had just completed a speaking engagement in California and had arrived at Orlando International Airport. While his traveling companions Father John Lynch and David Burns had gone to get a rental car, Father Groeschel had gone to get food for them. Just prior to 10 p.m., he was on his way back with the food when he was hit while trying to cross a busy roadway just north of the airport.

“He went outside to find a place to buy a hamburger … and was struck by an oncoming vehicle,” said Father Glenn Sudano, community servant (superior) of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

“Father Benedict was struck on his right side. The impact broke his right elbow and leg in two places,” Father Sudano said. “He also received some injury to the head.”

Father Groeschel was brought to Orlando Regional Medical Center where he has remained since.

Sgt. Brian Gilliam of the Orlando Police Department said Father Groeschel apparently stepped out from in front of a stopped bus and was not seen by the driver of an approaching car.

Despite previous reports, there were not two cars involved in the accident, and the car did not swing out around the bus.

“The bus was stopped in the street, and the car was in the other lane. It appears that Father Groeschel stepped out in front of moving traffic,” Gilliam told the Register.

The driver of the car was not charged, and there are no intentions of charging Father Groeschel, Gilliam said.

The news and requests for prayers quickly spread via the Internet on Jan. 12, so much so that the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the hospital were inundated with calls from Catholics who know Father Groeschel from television, books and retreats.

Two days after the accident, Father Sudano posted a message at the friars’ Web site, www.francis-canfriars.com, that Father Groeschel had not suffered any damage to his internal organs.

“The bleeding on the brain is not serious and his blood pressure is okay,” he wrote.

On Jan. 14 surgeons operated on his arm. On Jan. 16, they set the broken bones in his leg and implant ed small micro-filters to prevent blood clots from traveling to his lungs, heart or brain.

Father Groeschel's physician told Father Sudano that “he's far from being out of the woods. Anything can happen — pneumonia, infection, heart failure.”

In response, Father Sudano told the doctor, “I don't know if you're a man of faith, but there are many people praying for Father Benedict — and for you!“

“Thank you, we both need [the prayers],” the physician replied.

As of press time, doctors expected that Father Groeschel would remain in the hospital for at least three weeks.

A Life of Service

Father Groeschel was ordained a Capuchin Franciscan priest in 1959. In 1987, he and seven other Capuchins left their order to start the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

The community, which wears traditional gray habits with rope cinctures and sports the beards of Capuchin tradition, sought to return to Franciscan roots of a life of prayer, penance, preaching conversion, and service to the poor.

The community has experienced extraordinary success. Today it has more than 100 friars as well as a community of a dozen religious sisters in friaries in Harlem, the Bronx and Yonkers, N.Y., as well as in England and Honduras. More than 20 men entered the group last fall.

A psychologist, Father Groeschel has written more than a dozen books, including A Still Small Voice and The Cross at Ground Zero. He travels frequently, speaking at conferences and retreats, and has often appeared on EWTN.

One of Father Groeschel's most recent projects, the Oratory of Divine Love, was created in response to the question many Catholics had been asking recently — “What can we do in response to the sex-abuse scandal?” Launched last May 1, the oratory's primary purpose is prayer.

“Many years ago [New York] Cardinal [Terence] Cooke asked me to get a program going,” Father Groeschel told the Register at its launching. “Now seems to be the time.”

The oratory involves individual prayer groups organized at the local level that gather weekly to pray for reform.

“For the last 30 years we've had a lot of glitzy enterprises but not enough prayer,” Father Groeschel said. “This is the answer not only to the sex-abuse scandals but also to other problems in the Church. I began the reform of renewal 16 years ago and will end my career praying for reform now.”

Well-wishers were quick to praise Father Groeschel for his work and dedication to the Church, and to ask for prayers.

On his Web log, Annunciations, Michael Dubruiel described Father Groeschel as a “humble friar” who has made a difference in the Church in the United States and beyond. Dubruiel, an editor for Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, worked with Father Groeschel on The Cross at Ground Zero.

“Father Groeschel is one of the most powerful voices for the Church in this country and around the world,” said Deal Hudson, publisher of Crisis magazine, in an e-mail. “Not only that, but he's been absolutely selfless in his generosity to numerous Catholic apostolates.”

“He is a tireless worker in so many different ministries and one of the best-known priests in the country,” said Joseph Zwilling, spokes man for Cardinal Edward Egan of New York. “The cardinal is keeping him in his prayers.”

Father Sudano reported that the friars received a phone call from India on Jan. 14, where the Missionaries of Charity “and others gathered about the tomb of Blessed Teresa to pray for Father Benedict.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Father Groeschel were friends. A friend expected to fly into Florida from India on Jan. 16 with a special gift from Sister Nirmala, the superior of the Missionaries of Charity — a relic of Blessed Teresa.

“Join me in hoping,” Father Sudano said, “hoping that Father Benedict will get through this. He will have a long via dolorosa ahead of him. Let us not be the weeping women of Jerusalem but help him like Simon and Veronica. Let us not stand by and weep but help him by our prayers. He has helped us; now it's our turn to help him.”

Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.