Am I starting to “lose it” by visiting various “places” in the Diocese of Amarillo each day—”places” I believe should be “Areas of shared journeying” such as:
From Luke 17: 26-37
- The protection of a memorial erected by a convicted pedophile priest for a bishop whom Bishop Zurek acknowledges made a “serious mistake“;
- The Maintaining of a letter on the diocesan website rebuking “a few” who reported abuse at St. Mary’s Cathedral;
- The aborting of daily Masses at St. Mary’s Cathedral, citing the need for “an incredible sense of Reverence for the…Priests and especially for the Bishops“, effectively leveraging the Eucharist as a means of power and control;
- The building of another bishop’s residence, effectively putting our next bishop “in his place” before he even arrives ❓
XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
How to be a missionary synodal Church
Instrumentum laboris
Part III – Places
Areas of shared journeying
80
Bishop Zurek, for his part, called what Matthiesen did a ‘serious mistake,’ yet the memorial still remains.”
““To the Church of God that is in Corinth…” (1 Cor 1:2). The proclamation of the Gospel, by awakening faith in the hearts of men and women, causes a Church to be established in a place. The Church cannot be understood without being rooted in a place and a culture and without the relationships established between places and cultures.” Indeed, doesn’t a memorial raised by a convicted pedophile priest for a bishop who made the “serious mistake” in his regard affect not only the parish where it stands, but also the relationships between places and cultures within the Church❓ Does this not cause us to “lose” sight of the commandment: “‘…let us love one another.“❓
“Emphasizing the importance of place does not mean giving in to particularism or relativism but enhancing the concreteness in which, in space and time, a shared experience of adherence to the manifestation of the Triune God who saves takes shape. The dimension of place preserves the generative plurality of the forms of this experience and their rootedness in specific cultural and historical contexts.” Yet, in the letter, “A Reflection on Christian Life,” do not “a few” who reported clergy abuse at St. Mary’s Cathedral seem to “lose” access to a shared experience of adherence to the manifestation of the Triune God who saves because they were not deemed “faithful and loyal disciples that the Lord Jesus desires” —effectively being told that they are not to hear the words, “Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!“❓
Alleluia, alleluia, “The variety of liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary traditions demonstrate how much this plurality enriches the Church and makes it beautiful. The communion of the Churches, each with its local concreteness, manifests the communion of the faithful in the one and unique Church, avoiding its evaporation into an abstract and homogenizing universalism.” However, is the aborting of the daily Eucharist at St. Mary’s Cathedral truly manifesting the communion of the faithful in the one and unique Church❓Or is it instead succumbing to an abstract and homogenizing universalism, causing us to “lose” the ability to “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.“❓
Alleluia, alleluia
Finally, will not any solution which the Church claims to offer be powerless to address the serious problems of our world if I “lose” my compass to the “Areas of shared journeying“—if I “lose” sight of the great motivations which make it possible for us to live in harmony, make sacrifices and treat others well❓ Is this not especially true if I fail to avoid “sins against synodality” which now place our new bishop in a position where he must “Just Say NO❣️” to being “put in his place” simply because I wanted to preserve what I have and disregarded that…
“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,“❓
Any technical solution which science claims to offer will be powerless to solve the serious problems of our world if humanity “lose“s its compass, if we “lose” sight of the great motivations which make it possible for us to live in harmony, to make sacrifices and to treat others well.
From Paragraph 200 of ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME