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. 

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. 

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.

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.”

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

The Diocese of Pueblo has a new hire!

The Diocese of Pueblo has a new hire!

The readings of the past two weeks called us again to the cross.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” 

“John the Baptist was there with his two disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he said, behold the lamb of God.” (Jn. 1:35-36).

I, together with my brother bishops of Colorado, am asking you to support three important citizen initiatives: • First, to strengthen penalties against the human trafficking of minors. • Second, to ensure fairness and safety in school sports by affirming the reality of male and female. • Third, to protect children from irreversible medical procedures that attempt to change their God- given biological sex.

In 2025, Catholics around the globe and in the diocese of Pueblo have been uniting for the Jubilee Year, celebrated under the theme "Pilgrims of Hope." This Holy Year invites believers, seekers, and all those drawn to renewal and reconciliation to embark on a spiritual journey, aiming to cultivate peace in a world often divided by conflict.