Can my “persistence” in prayer overcome Bishop Zurek, who persists on handing his Cathedral “a snake when she asks for a fish“, and is assuring that our next bishop does the same by building another bishop’s residence right next to his so that our new bishop will be his, not St. Mary’s Cathedral’s “friend“, whom Bishop Zurek can “bother” at anytime for “whatever he needs“;…
From Luke 11:5-13
…therefore, should I not “knock” so that the door “will be opened” to a new bishop, who “Just Says No” to living in the house built by Bishop Zurek who doesn’t “know how to give good gifts to (his) children“❓
XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
How to be a missionary synodal Church
Instrumentum laboris
Part I – Relations
Between the Churches and in the world: the concreteness of communion
48.
“The exchange of gifts between Churches takes place in contexts marked by violence, persecution and lack of religious freedom; indeed, some Churches struggle for their very survival and invoke the solidarity of other Churches while they continue to share their riches, the fruit of the constant encounter with opposition to the Gospel and the persecution faced by Lord’s disciples throughout history“; however, in the Diocese of Amarillo, isn’t our “struggle” on the inside with Bishop Zurek’s persistence use of ” forms of exercising authority on which the different types of abuse (power, economic, conscience, sexual) are grafted, and therefore have given cause for those who are opposed to the Gospel to ask us, “Why, ‘Are you so stupid‘”❓
“Moreover, the exchange of gifts takes place in a context still overshadowed by continuing forms of colonialism and neo-colonialism; similarly, by building the new bishop’s residence next to his, away from St. Mary’s Cathedral, isn’t Bishop Zurek showing that he wants to use his “privilege of an exclusive position of” Bishop Emeritus to exert the pressures to control or influence our next bishop; nevertheless, with persistence in prayer, can I not hope that the new bishop arrives knowing that he did not come to Bishop Zurek but, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people“❓
Alleluia, alleluia,
“A Church growing in the practice of synodality is invited to understand the impact of these social dynamics on the exchange of gifts and to seek their transformation. Also, part of this commitment is the recognition that many Churches carry a wounded memory and that there is a need to promote paths of reconciliation“; unfortunately, doesn’t Bishop Zurek use persistence in covering up the fact that, “If Boston is the fault line of the child sexual-abuse scandal that has convulsed the Roman Catholic Church, then few places have felt the aftershocks more deeply than the Diocese of Amarillo“; moreover, just as Bishop Matthiesen stayed on as Bishop Emeritus to cover-up his “serious mistake” of hiring pedophile priests, is not Bishop Zurek wanting to stay in the Diocese of Amarillo with our next bishop close by so that he can continue to cover up his sins against synodality that have led to abuse and kept him from leading us in prayer that we, “Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son“❓
Alleluia, alleluia
…so, since Bishop Zurek didn’t want the Diocese of Amarillo to share in the mission of building a new bishop’s residence, and Pope Francis, who has been working for a synodal Church since 2021, wants October to be the month to pray for a shared mission, shouldn’t it be Pope Francis whom I,…
“give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.“❓
