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+Daniel E. Flores, Bishop of Brownsville, The Rio Grande Valley, Texas. El VERBO es enviado respirando amor. (Sto.Tomás)
Brownsville, Texas
Joined June 2015
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Don’t tell me that guns aren’t the problem, people are. I’m sick of hearing it. The darkness first takes our children who then kill our children, using the guns that are easier to obtain than aspirin. We sacralize death’s instruments and then are surprised that death uses them.
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I am granting a general dispensation in the Diocese from the law of Lenten abstinence from meat tomorrow, February 19, 2021.
Many families in the Diocese will have no other option except to eat what they have.
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Euthanasia is an aggressive abuse of power, preying on populations that are made to feel guilty for being alive.
The pathology of a society that permits it is far worse than any sickness afflicting a fragile human being.
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The degrading disrespect with which immigrants are treated in this country- like pawns in games of political showmanship- is a disgrace.
Are we so drunk on our own power that we are blind to basic human dignity?
Judgment on Christians who disrespect the poor will be most severe.
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I am frankly appalled at the cultural ignorance on display about the varieties of communities of Latin American descent in the United States, all because exit-polls suggest they don’t fit someone’s punditry, or neatly pre-fabricated narratives.
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Any discussion about immigrant children that begins with “but they are not our children” is starting from a position both contrary to natural law and Catholic Faith.
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I visited the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters (Hermanas Clarisas Capuchinas) in AlamoTX, and had a chance to visit and anoint la Hermana Inés.
73 years of Consecrated Life. She is in declining health, please pray for her.
Such a praying heart she has. She prays for us all.
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Joint statement of the eight Catholic Bishops along the southern border, from San Diego to Brownsville, on the deployment of the National Guard.
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Catholics should refrain from judgements about the Holy Father based on news reports, blogs & media posts,
so often incomplete, slanted, & appallingly disrespectful.
Our daily bread is not the news cycle.
Peter is among us in his successor; grace bids us listen, & learn from him.
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The resumption of federal executions in the United States is a tragedy.
The death penalty is against the clear teaching of the Catholic Church.
Catholics should continue to work and pray for an end to the death penalty in the United States.
Killing people has to stop.
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-There is no “invasion” of Central Americans heading to the US.
-Migrants travel in numbers for self-protection against gangs.
-Many Central Americans fleeing violence in their native country try to settle in Mexico.
-Central Americans have a right in US law to apply for asylum.
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My uninvited advice on how to receive the Pope’s encyclical in an age of scissor-driven media cycles:
1) Tweet something about how grateful you are the Holy Father has seen fit to write us.
2) READ THE ENCYCLICAL. READ THE WHOLE THING.
3) Take a personal vow of silence about..
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I am actually fairly appalled that a priest would even respond to a question that asks “do you approve of the job Pope Francis is doing?”. The question presupposes a gravely flawed ecclesiology.
The question is “do you love him sufficiently?”. And that is answered in an examen.
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Separating immigrant parents and children as a supposed deterrent to immigration is a cruel and reprehensible policy. Children are not instruments of deterrence, they are children.
A government that thinks any means is suitable to achieve an end cannot secure justice for anyone.
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I, with Bp Mario & local clergy, said Mass at the Ozanam Center this evening, to offer consolation to the immigrants and staff.
Pray for those who saw it happen; they are devastated. Many first responders attended the Mass; pray for them also, for the burden they carry is great.
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The law does not intend to add hardship to what is already a situation of great hardship for many.
Those who can observe the discipline may, of course, do so. I suggest for the intentions of those suffering at this time.
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I celebrated Mass this morning at one of the detention centers here in the Rio Grande Valley, for unaccompanied minors.
God in his vulnerability as a newborn child appeals to us:
Por favor, have charity for those who walk the path of life with you.
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How was the execution of Brandon Bernard any different from Harod’s state sanctioned execution of John the Baptist?
The death penalty today is a blood-lust within society and no legal veneer can hide that.
To say Harod had the authority is absurd.
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There exists in this country a pallid intellectual culture that opts for easy nominalisms: it aggregates characteristics to communities it has never taken the time to get to know. It invents categories and then assigns places for everyone.
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Factually:
Transubstantiation was literally canonized as a doctrinal term at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, ten years before St Thomas Aquinas was born. Pope St Paul VI reaffirmed its doctrinal sense in “The Credo of the People of God”after the Second Vatican Council.
