“…you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; …”
Jn 21:18
Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In his Holy Week homilies Bishop Patrick J. Zurek put forth the Encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, as the standard for love and unity in our diocese. Today, let’s reflect upon paragraph #218 in that regard:
CHAPTER SIX
A NEW CULTURE
The joy of acknowledging others
218. All this calls for the ability to recognize other people’s right to be themselves and to be different.
“All of this has taken place and unfolded in plain sight. No one can claim (they didn’t know) before they set foot on Chinese snow next year” for the Olympics. If these abuses can’t generate a response, he added, “nothing else will, and shame on us.”
This recognition, as it becomes a culture, makes possible the creation of a social covenant.
Father Swamy “never complained about his health in the past months, but on May 14, for the first time, he spoke of his deteriorating health.”
Without it, subtle ways can be found to make others insignificant, irrelevant, of no value to society.
“Appealing to the supreme value of life and human dignity, remember that the despair and impoverishment of many families and minors cannot and must not be used by any state to exploit the legitimate aspirations of these people for political purposes,”
While rejecting certain visible forms of violence, another more insidious kind of violence can take root: the violence of those who despise people who are different, especially when their demands in any way compromise their own particular interests.
“We don’t know when the pandemic will end, but we know when Brood X will appear.”
“Parents of seminarians are very concerned about making sure their sons are being sent to a safe environment. I believe that a good response in light of the McCarrick scandal is that we have basic protocols is place. So the benchmarks are a good start.”
Welcome back home!
From a Memo from Bishop Patrick J. Zurek Sent to All Diocese of Amarillo Priests in the Matters of Lifting the Covid-19 Dispensation
Today this “restless” and formally unrecognized catechist, is asking those “under the dome “, “Who shows more Love in the Diocese of Amarillo; the shepherd or the sheep?”
Apparently it is the lambs and sheep who show more love, because with the “quota” in place it is they who stretch out their hands,
and lets someone else dress them
and lead them where they do not want to go.
Today I ask Saint Christopher Magallanes to pray that, “the dome” acquires “the ability to recognize other people’s right to be themselves and to be different…Without it, subtle ways can be found to make others (such as ‘the few’) insignificant, irrelevant, of no value to” the diocese. Instead of a UCA with a “quota” that despises “people who are different, especially when their demands in any way” compromises the “particular interests” of those “under the dome, let’s create an UCA based on “pledges” that “makes possible the creation of a social covenant.”
