“Saying Yes — and Going”-Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent & Day 7 – Praying for Synodality Regarding the Diocese of Amarillo’s Blasphemous “Tribute to Clergy Abuse”

Today Scripture exposes the peculiar human talent for saying the correct thing while doing nothing at all.

Zephaniah speaks of a city that…

“…hears no voice, accepts no correction”

—a place loud with words and empty of repentance. Yet God promises not annihilation but refinement: a remnant, humble and truthful, who pasture their flocks without fear.

The Psalm answers with quiet assurance:

“The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

Not the loud cry. Not the popular cry.
The poor one.

And then Jesus tells a story so simple it offends the clever:
Two sons.
One refuses, then goes.
One agrees, then stays home.

The Kingdom, Jesus says, belongs not to the polished…

“Yes sir,…”

but to the muddy obedience that eventually walks into the vineyard.

“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.”
New York Times
August 24, 2002

“…the Church has revealed with humility and firmness that contemplation does not exclude mercy, but demands it as its purest fruit.”
Dilexi te, §58

MEDITATIO (My Reflection)

I have wondered—more than once—whether these daily posts are truly God’s will.

They gather few “likes.”
They do not charm.
They do not photograph well.

A picture of my dinner travels farther.
A photo of my grandchildren soars.

And I hear the temptation whisper:
Isn’t it enough to show up early for Mass and leave late, as the Bishop asked?
Isn’t that a very respectable…

“Yes, sir”?

But faith grows not in polite agreement, but in costly obedience.

A tribute built **by John Salazar for Bishop Matthiesen**—whom Matthiesen kept in ministry **against the counsel of cardinal archbishops**, giving him a “second chance.” That second chance resulted in the sexual assault of youth in our own diocese. And just before he was defrocked and sent to prison, **he raised this monument** in Bishop Matthiesen’s honor. Its presence remains a painful reminder of “serious mistakes” that harmed the very flock Bishop Matthiesen was meant to protect.

“Bishop Matthiesen — a shepherd whose legacy in our diocese still asks hard questions of us today. May truth, healing, and justice be the final word.”
Photo used by permission of Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images

For me, saying yes means continuing to name the truth about the blasphemous Tribute to Clergy Abuse in our diocese—
even when it is ignored,
even when it is inconvenient,
even when it is unloved.

The Gospel does not ask how many approve.
It asks only:

“Did you go?“

Contemplatio (Chestertonian Synthesis)

I suspect Heaven smiles not at the son who answered correctly,
but at the one who slammed the door—
then opened it again.

God has a strange affection for repentance in muddy boots.

For the second day the last Centennial banner lies in a heap at St. Mary’s Cathedral, giving me pause. I only wish it were the Diocese’s blasphemous *Tribute to Clergy Abuse* that had finally come down instead. A centennial meant to honor faith and mission cannot stand upright while that wound remains untouched.

The Church is not saved by those who say “Yes, Father” with folded hands,
but by those who eventually step into the vineyard,
even if they arrive late, embarrassed, and out of breath.

If obedience were popular, it would not be holy.
If repentance were efficient, it would not be human.

ORATIO (Prayer — Day 7)

O God,
who through your Only Begotten Son
have made us a new creation,

look kindly upon the work of your mercy
still unfinished among us.

At your Son’s coming,
cleanse our Diocese of Amarillo
from every stain we have learned to tolerate,
especially those we have learned not to see.

Give us the courage not merely to say yes,
but to go—
into truth,
into repentance,
into healing.

Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Actio (Action — Laudato Si’ & Synodality)

Today I will practice synodality not as discussion, but as conversion.

” The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”
Laudato si’ §2

Memorial in the Grotto of St. Mary’s Cathedral. The inscription says:
“**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.**“

Inspired by Laudato Si’, I will remember that care for wounds—human and ecclesial—is care for creation itself.

I will continue to walk with those who cry out,
even when the road is lonely,
trusting that God values obedience more than approval.

🎵 Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

At first glance, this song sounds like pure holiday sentiment—but beneath the sparkle is a single, stubborn desire that won’t be distracted by gifts or appearances. That is exactly how this Lectio Divina feels. In a season full of lights, banners, and celebration, my prayer narrows to one thing only: truth, repentance, and healing for those harmed by clergy abuse. Like the Gospel’s first son who ultimately does the Father’s will, this Advent longing is not for approval or applause—but for what truly matters, no matter how long it takes.

🎬The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

This film mirrors the tension of celebrating a feast without understanding its meaning. When Christmas is wrapped in spectacle but stripped of truth, it becomes distorted—even nightmarish. This Lectio Divina asks the Church to wake up, to reclaim Advent not as pageantry, but as preparation—so that Christ is truly welcomed, not hidden behind unresolved darkness.

Email to Bishop Zurek

Subject: A Response to Christmas Greetings

Your Excellency,

You urge us to arrive on time for the Sign of the Cross and remain until the Final Blessing, and I agree: the Mass deserves our full attention. Yet it is curious that during this Centennial year—so rich in banners, vestments, and memory—one sign remains unattended.

A tribute erected by a convicted abuser, honoring a “serious mistake,” still stands in silence. It is the one thing we are asked not to see, not to hear, not to name. And silence, like leaving early, teaches us something—just not what the Gospel intends.

You speak of forming adults in Christ, ready to give their all. An adult faith can arrive early, stay late, and still ask the harder question: What must be taken down so that Christ alone may stand?

In Advent, light grows not by decoration but by repentance. Silence may preserve appearances, but it cannot bless them.

Respectfully,
Darrell Glenn
Diocese of Amarillo

My Story

Photo used by permission of Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images

I was one of “the few” Bishop Zurek spoke of in this letter. He first posted it in August of 2019, and in response to my, “calling out all the more“, he kept reposting it atop the diocesan news page until December 11, 2019. There it remains to this day.

Fr. Ed Graff, brought here from Philadelphia by Bishop Matthiesen, was arrested in 2002 for sexually assaulting a minor and died later that year in jail. Despite the harm linked to his ministry, he was buried in an honored section of Llano Cemetery among our pioneering clergy — a decision that continues to wound survivors and raise hard questions for our diocese.

Bishop Matthiesen, who rode the white horse of public activism even as he brought abusive priests into our diocese such as John Salazar—wounds that still mark us today. I spoke with him often, pleading with him to reconsider his “no regrets” about bringing those priests here…
Bishop Yanta, who sought to enforce the Dallas Charter even when Bishop Matthiesen resisted him, and who bore the personal and pastoral cost of doing so. I met with Bishop Yanta about Bishop Matthiessen’s “no regrets” stance. He listened. He believed me. He acted where he could. And when he retired, he urged me—quietly but firmly—to keep speaking out.
Bishop Zurek, who told the Diocese of Amarillo he had “no facts” about the Philadelphia report even as Amarillo’s connection to that tragedy was headline news. When I continued to speak out, as Bishop Yanta had once urged me to do, he later wrote that I was not among the faithful and loyal disciples whom the Lord Jesus desires.