I was struck by the pressures and anxieties experienced by young people today, and by the number of times the speakers tried to convince them to believe in God’s personal, unconditional love. I started to wonder why this message was being repeated with such insistence. It seemed a little cheesy. Doesn’t God’s love go without saying?

We have just celebrated the Rite of Election in Pueblo, and I am now on a prior scheduled retreat with brother bishops in Florida.  These Rites will be completed in Durango and Grand Junction upon my return, and I wish to share some thoughts about their significance. 

This Wednesday we shall take the ashes in the form of the cross on our forehead.  We begin the forty days of Lent with the reminder of our mortality, as dust unto dust, and our salvation, the cross of Jesus Christ.  The symbolism is powerful. 

The Christian story of creation is unique.  All ancient cultures and ethnicities have fascinating myths of origin: stories of gods, goddesses and creatures whose activities, quarrels and preferences explain the unpredictable world.  ...Within the bookends of creation comes one event which brings purpose and hope to it all:  The life of Jesus Christ. 

Who exactly was St. Valentine? His identity is sketchy, at best. Two saints of the same name are honored as Roman Martyrs – one who was a bishop of Terni, Italy, and the other a priest and physician in Rome. More than likely, St. Valentine, as pointed out in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, was a Roman priest who assisted martyrs under the persecution of Claudius II.

We have experienced the blessings of the Nativity, the Holy Family and the Epiphany, and now, with the Baptism of Jesus, we move into Ordinary Time.  In a few weeks, we will be entering the season of Lent. Although we will be given hints of what lies ahead for Jesus and for those who are his disciples, during this interim period our readings invite us to reflect on what it means to encounter him and become his disciple. 

The time for interior reflection is here.  The Sunday liturgical readings reveal Jesus calling his disciples, preparing for the road ahead. 

The Diocese of Pueblo has a new hire!

All gifts will lead to a new relationship with God, a new plan, a new king; clearly, God’s king, beginning here:  with a little child to guide them. 

I recently returned from the annual Baltimore assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.  One urgent message released nationally from this meeting was a letter, composed and approved in assembly, regarding many concerns about the present state of detention and processing of immigrants, whether documented or not.

As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for their Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, the bishops issued a Special Message addressing their concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States.

The Diocese of Pueblo has a new hire!

The Diocese of Pueblo has a new hire!

On this past Monday morning in Baltimore, the Bishops of the United States began the November Plenary Conference in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  As we have followed the path of Pope Francis through this Jubilee Year of Hope, so now we have been gathered under the leadership of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. 

In the 2017 animated movie Coco, inspired by the Mexican holiday Dia de los muertos, we hear sung, “Remember me, though I have to say ‘good-bye.’ Remember me, don’t let it make you cry. For even if I’m far way, I hold you in my heart… remember me.”

As we look toward Thanksgiving and Christmas, I realize that 2025 is quickly coming to an end, and so is the Jubilee Year of Hope. What will be our take-aways from this special time of grace?

I tend to be very literal, and I have a tendency to not believe unless I see it with my own eyes.  Nevertheless, like I was taught from toddlerhood, I believe in God, Heaven and all the things I was taught, but I believed them in a subconscious sort of way. Because they tell me to believe.  So, when praying the Rosary in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, I was praying to that statue I was looking at. Not to an invisible person dwelling in an invisible Heaven.

In his first public Exhortation, Delixit te--- I Have Loved You, Pope Leo has announced the foundation of his papacy, a renewal of our commitment to our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Evil still has power in this world.  We see challenges in society where we must not only acknowledge that forces are moving swiftly to break God’s covenant of love, but also that these forces will tear apart our society. 

Diocese of Pueblo Officials: November 2025