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Ash Wednesday Mass this evening from the Cathedral was celebrated without electricity or heat, the condition of a great many families throughout the Valley.
Mis profundos agradecimientos a los que se organizaron para preparar la Misa en catedral, sin calefacción o electricidad.
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In the Church there is no excuse. Pastors, lay leaders, get to know the many local communities within your community.
Try to understand them, receive their poverty so your richness might become poor. Learn from them before you presume to teach, or worse, comment about them.
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Bishop Mario and I went to the SpaceX facility near Boca Chica beach in Brownsville. We were given a gracious welcome and tour. It is an extraordinary undertaking and I am grateful to have seen it firsthand.
(And, no, we did not discuss ecclesiastical jurisdiction on Mars.)
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The unborn children, the most vulnerable among us, plead for justice and protection.
They are not ashamed to make this plea in the company of the elderly who are discarded, those with Down syndrome, the refugee and her children, the hungry poor, and the inmate on death-row.
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It is simply not true to say that the Second Vatican Council was “only” a pastoral Council with no doctrinal import or content requiring the adherence of the faithful.
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I haven’t told my Twitter friends.
But in the dead of winter
I lost my dog.
Right before the Texas freeze.
Trancos died, quietly in his sleep.
The vet said could’ve been any number of things.
I didn’t even know he was sick.
He was a good dog.
Made me laugh, and walk more.
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The contempt of an educated person towards the poor for their lack of formal education is a spitting on the face of Christ and a sign that often the most ill-educated are those who have studied in an institution but have forgotten their own humanity.
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Even if one argued there could exist a society capable of administering the death penalty with anything approximating justice, it is certainly not this one, certainly not ours.
We are as unmoored and confused about moral reasoning as any society has ever been.
Stop the executions
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In the end, after the arguments are done, the only effective apologetic for the Church’s Faith is that we try to care for the poor;
this is what the Lord asks,
and it is the visible sign of our Eucharistic faith,
our Christological hope,
and our Trinitarian love.
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A Catholic form of traditionalism can sort of morph into just another (boring) version of Modernism when it becomes consumed with deconstructing the living magisterium of the Church through subjective criteria.
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I was seven years old before I realized that the picture of St Therese of Lisieux hanging in my grandmother’s room was not an aunt that I had never met before.
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National borders are not absolute.
To argue that we may defend them by any means deemed effective is statist voluntarism.
It manifests at the level of government the false claim of an individual’s right to unconstrained will.
Either way, the powerful decide who gets thrown away.
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The thing about the Martyrs, you see, is that they are not mad at anybody when they die.
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Academic theology would do well to pay more attention to the faith expressions of the poor, and work to hear and interpret them rightly. This too is an aspect of synodality.
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The histories, religious expressions, gifts, sufferings, and heroisms of entire communities are swept away because we think that by some Cartesian insight we are capable of understanding others without actually getting to know them.
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Press reports about inhumane / illegal treatment of migrants at the River are disturbing and unconscionable.
Reports include throwing children into the River, denying water, mistreating pregnant women, using razor wire.
Investigations should be swift, rigorous and thorough.
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It never visits their homes, eats their foods, enjoys their music, talks to their old folks, or listens to their young people.
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... the encyclical until you are done reading it :)
4) If needed, repeat no. 1 while reading.
5) Think and pray while you read.
6) The world will not be worse off, and your soul will thank you.
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He didn’t care one way or the other I was a bishop.
That was my favorite thing about him.
It’s strangely hard to lose a dog.
He was the best.
And it’s strangely hard to tell people.
Because you can’t explain it.
I miss him.
I’m glad God thought to make him.
And has him in mind.
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I am happy to say that after a lot of hard work at the Basilica, the doors are free of the graffiti that marred them.
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Let us pray for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
May God in his provident goodness bless them and keep them safe, and may He bless with peace and goodwill the country they have been elected to serve.
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Peter, alone,
but never alone.
With the Lord,
and with us.
Thank you, Holy Father.
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It’s amazing what I can fit in my trusty little liturgical suitcase.
🧔🏻👍🏼
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Catholic Charities RGV assists families who are referred to us by Border Patrol, a Federal entity. How can the Governor’s order identify them as “illegal” and how does looking for them not constitute racial profiling of persons legally in the US?
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If we do it right, Catholicism is a communion of servants with a Cross.
Leadership in the Church is part of that, if we do it right.
Pray that we do.
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Racism is a grave sin rooted in pride, envy and hatred. It suffocates the soul by means of expelling from it the charity of Christ.
