“he said, ‘Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.’* And they ridiculed him.'”
MT 9:24
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The truth is
I never left you”
I agree with our bishop, Patrick J. Zurek, in putting forth in his Holy Week homilies this year the Encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, as the standard for love and unity in our diocese. Today, let’s reflect upon paragraph #252, current events and an occasional question in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
MEMORY
Forgiving but not forgetting
Are we asking them to offer Bishop Matthiesen forgiveness or “impunity” , for his giving a priest banned from his home diocese a second chance; a second chance that John Anthony Salazar used to dedicate a Religious Education Center for his benevolent bishop before landing himself in prison for indecency with a child by sexual contact?
“A serious mistake was made in bringing John Salazar to the Diocese of Amarillo for ministry,”
Bishop Patrick J. Zurek
Revenge resolves nothing.
252. This does not mean impunity.
“So we are taught by our culture to ask, ‘Is it political, progressive, conservative, spiritual, left, right, modern, ancient?’ but not, ‘Is it in accord with what Jesus taught?’”
Justice is properly sought solely out of love of justice itself, out of respect for the victims, as a means of preventing new crimes and protecting the common good, not as an alleged outlet for personal anger.
ecclesiastical and lay personnel of the Secretariat of State and senior figures of the former Financial Information Authority, as well as external figures active in the world of international finance,”
Forgiveness is precisely what enables us to pursue justice without falling into a spiral of revenge or the injustice of forgetting.
As you have seen, for example, in the various trips I have made and that you have covered, I never had to restrict or cancel any of the scheduled activities. I never experienced fatigue or shortness of breath,”
“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.
the wellbeing of all, as we equitably address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss,
and ecological sustainability.
That is why “Protecting biodiversity by planting native trees, planting native gardens,
removing invasive species, practicing regenerative agriculture, and
protecting pollinators” is part of our Laudato Si Plan.
“Several factors drove our need to move from our former location on Duniven Circle. From a fiscal perspective, our lease expired on Dec. 31, 2020. The new lease included another significant increase in rent and locked us in for another two years. We would rather spend the money used for rent on our various programs, helping the poor, the at-risk and the under-served.”
It appears that the Gospel is forgotten.
A Reflection on Christian Life, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek
Why wasn’t the livestreamed 9:30 Mass from the Cathedral yesterday posted on You Tube as it usually is on Sundays?
Why was Bishop Zurek wearing white vestments during Ordinary Time when he presided at the normally posted livestreamed 9:30 Mass from the Cathedral yesterday on Independence Day?
Today I ask Saints Elizabeth of Portugal and Anthony Mary Zaccaria to pray that those of us in the Diocese of Amarillo, but especially those at St. Mary’s Cathedral and, “the few” , listen to Bishop Zurek’s concern in “A Reflection on Christian Life“, and not forget the Gospel as we recall the legacy of clergy abuse in our diocese; by “forgiving” not “forgetting” we will ensure that the “sleeping” are not mistaken for “dead”, and that justice “is properly sought solely out of love of justice itself, out of respect for the victims, as a means of preventing new crimes and protecting the common good”.
A Memorial in the Grotto of St. Mary’s Cathedral
“In memory of the death of innocence of the victims of clergy sexual abuse. When innocence dies…a life stops. It is essential that we never forget.”
