Retired bishop has close encounter with squirrel

Published: 2006-10-30

WARWICK, R.I. (CNS) -- When Bishop Francis W. Roque started out one day recently on a short trip to mail a few letters in Warwick, he never expected to meet a determined traveler dressed in a furry gray coat and sporting a great big bushy tail. The retired auxiliary bishop for the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services had a close encounter with a frisky squirrel, who apparently either jumped or fell out of a tree and landed on the bishop's car, before rolling off and landing on some nearby grass. "He hit my windshield with a loud crack," the bishop told The Providence Visitor, newspaper of the Providence Diocese. Bishop Roque, who retired from the Washington-based military archdiocese in 2004 and moved back to his native Rhode Island, said he immediately pulled his car over, got out and found the creature dazed but still breathing. "He looked up at me, but he was unable to move," he said. A fellow motorist joined him, and as they wondered what to do, the bishop said, the animal sprang into action, ran around in a circle a few times, looked up at the bishop and then darted across the lawn.

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