Is it any wonder that the bishop who led “a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity,” could also “Hear the sound of my pleading, when I” cried, and sought justice for the “the victims of clergy sexual abuse“ for the “serious mistake“; “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“; end up being the bishop who faithfully “gave his” opportunity to have a building named after him away saying, “I am not worthy“?
Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
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 in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
MEMORY
Forgiving but not forgetting
252. This does not mean impunity. 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. Forgiveness is precisely what enables us to pursue justice without falling into a spiral of revenge or the injustice of forgetting.
BOTTOM: A building named after Bishop Zurek” by a priest admirer.
You were honest and kind in giving me a copy of the statement you made to Bishop .John Yanta on November 20, 2007. I very much appreciated that even though it increased my sadness over what had happened in the way of clerical sex abuse and the misunderstanding about my position on these tragic events.
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.
You no doubt have heard of or perhaps even read the now infamous accusations against myself, your Rector and the associate Rector. These were
From a 2019 letter in which Bishop Zurek uses the same “modus operandi” as Bishop Matthiessen
obviously made by ‘a few’, emphasis on a few, souls that appear to be quite
restless.
A Memorial in the Grotto of St. Mary’s Cathedral raised by Monsignor Waldow during Bishop Yanta’s episcopacy. Monsignor Waldow wrote:
“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.”