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Bishop Raymundo Peña, Emeritus of Brownsville, passed away this afternoon.
May he Rest In Peace.
My favorite pictures of us together, taken some months ago, at his birthday dinner.
No me despido, Monseñor, primero Dios por ahí nos veremos de nuevo.
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The threat of mass deportation raids is psychologically cruel to families and children.
The actual separation of parents from their children without even a chance for a court appearance is simply reprehensible.
Laws ought to treat families & children differently than drug lords.
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At the interview I did while at the USCCB meetings— the one cited briefly in the NCR article on the reception of Communion in Hispanic communities— I also said that it is not a spiritually healthy practice to spend time at Mass noticing who goes to Communion and who doesn’t.
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When a Catholic points out that Catholic Doctrine has implications deep in the social order, it does not necessarily mean that the Faith is being politicized; often it means that the Faith cannot be privatized.
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What kind of societal blindness is it that is clear-eyed enough to see that nature is a gift and we must protect the environment, yet so very blind that it will not move to protect children in the womb, or weep at the thought of their dismemberment?
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Statement from the Bishop on the Deaths of Immigrants near the Ozanam Center in Brownsville
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You know when the Easter Vigils in the Rio Grande Valley are finishing up by the lines of cars at the Whataburger drive-throughs.
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This evening I celebrated Mass in Brownsville for families who have lost a child due to miscarriage or illness after birth. I do this every year. It is a Mass of many tears, but also much faith and hope. Love alone consoles.
Be someone who consoles.
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The Governor’s decision not to allow the Federal refugee resettlement program to operate in Texas affects refugees vetted by the current administration. They flee violence & persecution, and seek a chance to live, work & contribute in peace.
The Governor should reconsider.
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Go to Mass today. It’s like finding a place within the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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This morning, Christmas Eve Mass at one of the
the immigration detention centers for unaccompanied minors here in the Rio Grande Valley. I am grateful to our “equipo de acompañamiento” that ministers at these facilities year round. Some are pictured below.
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I am not a fan of the rush to publish every pent-up thought one has ever had on the life of the late pontiff.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing. A respectable time is needed. Human assessment is tentative at best,.. God knows.
May he rest in peace.
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Rhetorically, if you intentionally walk the crowd to the edge of cruelty, it is not true to say that you are in no way responsible for those who fall into the abyss.
Our cultural debasement of words is only surpassed by our cultural disregard for human life. The two are related.
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St Michael the Archangel, overlooking the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyac.
Defiéndenos del maligno.
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On the Solemnity of the Annunciation, 25 March 2022, at the 12 noon Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Brownsville,
I will unite this local diocesan Church with our Holy Father Pope Francis as he consecrates Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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Statement on the pending execution of Melissa Lucio.
“Death is not the answer to death. One tragedy is not somehow made better by killing someone else.”
+df
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Today I got a dog.
Le di el nombre de Trancos (see the Spanish edition of LOTR).
He is from the animal shelter in Brownsville, and I think we’ll get along just fine.
Part Blue Heeler, part German Shepherd.
De naturaleza tranquila.
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There is a difference between reading the Gospel through a political lens and reading politics through a Gospel lens.
Catholic Faith urges us to the latter, and is a grace much to be prayed for.
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The Gospel itself is a full-throated and stern warning against mob action.
If institutions of order & lawful transitions of authority are systematically deconstructed & trampled upon by factional self-interests, it leads to just that, a mob.
Let the elected govern.
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With great sadness we witness the fire engulfing the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Let us pray for the safety of firefighters and for the consolation of the Church in France.
Christ enters his Passion this week; in his rising is our hope.
He can breathe life into our ashes.
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I got my second shot today in San Benito TX.
I encourage everyone to get the COVID vaccine. The good of everyone depends on the decisions of each one.
Quiero animar a todos que no han recibido la vacuna que busquen una cita. El bien de todos depende de las decisiones de cada uno.
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Yesterday I celebrated the Mass in a local detention center for 300 Central American teenagers while 3 priests confessed them. The faith of these young people moves me greatly; it is a window to what Pope Francis means when he urges the Church to learn from the faith of the poor.
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A few suggestions, neither exhaustive nor in any particular order, for getting through the storm:
The laity have a charism of discernment, especially in temporal, political affairs. Use it.
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Garrigou-Lagrange said somewhere that Jesus was the only one who could speak of his own humility without losing it.
That’s always struck me as sublimely true.
