Christopher Hitchens, the well-known author, journalist and opponent of religion (particularly the Catholic Church) sadly has put out a statement that he has cancer of the esophagus.

Writing respectively for the National Catholic Register and Beliefnet, bloggers Pat Archbold and Rod Dreher are among those calling on people of goodwill everywhere to pray for the man. I’d like to join that call.

My family lost one its its cherished members to cancer of the esophagus. It is a devastating diagnosis (though there is always hope). It’s not something you would wish on your worst enemy let alone a loved one.

And, let me be clear, despite his very pointed criticisms of the Church, I don’t consider Christopher Hitchens to be the enemy. While I strongly disagree his extremely cynical analysis of the life of Mother Teresa and his atheistic book God is Not Great would have been rang a lot more true had he used the same facts presented to prove that Man is Not Great, I  actually admire him.

After watching Hitchens for many years, my estimation of the man is that he’s a truth seeker and a brave idealist who has not been afraid to offend his liberal friends by siding with the Bush administration in the war against Islamist extremism or even to undergo waterboarding to report the truth of that experience. His honest conclusion: It, in fact, is torture.

When Christopher Hitchens looks at the practice of radical Islam he sees murderers who justify their insane actions by religion. When he looks at the Catholic Church he sees hyprocracy, sexism and covered-up child abuse, as well as a myriad of other assorted assaults on human dignity dating back centuries.

While his conclusions are one-sided and sometimes unfair, they are also sometimes on, or at least near, the mark. I know many believing Catholics who are angry with their Church. They are angry precisely because they are good people who actually take what they hear in the pews every Sunday to heart.

When, in ways big and small, the Church fails to live up to the moral standards it sets, it raises anger among its most thoughtful followers. Believers are usually able to make a distinction between God and the flawed people who purport represent Him on Earth. Others may either be angry at God for allowing human evil (i.e. war or child sex abuse) or reject the existence of God altogether.

Speaking as one who has experienced the kindness of good priests and good individual Catholics (as well as believers of other faiths), I disagree with Hitchens’ conclusions about the impact of faith in the world (I won’t say “ultimate conclusions” because he [like all of us] is a work in progress). Faith in God is a good thing and the world would be a far worse off without it.

So, in conclusion, I do pray for Christopher Hitchens — spiritually especially and everyway. May God bless Christopher Hitchens.

Also, I mentioned Rod Dreher’s blog on behalf of Christopher earlier in this post. A day earlier he posted one expressing gratitude to God and to those who have been praying for his sister Ruthie (who is fighting lung cancer). He reported that her tumor has gotten smaller (obviously a good sign). He urges his readers to keep praying. Well, I’d like to add my prayers to those of many others.

Prayer does work. I have seen it in my own life. May God continue to bless Ruthie.