The good for this last day of a week’s worth of posts dedicated to focusing on things Bishop Zurek has done for the Amarillo Diocese is an example of how God writes straight with crooked lines; but first I have a couple of honorable mentions…
- The Catholic Charities Buildings are a major good for our diocese; I’m just not sure if it came about because (or despite) of Bishop Zurek.
- The United Catholic Appeal has the potential for being a good if Bishop Zurek would do away with the “quota”.
Good #7-Removing me from Diocesan Ministry
It didn’t feel good when Bishop Zurek removed me from catechetical (40 years), prison (15 years) and ACTS (15 retreats) ministry for speaking out about what I considered current signs of our “serious mistake“. However it seems to have been God’s way of telling me to, “stop being content with a peaceful present and start working for the future”.
by Bishop Patrick J. Zurek
Click to read Bishop
Zurek’s Letter to St. Mary’s Cathedral
“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.”
