Declaration of our Family’s Year and a Day of Penance for Shepherding in our Most Holy Catholic Church
(This is a letter I sent our Bishop on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 25th, 2018)
I am the lowly servant of the Lord, appointed by my bishop to the blessed ministry of praying for our Church, a calling given each of us in our own way. This is a time of painful clarity and a call for examination of conscience and penance. Like St. Peter, the waves of fear swallow us and bash our most holy Church. I see my own failings as shepherd. Though we may not have individually committed them, we each bear responsibility for the sins that occur in the body of Christ. There is deep sin from within the body of Christ. Our corporate betrayal of the Good Shepherd cries to heaven condemning our sinful abuse of earthly power and falling for pride, sloth, and cowardice instead of wielding God’s loving authority with those entrusted to us.