“admire the God-fearing and politically conservative man”

My mom sent me this email forward. ALL EMAIL FORWARDS EVERYWHERE MUST DIE

—————————
true and surprising story by Paul Harvey.

Years ago, a hardworking man took his family from
New York State to Australia to take advantage of a work opportunity
there.

Part of this man’s family was a handsome young son
who had aspirations of joining the circus as a trapeze artist or an
actor.

This young fellow, biding his time until a circus
job or even one as a stagehand came along, worked at the local
shipyards which bordered on the worse section of town.

Walking home from work one evening this young man
was attacked by five thugs who wanted to rob him. Instead of just
giving up his money, the young fellow resisted.

However they bested him easily and proceeded to
beat him to a pulp. They mashed his face with their boots, and kicked
and beat his body brutally with clubs, leaving him for dead.

When the police happened to find him lying in the
road they assumed he was dead and called for the Morgue Wagon.

On the way to the morgue a policeman heard him
gasp for air, and they immediately took him to the emergency unit at
the
hospital. When he was placed on a gurney a nurse remarked to
her horror, that this young man no longer had a face. Each eye
socket was smashed, his skull, legs, and arms fractured, his nose
literally hanging from his face, all of his teeth were gone, and his
jaw
was almost
completely torn from his skull..

Although his life was spared, he spent over a year in the hospital.
When he finally left, his body may have healed, but his face was
disgusting
to look at.
He was no longer the handsome youth that everyone admired. When the
young
man started to look for
work again he was turned down by everyone just on account of the way he
looked.

One potential employer suggested to him that he join the freak show
at
the circus as…
“The Man Who Had No Face”. And he did this for a while.
He was still rejected by everyone and no one wanted to be seen in his
company.

He had thoughts of suicide. This went on for five years.

One day he passed a Catholic church and sought some solace
there. Entering the church he encountered a priest who had
seen him sobbing while kneeling in a pew. The priest took pity on
him and took him to the rectory where they talked at length.

The priest was impressed with him to such a degree
that he said that he would do everything possible for him that could be
done to restore his dignity and life, if the young man would promise to
be the best Catholic he could be, and trust in God’s mercy to
free him from his torturous life.

The young man went to Mass and Holy Communion every
day, and after thanking God for saving his life, he asked God to only
give
him peace of mind and the grace to be the best man he could ever be in
His eyes.

The priest, through his personal contacts was able
to secure the services of the best plastic surgeon in Australia.
There would be no cost to the young man, as the
doctor was the priest’s best friend.

The doctor too, was so impressed by the young man,
whose outlook now on life, even though he had experienced the worse,
was
filled with good humor and love.

The surgery was a miraculous success. All the best
dental work was also done for him. The young man became everything
he promised God he would be.

He was also blessed with a wonderful, beautiful
wife, and many children, and success in an industry which would
have been the furthest thing from his mind as a career if not for the
goodness of God
and the love of the people who cared for him. This he acknowledges
publicly.

The young man was and is………

Mel Gibson.

His life was the inspiration for his production of
the movie. “The Man Without A Face.”

And now the “Passion movie”………..

He is to be admired by all of us as a God fearing man, a political
conservative,
and an example to all as a true man of courage.

And to think I admired him before I knew any of this!

He is quite a man!

Paul Harvey
————————————————————

?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!??!???!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!?!?!???!?!?!?!

[Edit 12:44am friday march 5: I sent an email with the snopes link to my mom as well as the family friend who sent it to my mom, and the family friend (my parent’s friends) replied to me (and also cc’ed the person who sent it to her) which said, thanks for clearing that up, and also that she’d questioned the story initially (but was glad to know now that it was mostly not true) not because it was so amazing and Mel is handsome, but because she wondered if plastic surgery can save that much. “Look at Michael Jackson’s face ………”

hahahahahahahaha people are funny.]