Is the Amarillo Diocese demanding that ” those who have endured much unjust and cruel suffering” from our “serious mistake” “offer the other” cheek or “not withhold even” the memory of their wounds that two bishops bound by decree after taking the survivors’ “cloak” of forgiveness and using it “to cover injustices in a cloak of oblivion“?
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me
(You put the load right on me)”
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 #246 in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
MEMORY
246. Of those who have endured much unjust and cruel suffering, a sort of “social forgiveness” must not be demanded. Reconciliation is a personal act, and no one can impose it upon an entire society, however great the need to foster it. In a strictly personal way, someone, by a free and generous decision, can choose not to demand punishment (cf. Mt 5:44-46), even if it is quite legitimately demanded by society and its justice system. However, it is not possible to proclaim a “blanket reconciliation” in an effort to bind wounds by decree or to cover injustices in a cloak of oblivion. Who can claim the right to forgive in the name of others? It is moving to see forgiveness shown by those who are able to leave behind the harm they suffered, but it is also humanly understandable in the case of those who cannot. In any case, forgetting is never the answer.
BOTTOM: Another dedication to a benevolent bishop from an admiring priest.
The judge gave him (John Salazar) the right to appeal for parole after serving 30 years. John was 50 at the time. He has served two years and is now in the Mac Stringfellow Unit at Rosharon south of Houston. There, he conducts Bible classes, counsels inmates he calls his Brothers in White, directs the RCIA program, assists a permanent deacon who conducts Communion services, and leads the singing. He and the candidates he has prepared are looking forward to a date in April when Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, will come to confirm them.
From a 2008 letter in which Bishop Matthiesen defended the “serious mistake”
This approach demands of us the decision to abandon a modus operandi of disparaging, discrediting, playing the victim or the scold in our relationships, and instead to make room for the gentle breeze that the Gospel alone can offer.
From a January, 2019 letter by Pope francis to TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE
OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS on retreat. A retreat that Bishop Zurek missed in order to take a personal vacation.
Thank you for supporting Msgr. Colwell and Fr Roy. They and all my
From a 2019 letter in which Bishop Zurek uses the same “modus operandi” as Bishop Matthiessen
brother priests have given their lives for the service of the Gospel and the
mission of Christ as manifested through their ministry in the Church. They
are not seeking wealth or fame and certainly not power or control. They
became priests to serve you and help you to grow spiritually. They are here to
satiate your hunger and to quench your thirst.
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.”
