[For PDF of letter as it appeared on ChurchMilitant.com on 9/6/2021, click here.]

Diocese of Fresno
Pastoral Center
1550 North Fresno Street
Fresno, California 93703-3788
TELEPHONE (559) 488-7400

Dear brothers and sisters,

This letter comes to you with a lot of emotions that range from sorrow to hope and everything else in between. I have felt them deeply and continue to do so. I can well imagine that you have too.  It is precisely because of that that I am doing my best to write these words to you in a spirit of hope.

Since April of 2019 we have been on quite a journey, to put it mildly. Undoubtedly, it is a journey that has been neither wanted nor planned by any of us. Over these two years I have heard from many of you, sharing with me your anger, disappointment, frustrations, confusion; and from others, words of prayerful support and encouragement….