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Mark those calendars and forget about cooking dinner those days.

“At the age of 21,” Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, shared with 3,000 people last Sunday afternoon, “I was already an alcoholic. I was very promiscuous. My life was broken by lust. It had been decimated by childhood sexual abuse that I never told anybody about.... But God didn’t abandon me.”
“Somebody loved me in my brokenness,” Sister Miriam continued, “and it changed my life. God sent a Catholic priest into my life who was authentically holy, and it rocked my world. He fathered me—loved me as a father—and I could not deny his witness.”
Sister Miriam’s story was moving and she touched many hearts. She was speaking at the Convocation of Catholic Leaders, in Orlando, Fla., where 3,000 Catholics from around the country—bishops, priests, religious, and laity—gathered to talk together about the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.   Read More Click here

EL PASO, Texas

No muchas cosas hicieron enojar a Jesús. Él era la paciencia y el perdón mismo, incluso cuando se enfrentó a muchos de los defectos humanos de gravedad. Pero una cosa a menudo hacía que Jesús se saliera de sus casillas - líderes legalistas. Aunque la vida y el ministerio de Jesús sucedió hace ya 2,000 años, ahora en mí estado natal de Texas, los legalistas están remarcando las letras de la ley por encima del bienestar y la dignidad de los niños y las familias. El 29 de junio, los Fiscales del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia de 10 estados, incluyendo Ken Paxton de Texas, amenazaron en una carta al Fiscal General de los Estados Unidos, Jeff Sessions, con entablar un juicio en contra de la administración del Presidente Trump, si es que no eliminan las protecciones de la era Obama, las cuales protegen a los "Soñadores" (DREAM  Act-S.1291 Ley de Desarrollo, Ayuda y Educación para Menores Extranjeros, introducida en el 2001 como un proyecto de ley bipartidista en el Senado)  o, inmigrantes indocumentados, quienes fueron traídos a los Estados Unidos siendo niños.
En la carta se pide a la administración que deje de aceptar nuevas solicitudes o de renovar solicitudes existentes para el Programa de Acción Diferida por Arribo de Niños y que el Presidente Obama creara durante su primer mandato. Si estos defensores de la ley obtienen su deseo, los “Soñadores” ya no estarán protegidos de la deportación. Los escribas y los fariseos de su tiempo llevaron a Jesús a la distracción. Como El mismo dijo: "¡Ay de vosotros, escribas y fariseos, hipócritas!, pagáis el diezmo... pero habéis descuidado las cosas más importantes de la ley: juicio, misericordia y fidelidad. Esto, habéis de haber hecho sin descuidar a los demás" (Mateo 23,23). Y así dijo a sus discípulos, "pero no sigan su ejemplo, porque predican, pero no practican"(Mateo 23, 3).
¿Es que acaso se están desempeñando de nuevo los papeles de los escribas y los fariseos hoy en día? Paxton y los otros nueve procuradores generales de justicia sostienen que no les basta con ejercer el perseguir y enjuiciar las prerrogativas legales de nuestro país con respecto a la inmigración con los adultos que han buscado refugio dentro de nuestras fronteras. ¿Pero debemos de ir aún más lejos para también poner esta pesada carga de la ley sobre los niños que trajeron con ellos? ¿Sacaremos a los “Soñadores” de sus escuelas, comunidades y los únicos hogares que han conocido? ¿Los enviaremos porque no son "legales"?
Alrededor de 220,000 jóvenes en Texas estarán fuera de la escuela y sin trabajo productivo: una fórmula clásica para crear la desesperación, la cual hace que el tráfico de drogas y otros delitos parezcan ser la única opción.
Los líderes de los días de Jesús pensaron que al cumplir las minucias de la ley, podrían ser justos ante Dios y lo que es más importante para ellos, parecer justos ante los seres humanos. Jesús respondió que debían haber practicado una ley superior, como la justicia, la misericordia y la fidelidad. Deberían haber imitado la compasión de Dios hacia aquellos forzados por las circunstancias de la vida a llevar cargas pesadas. No deberían haber añadido a esas cargas con una insistencia egoísta en los puntos más pequeños de la ley. Cuando oigo esta insistencia legalista sobre cada letra de nuestra ley de inmigración quebrantada y que se lleva a cabo a este grado tan cruel, puedo oír la respuesta indignada de Jesús: "¡Ay de vosotros, escribas y fariseos, hipócritas!".

Excmo. Mark J. Seitz Obispo de El Paso

EL PASO, Texas
 
Not many things made Jesus angry. He was the picture of patience and forgiveness even in the face of many serious human faults. But one thing often caused Jesus to fly off the handle — legalistic leaders.
While Jesus’ life and ministry may have taken place 2,000 years ago, now in my home state of Texas, legalists are placing the letter of the law ahead of the well being and dignity of children and families.
On June 29, attorneys general from 10 states including Ken Paxton of Texas threatened in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to sue the Trump administration if it does not eliminate Obama-era protections that shield "Dreamers," or undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
The letter called on the administration to stop accepting new or renewing existing applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama created during his first term.
If these upholders of the law have their wish, Dreamers will no longer be protected from deportation.
The scribes and the Pharisees of his time drove Jesus to distraction. As he put it, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes … and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. These you should have done, without neglecting the others" (Matthew 23:23). And as he told his disciples, “but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice" (Matthew 23:3).
Are the roles of the scribes and Pharisees being played out again today? Paxton and the nine other attorneys general argue that it's not enough to exercise our country’s legal prerogatives regarding immigration with the adults who have sought refuge within our borders. Must we go even further and also lay the heavy burden of the law on the children they brought with them? Will we wrench Dreamers from their schools, communities and the only homes they have ever known? Will we send them away because they are not “legal”? 
Around 220,000 young people in Texas will be out of school and out of productive work: a classic formula to create the desperation that makes drug dealing and other crime appear to be the only option.
The leaders of Jesus' day thought by fulfilling the minutiae of the law they could be righteous before God and, more importantly for them, appear righteous before human beings. Jesus answered that they should have practiced a higher law, that of justice and mercy and faithfulness. They should have imitated God's compassion toward those forced by life's circumstances to carry heavy loads. They should not have added to those loads with self-righteous insistence on the smaller points of the law.
When I hear this legalistic insistence upon every letter of our broken immigration law being carried out to this cruel degree, I can hear Jesus' indignant response: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.”
Most Reverend Mark J. Seitz
Bishop of El Paso

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AUSTIN — The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops has issued the following statement, calling for Governor Greg Abbott to veto Senate Bill 4:
The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops is disappointed with the 85th Texas Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 4.  As passed, the bill does not help peace officers build trust with the migrant community. Therefore, we call on Governor Abbott to veto the bill.  We understand the Governor’s original goal was to ensure local sheriffs and police did not undermine the immigration laws enforced by the federal government. Read More Click Here