| Bishop Matthiesen | Bishop Yanta | Bishop Zurek | |
| Opposed | Pantex & death penalty | abortion | old Pastoral Center |
| Closed | Catholic Secondary School | Planned Parenthood | old Pastoral Center |
| Opened | a secular college preparatory school | Amarillo’s only Catholic secondary school | new Pastoral Center |
| Supported | clergy sexual abusers | faithful clergy and survivors of clergy abuse | any ministry that can be turned into a fundraiser to fill the financial hole that an overbuilt Pastoral Center has left us |
Serious Mistake | caused | dealt with | hides from in the Pastoral Center |
The purpose of engaging in this profound love is quite simple: it is the union of all the Faithful into one Body, the Body of Christ, the Church! It is the coming together in union with each other as ONE entity.
• “When I am lifted-up I will draw all humanity to myself.” (Jn. 12:32)
This is the communio or the coming into unity of all the Faithful with their bishop and the Pope; this is the essence of being Church: one bread and one body! All the Faithful united with their own Diocesan Bishop and united with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
From “Bishop’s Conversation“, which wasn’t a conversation between two people, like Bishop Yanta had with The west texas Catholic, but rather a prerecorded homily that aired Sept. 15 during the annual RadioThon on Saint Valentine Catholic Radio
WTC: Looking back at your tenure as Bishop of Amarillo, what are the accomplishments you are most proud of?
Bishop Yanta: “A great joy was to see and witness the deep spirituality of the priests, deacons, religious men and religious woman living the Gospel values—many saintly and holy witnesses. I am grateful that Almighty God gave me to serve Him as shepherd of the Diocese of Amarillo.”
In writing these posts to the Amarillo Diocese am I, keeping “the commandment without stain or reproach“, to love so as to be “united with (my) own Diocesan Bishop” and “Come with joy into the presence of the Lord” yielding “a harvest through perseverance“; or am I “among thorns,
…choked by the anxieties…,
and (I) fail to produce mature fruit” because I’m “obsessed with taking revenge and destroying the other“?
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Talk about it
If you’re a worried man, then shout about it
Open hearts, feel about it
Open minds, think about it”
You keep speaking out!
Bishop Yanta’s parting words to me at a meeting just prior to his retirement.
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 #242 in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
THE VALUE AND MEANING OF FORGIVENSS
Legitimate conflict and forgiveness
242. The important thing is not to fuel anger, which is unhealthy for our own soul and the soul of our people, or to become obsessed with taking revenge and destroying the other. No one achieves inner peace or returns to a normal life in that way. The truth is that “no family, no group of neighbours, no ethnic group, much less a nation, has a future if the force that unites them, brings them together and resolves their differences is vengeance and hatred. We cannot come to terms and unite for the sake of revenge, or treating others with the same violence with which they treated us, or plotting opportunities for retaliation under apparently legal auspices”.[224] Nothing is gained this way and, in the end, everything is lost.
BOTTOM: A building named after Bishop Zurek” by a priest admirer.
“”These are my friends. There’s no way I would even consider the idea of not helping them.””
From “Bishop Accountability” in which Bishop Matthiesen defended the “serious mistake” by “soliciting funds” for priests, whom Matthiesen had been warned not to assign to parishes by other Church officials, and were later removed over sexual abuse allegations.
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.
I am reminded of his (St. Augustine’s) concern for the peace and unity of the Church…the Body of Christ on this earth. What has happened in the Cathedral is unconscionable. The focus on Christ must be restored; then peace, healing and tranquility will return.
From a 2019 letter in which Bishop Zurek scolded “a few” with his now familiar theme of Unity.
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.”
