By Tim Rohr
The Funeral Mass and Burial for Sr. Marian Arroyo was held on November 5, 2026. The principal celebrant was not the Archbishop of Agana, the diocese in which Sr. Marian served for so many years. Instead, the principal celebrant was the Bishop of Saipan, Romeo Convocar.
Given Sr. Marian's stature in this community and her decades of service, one might think the archbishop of this diocese would cancel one of his many off-island junkets to be present and to celebrate Sr. Marian's funeral.
In case you were wondering where he was, Jimenez, who apparently believes in "let the dead bury the dead," was at a stateside shindig for U.S. Filipino priests where he was the principal homilist.
Every day it is becoming ever clearer that - as many local people sense - Jimenez doesn't care about Chamorros - and prefers his own.
Meanwhile, Jimenez's big message to the U.S. Filipino priests was: "Be ye NOT perfect."
“We do not have to be perfect to become instruments of God’s grace. Sometimes our own struggles make us more compassionate toward others,” Jimenez said in his homily.
There are scores of Filipino priests all over the globe. My guess is they are in significant numbers in over 75 countries.
ReplyDeleteIf we are lucky, maybe our Archbishop will be invited to speak to all of them. The more he is off-island the less harm he can do to the Church on Guam.
While we have many’s problems here, our current Archbishop shows little to no interest in addressing them.
I do hope he finds the job he is looking for in Rome. Then maybe we will get a bishop who can start facing the problems we have.
Jimenez-“Sometimes our own struggles make us more compassionate to others.”
ReplyDeleteHUH?
I guess he doesn’t feel any struggles since he showed an absolute lack of compassion in dealing with a personnel/ministry issue at his Cathedral. He felt the need to let the whole world know that this person was being punished.
Abp Jimenez-do you realize what a hypocrite you are?
Yep. Talk about a lack of compassion. Beating up, in public, a poor old Chamorro lady who had been serving the church for more than 20 years.
DeleteTerrible he is.
DeleteI may be wrong but I think she's Filipino.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled why she was able to please multiple bishops and dozens of priests at the cathedral for 20 years, but not this one.
Since the volunteer sacristan was able to please multiple bishops and dozens of priests for 20 years, she wasn't the problem.
DeleteThe mark of a real man is that he can admit when he was wrong. I don’t expect that from Jimenez, to admit his personnel actions were wrong, because he is not a real man. He is merely a priest going thru the motions.
ReplyDeleteApuron was NOT a real man, either.
The only Bishop we’ve had recently who can claim that title is Byrnes. He was a real man, and unfortunately taken from us too early.
You missed this snippet from the article too: "He recalled his own experiences of being questioned about his appointment as bishop, including whether a local priest was qualified to lead his diocese."
ReplyDeleteYah. He gloats on that.
DeleteAB Ryan told me about that painful incident. He had just been appointed bishop of Saipan and a man, I think an immigration official, asked harshly wasn't there an equally qualified Chamorro available. AB Ryan said he had to sit down with tears streaming down his face. He told me about this to show he understood when I spoke of racism on Guam against me. I appreciated the honesty. Some Filipino priests have shown compassion when I'm in pain, some have not. None have ever spoken to me about feeling discriminated against. But Fr. Dan Mulhauser, S.J., RIP, told me once that Filipino priests feel discriminated against by Chamorro priests. I don't care what ethnicity my priests or bishops are. Paraphrasing MLK, Jr., I care about their character. Perhaps this wound is why AB Ryan does not discipline high status Chamorros and seeks their approval.
Delete