Will I come “#down” from my vantage spot, from which I only “see Jesus” in the Diocese of Amarillo“, to the “places” my conscience tells me are “Areas of shared journeying,” where I am called to “salvation” through a relationship with Jesus in regards to:
From Luke 19: 1-10
- 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
84.
Bishop Zurek, for his part, called what Matthiesen did a ‘serious mistake,’ yet the memorial still remains.”
“A second factor is increased human mobility within a globalized world. Refugees and migrants often form vibrant communities, enlarging the practice of faith and thus making the place where they settle more diverse. At the same time, they maintain connections and relationships with their country of origin, often thanks to digital media. They frequently experience simultaneous belonging to multiple local, cultural, and linguistic groups.” Nevertheless, doesn’t a memorial erected by a convicted pedophile priest for a bishop who made a “serious mistake” in a rural parish over a decade ago bring “down” this diversity so that the places where refugees and migrants settle “have the reputation of being alive, but…are dead.“❓
“Communities of origin experience, on the one hand, a reduction in their membership, sometimes to the point of struggling for survival. On the other hand, their relational and cultural fabric is expanded globally. As the First Session noted, emblematic in this respect is the situation of some Eastern Catholic Churches: with current migration rates, their diaspora members could become more numerous than those living in their canonical territories (cf. SR 6c). ” Similarly, because of the letter, “A Reflection on Christian Life,” in which “a few” who reported clergy abuse at St. Mary’s Cathedral were brought “down” and no longer considered a part of the “faithful and loyal disciples that the Lord Jesus desires”, did not St. Mary’s diaspora members become more numerous than those living in the parish; thus, of whom in this situation will it be said, “I will seat the victor beside me on my throne.“❓
Alleluia, alleluia, “ In any case, defining place in purely geographical terms will become increasingly anachronistic. Study Group 1 is called to reflect upon the challenges this poses for relations between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church.” Consequently, will not the aborting of the daily Eucharist at St. Mary’s Cathedral, eventually go “down” to defeat, since in all the other parishes of the diocese it is not practiced—rooted in the belief that “God loved us, and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.“❓
Alleluia, alleluia
Finally, am I not suggesting a return to the early Church, in which I slow “down” and look at reality in a different way—to embrace the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, while recovering the values and the great goals swept away by my unrestrained delusions of grandeur in high “places” in the Diocese of Amarillo; consequently, in the “Areas of shared journeying” affected by “sins against synodality“—the same sins that now place our new bishop in a position where he must “Just Say NO❣️” to being “put in his place”—should I not then hear Jesus calling,
“‘come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house ‘”❓
Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow “down” and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur.
From Paragraph 114 of ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME