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 #227 in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
STARTING ANEW FROM THE TRUTH
227. “Truth, in fact, is an inseparable companion of justice and mercy.
“In the past, much damage has been caused by a failure to perceive the intimate relationship existing in the church between the exercise of charity and recourse — when circumstances and justice require it — to the discipline of sanctions. This way of thinking, as experience has taught us, risks leading to a life of behavior contrary to the discipline of morals, for the remedy of which exhortations or suggestions alone are not sufficient,”
All three together are essential to building peace; each, moreover, prevents the other from being altered…
“The pain that such news causes reminds us of our ongoing need to bring light to every tragic situation that occurred in residential schools run by the church. The passage of time does not erase the suffering that touches the Indigenous communities affected, and we pledge to do whatever we can to heal that suffering,”
Truth should not lead to revenge, but rather to reconciliation and forgiveness.
“It is hard to believe that 100 years ago people could think and act in such a way. It is unthinkable. Still, it happened,”
Truth means telling families torn apart by pain what happened to their missing relatives.
“This will require patience, work, allowing people to talk so that the wisdom of the people of God will come forth because a synod is nothing other than making explicit what ‘Lumen Gentium’ said: The whole people of God — all of them, from the bishop on down — is infallible in belief,”
Truth means confessing what happened to minors recruited by cruel and violent people.
The Diocese of Amarillo is aware of the allegations brought against Father Edward Graff in a Grand Jury report released in Pennsylvania on Aug. 14. Father Graff served as a priest in the Diocese of Amarillo from 1993 to 2002. He was arrested in June 2002 on charges of sexually assaulting a child. Father Graff died in November 2002 after sustaining injuries from a fall in Swisher County jail.
Former Texas Panhandle priest named in Pennsylvania grand jury report, August 15, 2018
Truth means recognizing the pain of women who are victims of violence and abuse…
I cannot comment on the history of Pennsylvania, I simply do not have any facts;
Statement From Bishop Patrick J. Zurek , August 29, 2018
Every act of violence committed against a human being is a wound in humanity’s flesh; every violent death diminishes us as people…
**EDWARD R. GRAFF
Date of Birth/Fecha de Nacimiento: 1/30/1929
Ordained/Ordenación: 5/19/1955, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Deceased/Falleció: 11/2002
Served in the Amarillo Diocese/Sirvió en la Diócesis de Amarillo: 9/1992 – 9/2002
Church of the Holy Spirit, Tulia
Our Lady of Loreto, Silverton
San Juan Diego, Quitaque
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Turkey
** Abuse occurred in Diocese of Allentown
**El abuso ocurrió en la diócesis de Allentown.
**Abuse occurred in Diocese of Amarillo
** El abuso ocurrió en la diócesis de Amarillo.
Diocese Publishes Names of Priests Accused of Abusing Minors, January 31, 2019
Violence leads to more violence, hatred to more hatred, death to more death.
“How is it that Fr. Graff came to lie alongside the many faithful and venerable clergy that gave their life’s’ vocation to our diocese?”
5 Questions (An Open Letter to Bishop Zurek of Amarillo), March 4, 2019
We must break this cycle which seems inescapable”.[211]
“The Glenn” in conjunction with the Laudato Si’ Action Platform has pledged to develop a Laudato Si’ Plan, which we can use to discern and implement our response to Laudato Si’. This part of the blog will update readers on this journey.
Amarillo—The first ACTS (Adoration, Community, Theology and Service) Retreat since a Men’s ACTS Retreat Feb. 27-March 1, 2020 has been scheduled.
Today this “restless” and formally unrecognized catechist, is asking our shepherd “under the dome, ” Since God ‘can
bring nourishment, strength and growth out of whatever comes along to challenge us’, why are you still unwilling to answer my ‘5 Questions’ that led to the ‘Crisis at the Cathedral’?”
I ask St. Justin Martyr to pray that those of us in the Diocese of Amarillo, but especially those at St. Mary’s Cathedral and “the few” , can allow truth, justice and mercy to break the cycle of violence, hate and death which seems inescapable; even to the point of repaying to “the dome” the “quota” which belongs to “the dome”, if it brings about repaying to God the “truth” which belongs to God.
