This week posts are focusing on the implications for the Amarillo Diocese” of a synodal process that looks to hear from voices on the margins of the church. The first implication is rooted in a historical fact that when Pope Francis has called, “the church to practice synodality, that is listening to — and hearing — one another”, Bishop Zurek has literally gone on vacation…
Implication #1- It will take at least “a few” “to be co-creators with the Spirit” to make this synodal process a “spiritual exercise,” and “not just a bureaucratic or ecclesial exercise“, which afterwards Bishop Zurek takes what he will consider, “a well deserved vacation”.
In 2018 Pope Francis suggested that U.S. bishops take part in a retreat, “after a summer of shocking news” about Theodore E. McCarrick and the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report, with which the Diocese of Amarillo’s “serious mistake” was connected, and of which Bishop Zurek’s was in personal denial.
I cannot comment on the history of Pennsylvania, I simply do not have any facts;
From a statement from Bishop patrick j. zurek, august 29, 2018
During my meeting on 13 September last with the officers of your Conference of Bishops, I suggested that together you make a retreat, a time of seclusion, prayer and discernment, as a necessary step toward responding in the spirit of the Gospel to the crisis of credibility that you are experiencing as a Church.
LETTER SENT BY THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE
OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
by Bishop Patrick J. Zurek
Click to read Bishop
Zurek’s Letter to St. Mary’s Cathedral
The retreat was held in January of 2019, and even though a “crisis at the Cathedral” was brewing, Bishop Zurek, instead of taking some time for, “seclusion, prayer and discernment, as a necessary step toward responding in the spirit of the Gospel to the crisis of credibility“, went on vacation instead.
While on vacation His Excellency took the opportunity at a Mass which he was con-celebrating to label as “persecution” the consequences that has occurred in the United States due to clergy sexual abuse.
“Every once in a while, the ugly head of bigotry against Catholics raises its head even in the United States. Even now that ugly head is popping up every once-in-a-while. It certainly did the latter half of last year…part of Christianity is suffering, and we suffer here, even right now with what happened with the sexual abuse of minors. I don’t want to get into that, but there is a certain amount of angst against the Church that just does not pertain to other civil entities where the same difficulty may exist.”*
from “Persecution or Consequences?”
Unless we answer Pope Francis’s call for, “the church to practice synodality, that is listening to — and hearing — one another in all facets of church life“, “the ugly head of” our “serious mistake” will keep raising “its head”.
“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 (whom Bishop Matthiesen labeled as a “congenital liar”) 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.”
