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For Texan of the Year, I Nominate Cardinal Kevin Farrell

By Joshua J. Whitfield
Dallas Morning News
December 5, 2016

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/12/02/texan-year-nominate-newly-elevated-cardinal-kevin-farrell

For Texan of the Year, I nominate an Irishman. An Irishman fluent in Spanish, a Churchill scholar, a bishop skilled in matters ecclesiastical and diplomatic, skilled in all the sacerdotal ways of grace, a man of joy, humor and mercy.

He's a worthy candidate: Kevin J. Farrell, sometime bishop of Dallas and now Cardinal of the church, once a bishop of our city, now a bishop for the world.

His legacy is manifold, of a diocese healed after having been rocked (rightfully so) by one of the worst clergy sex-abuse scandals in the country, now healed and even more. He leaves a Catholic community that is now full of confidence, vision and growth. His is also a legacy of competence, charity and goodwill, of a graciousness that in his ministry transcended lines of creed, class and race.

That is, he was what a good Catholic bishop is supposed to be: a bishop for all people, for all are loved by God.

Explaining himself two years ago, for example, why he helped the fiance of Ebola victim, Thomas Eric Duncan, Farrell said, "We don't help because someone is Catholic, we help because we are Catholic." Words now imprinted upon the hearts of so many, they have ever since motivated innumerable Catholics to seek and serve not only those on the margins, but also those who are other, the unlike and the different. These words made us better Catholics, better humans.

The church is not a citadel to be defended, more a hospital of mercy, a vulnerable place inviting us to risk forgiveness and love. Cardinal Farrell taught us that; it's what he leaves us as his witness and as our responsibility.

This year he was particularly bold. In January, responding to the new open carry law in Texas, Farrell praised President Obama's efforts against gun violence, criticizing gun laws he called "so weak that they are ludicrous." This -- a public statement from a bishop in Texas, mind you -- drew intense criticism, some of it frankly vile and threatening, some of it from Catholics who otherwise count themselves faithful to the church, unless of course they're questioned about their guns. Here again, he was what a good Catholic bishop is supposed to be: not a partisan or an ideologue, but a speaker of common sense and a willing critic even of the dearest totems of his flock.

After the tragedy in Orlando earlier this year, he said very simply, "Their suffering is ours." Again, he nudged us to think beyond our battle lines. "We must ask where and when will it end? As followers of Jesus, we cannot accept it as inevitable and irreversible."

After the ambush in Dallas and after the groundswell of protest following police shootings in Baton Rouge and Minnesota, Bishop Farrell said something plainly true but that we all needed to hear. "All lives matter: black, white, Muslim, Christian, Hindu. We are all children of God and all human life is precious." Again, this is what a good bishop is supposed to be: a speaker of truth amid untruth, a speaker of love amid hatred. And that's what he was for Dallas, and it's what he'll be for the world.

Faith and people of faith are not going away, no matter what the faithless think or wish. They will continue to believe and live out their beliefs in the plural societies of our ever-shrinking globe. And so the reason I nominate Cardinal Farrell as Texan of the Year is because he has shown us what being faithful looks like in our new diverse world. A fully convicted Catholic, but still full of charity for all people, he shows us what it means to be faithful in belief but also open to others. His is a charity born not of ideological commitment but of joy and a peace which passes all understanding and which crosses every line.

For that he should be Texan of the Year, because he made our state better. He lifted our spirits and invited us all to imagine and work for a better Texas and a better world. Because he was, as I said, a good bishop, and not just for us Catholics, but for all of us.

Joshua J. Whitfield is pastoral administrator for St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and a regular columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Email: jwhitfield@stritaparish.net

 

 

 

 

 




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