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From the Pope’s Mass today:
“We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform.”
I don’t know of a clearer way to say this.
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At the Synod this morning the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was celebrated at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s.
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In this photo I specifically recall thanking the Holy Father for giving the Diocese of Brownsville such a good Auxiliary Bishop.
The Holy Father said: “Tiene cara the bueno”. 😎
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Please pray for the
@SistersofMercy
and their associates who today offer a witness to the human dignity of immigrants. The pursuit of justice unmixed with the oil of compassion, a pursuit that sees a faceless entity rather than people, is a dry dust that will smother us all.
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A death culture,
one that claims euthanizing old people is mercy,
killing unborn children with Down syndrome, a human right,
and that children drowning in the Rio Grande River is a normal part of immigration policy,
also absurdly claims it can justly apply the death penalty.
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Tomorrow, 13 March, is the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. May God bless him abundantly, grant him life and strength, wisdom and courage, as he carries St Peter’s upside down participation in the Cross of Christ.
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Mothers and children are fleeing the very criminal elements that we ourselves recognize represent a mortal danger. Are we not capable of sustaining a response that both protects the vulnerable and restrains the menace?
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Baby Noe, two weeks old, makes his first appearance at the Cathedral Mass today. The proud parents assured me he wouldn’t cry if I held him.
“To such as these belongs the Kingdom.”
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It matters where you look first:
A partisan looks first at a policy that gravely harms immigrant children and expresses sympathy for the children affected.
A Catholic looks first at the children injured and asks how it is that we as a nation can tolerate such a policy.
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In Washington DC for some meetings.
Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Stopped in at the image of Our Lady of LaVang. Remembering also the Vietnamese Martyrs.
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“An argument about what is and what is not a pro-life issue is a distraction. Our defense of the unborn child is the front-line in defense of human dignity, because a culture that dehumanizes the unborn can dehumanize anyone, from the elderly to the immigrant.”
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I think that as a rule we Catholics don’t rightly estimate how deep the wound of sin is in us, and consequently in history,
nor do we appreciate sufficiently the literal truth of what the Council of Trent said about the post-baptismal struggle to persevere in grace.
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The sacrifice offered at every Mass is the only offering on earth commensurate to the glory of God. This is so because Christ the Son, God in the flesh, is the only one who can give to the Father a perfect act of love. He died and rose so that we could join him in this act.
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The American Dream should not be “If I am successful, I won’t need to depend on anybody”; it should rather be: “If I am successful, it is so that those who struggle and suffer in life may be served”.
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The Solemnity of All Saints is more a prophecy about the end of history than it is a recollection of what history the Church has lived.
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Very grateful to God and to the community of faith for the prayer and solidarity that was expressed tonight in support of immigrant parents and children who have suffered the great sorrow of separation.
The heart of the Rio Grande Valley is compassionate and courageous.
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Spent a little time visiting with the Jesuit community in Brownsville on this the Feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola. Father Warren, Father Brian and Fr Louie are in the diocese for a year to help with missionary outreach to the peripheries in our midst. So happy they are here.
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Curiosa greeted me at the door when I got back from Ash Wednesday at Cathedral.
I assure you I scrubbed my hands thoroughly after Mass.
But apparently not enough.
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Please pray for the Holy Father Pope Francis as he makes his Apostolic Visit to Thailand and Japan.
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Thanks everybody for your kindness and encouragement on my being chair-elect the Doctrine Committee.🧔🏻👍🏼
Pray for me.
The occasional Dino-drawing will continue to appear on this time-line, as will periodic praise of
#DresdenFiles
, mystery novels, and other sources of puzzlement.
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Sometime in the middle of Lent, when we realize that we have failed to keep the modest Lenten penance we had freely chosen in the first place, is a good time to start again, only with more humility and with a greater reliance on grace.
#NotPelagian
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Statement of the bishop concerning the separation of immigrant parents and children at the border.
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Things you see outside the Bishop’s Brownsville office. Makes you want to leave the mail on the desk and go for a walk 🧔🏻👍🏼
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Am I the only one who says to the dog, while stepping out the door to go to the corner store: “ahorita vengo”, “I’ll be right back” ?
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The Diocese of Brownsville welcomes the bishops from the US Bishops Conference who will visit the Río Grand Valley.
Cardinal DiNardo, President of the Conference, will lead the delegation. Mass with bishops who will have arrived will be offered Sunday, 11 am, San Juan Basilica.
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