“* If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’f you would not have condemned these innocent men.”
MT 12:07
Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Looking for, looking for, looking for mercy”
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 #255, current events and an occasional question in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
WAR AND THE DEATH PENALTY
“A serious mistake was made in bringing John Salazar to the Diocese of Amarillo for ministry,”
Bishop Patrick J. Zurek
“We implore the House Committee on Appropriations to reverse course on these bills that currently expand taxpayer funding of abortion, and to restore the long-standing, bipartisan Hyde provisions and Weldon Amendment that have saved millions of lives and protected conscience rights,”
…have we not found “false answers” to serious mistakes “that do not resolve the problems they are meant to solve and ultimately do no more than introduce new elements of destruction’?
255. There are two extreme situations that may come to be seen as solutions in especially dramatic circumstances, without realizing that they are false answers that do not resolve the problems they are meant to solve and ultimately do no more than introduce new elements of destruction in the fabric of national and global society.
“Catholic leaders need to stop asking, ‘How do we get back to pre-COVID days?’ … Our job has never been to maintain institutions. It is to make disciples.”
Are we not going to the “extreme” to “maintain institutions” of pre-COVID days” by silently allowing John Anthony Salazar ‘s memorial for Bishop Matthiesen to stand; a memorial for a benevolent bishop who gave Salazar, a serious priest abuser banned from his home diocese, a second chance; a second chance that he used to land himself in prison for indecency with a child by sexual contact?
These are war and the death penalty.
“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.
and promoting sobriety in the use of resources and energy.
That is why Improving sustainability in our diet by reducing food waste before and after
market by raising chickens that produce eggs and meat while feeding off of and working our compost pile is part of our Laudato Si Plan.
Amarillo—Our Lady of Guadalupe Church will host its 40th Las Fiestas de Amarillo Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 on the parish grounds at 11th and Houston.
7/5/21: Why was Bishop Zurek wearing white vestments during Ordinary Time when he presided at the normally posted livestreamed 9:30 Mass from the Cathedral on Independence Day?
7/5/21: Why wasn’t the livestreamed 9:30 Mass from the Cathedral on July 4, posted on You Tube as Masses usually are on Sundays?
7/9/21: Instead of simply answering my question about the posting of the 9:30 Mass for July 4th; why were all the other normally posted Masses removed?
UPDATE: Is not posting on You Tube the Sunday 9:30 Livestreamed Mass to be the “new normal”?…If so, why?
Will not Bishop Zurek’s goal of having more home grown vocations be difficult to obtain without participating in such events as these?
First is the persistent rumor that Msgr. Colwell,
A Reflection on Christian Life, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, August 28, 2019
your Rector is an alcoholic.
For the last several years I have suffered from a terribly cunning, baffling and powerful disease, known as alcoholism.
Msgr. Colwell, September 13, 2020
Today I 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 spread “persistent” rumors about our priests; perhaps then, the legacy of clergy abuse in our diocese will be remembered as we offer “mercy, not sacrifice”.
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.”
