The good for day six of a week’s worth of posts dedicated to focusing on the good things Bishop Zurek has done for the Amarillo Diocese is a bit iffy…
Good #6-the Pastoral Center
Undoubtedly a new Diocesan Pastoral Center was a good end, but were the means all good as well:
- Was the Preparing the Way Capital Campaign-a Ponzi scheme?
- Is the location isolated and too far from the Cathedral?
- Was the size and architecture overbuilt for our needs?
If the answer to any of those question is yes, then the “ends does not justify the means“, but for now I have no answer to those questions and will put the Diocesan Pastoral Center down as a good.
“Inasmuch as there could be serious legal implications for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles if we do fully disclose to you our concern regarding the Reverend John Salazar, Sch.P., by this letter I am informing you that the Reverend John Salazar, Sch.P. would never be allowed to minister as a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in any way whatsoever given the circumstances of his case.”
From a 1991 letter from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the Diocese of Amarillo prior to Bishop’s Matthiesen’s bringing of John Salazar to the Diocese of Amarillo. Bishop Matthiesen ignored this warning. Later he defended the “serious mistake” by stating that he never conducted his own checks of the priests – which included the Rev. John Salazar-Jimenez, and that it wasn’t until 10 years later that he learned some priests were not the first-time sex offenders that they purported to be when he agreed to hire.
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.”
