In these posts I have pointed out all that I believe is bad with Bishop Zurek’s episcopacy in the Amarillo Diocese. Whether that is a good thing is a question I daily reflect on in my conscience.
Bishop Zurek certainly has done some good, but I rarely write about those things; and after reflecting on this Sunday’s readings my conscience is convicting me of the capital or deadly sin of envy.
In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas offers an adept account of the capital vice of envy as
“sorrow over another’s good.” In this week’s blogs I intend to make amends for the “sorrow” I held for Bishop Zurek’s good by pointing out those things that affected it.
I’ll begin with the “serious mistake“. For years I tried to get Bishops Matthiesen and Yanta to make the statement that Bishop Zurek made in 2013:
A serious mistake was made in bringing John Salazar to the Diocese of Amarillo for ministry.
A reply to the Associated Press story regarding John Salazar
Even though I speak out about the follow-up to his statement, the fact is I could not speak of it the way I do if Bishop Zurek had not spoken of it first; and for that I am grateful.
Does Bishop Zurek keep preaching “communio or the coming into unity of all the Faithful with their bishop and the Pope“ to “beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our” “serious mistake“ when he says that “they set not God before their eyes“; or am I a soul “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist“, not listening to how my bishop “has called (me) through the Gospel“ to stop spending all my time “discussing…who was the greatest“, while protecting “a little flame deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it turns into a great blaze“?
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’m not a bad man, just ambitious
I’m not a bad man, just ambitious
Woah, yeah, just ambitious”
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 #243 in that regard:
CHAPTER SEVEN
PATHS OF RENEWED ENCOUNTER
THE VALUE AND MEANING OF FORGIVENSS
Legitimate conflict and forgiveness
243. To be sure, “it is no easy task to overcome the bitter legacy of injustices, hostility and mistrust left by conflict. It can only be done by overcoming evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21) and by cultivating those virtues which foster reconciliation, solidarity and peace”.[225] In this way, “persons who nourish goodness in their heart find that such goodness leads to a peaceful conscience and to profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties and misunderstandings. Even when affronted, goodness is never weak but rather, shows its strength by refusing to take revenge”.[226] Each of us should realize that “even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancour that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a struggle that I carry within me, a little flame deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it turns into a great blaze”.[227]
“I think that people trusted me. I guess I had some respect on that point.”
From “Bishop Accountability” in which Bishop Matthiesen defended the “serious mistake” by stating it was not until 2004 that he learned some priests were not the first-time sex offenders that they purported to be when he agreed to hire them even though he was warned not to assign them to parishes by other Church officials.
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.”
