Let us pray this month that politicians, scientists and economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.

Pope Francis – September 2019

Oceans contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, and also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them are threatened for various reasons.
Creation is a project of love given by God to humanity.
Our solidarity with the “common home” is born from our faith.
Let us pray this month that politicians, scientists and economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.

Recemos este mes para que los políticos, los científicos, los economistas trabajen juntos por la protección de los mares y de los océanos.

Papa Francisco – Septiembre 2019

Los océanos contienen la mayor parte del agua del planeta y también la mayor variedad de seres vivientes, muchos de ellos amenazados por diversas causas.
La Creación es un proyecto del amor de Dios hacia toda la humanidad.
Nuestra solidaridad con la “casa común” nace de nuestra fe.
Recemos este mes para que los políticos, los científicos, los economistas trabajen juntos por la protección de los mares y de los océanos.

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The Diocese of Yakima has established an abuse disclosure website listing the names of priests and deacons with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor during their time of ministry within the Diocese. The decision is based on Bishop Joseph Tyson's desire for transparency and to encourage victims of abuse to come forward. 

The individuals named in the list have served in the Diocese of Yakima, as noted. Locations of known assignments are listed, however this does not mean that there are allegations of abuse at each place. 

Despite our best efforts to assure that the information is accurate and complete, we know that the list may include errors or be incomplete. It will be updated as new information is received or identified, or allegations are substantiated after investigation and review in consultation with our Diocesan Lay Advisory Board.  Besides the disclosure list, the Disclosure FAQ document contains helpful information.  

Diocesan Safe Environment Resources

Prayer for Healing / Oración para Sanación

Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People / Estatuto para la protección de niños y jóvenes

The Joy from the Cross

Homily for 1st Anniversary Mass of Frs. Jesús Alatorre, César Izquierdo and Jesús Mariscal
St. Paul Cathedral, Yakima, Washington
haz clic aquí para leer en español
with readings from Friday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67; Matthew 9:9-13
Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson, Bishop of Yakima

Peace be with you! What a joy to celebrate your first anniversary as priests. How good it is to keep the joy of that ordination alive with your ordination still fresh in your memories and in your hearts. What a coincidence that the daily mass readings you selected align back to the call of Jesus to St. Matthew.

We are all familiar with the famous painting by Caravaggio titled the call of St. Matthew. I posted a copy of the famous painting along with today’s homily on our Facebook as well as our diocesan web site, so you call all look at it tonight. But there with the Caravaggio’s famous “chiaroscuro” interplay of light and dark we quite literally see Jesus calling St. Matthew out of darkness into the light.

An interesting detail in today’s Gospel is that St. Matthew is called by Jesus while working at the “customs post.” Caravaggio’s painting suggests that this “customs post” job involves a lot of idle time. Note well: In Caravaggio’s painting, Jesus calls St. Matthew while sitting at the table with his coworkers at the “custom’s post.” Money is clearly present. And while others notice the finger of Jesus pointing at St. Matthew, St. Matthew himself has his eyes downward on the table counting the small change. Yet Jesus call him from the table of small change to the Eucharistic table of discipleship.

This is how Jesus calls you, too.

Indeed, on the day of your ordination, and unique to the ordination mass, I received the gifts of bread and wine. Then handing them to you I said:

Receive the oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.

Permit me to start with that final phrase: “...the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.” I have been ordained for thirty years. Nearly half of that time – fourteen years – I have been a bishop. Border posts and custom zones – even today – have become places of darkness and sin. Underage children caged at the borders. Families fleeing from the violence of gangs and drug cartels. Human trafficking. Men and women wanting to fulfill their natural law obligations to support their children and provide a better life. As a pastor, it is heartbreaking to hear the struggles of our families facing complex immigration procedures, deportation orders and family separation. It is painful to hear leaders make generalizations about so many of our immigrants that I have come to know and love as brothers and sisters in our Catholic faith.

A few years back, when visiting Tzintzuntzan, Mexico – not far from Morelia Michoacán, I bought a huge rough wood cross with a corpus of Jesus nailed and in agony. It hangs in my living room. I place much of what I think and feel before that crucifix. I have come to know that when I receive the gifts of bread and wine, I am also receiving the joys and the sorrows of those I serve. I receive heartbreaking stories and situations that I cannot resolve. I can only place them alongside the bread and wine. I can only place them before the cross. Perhaps this is how, day by day we “celebrate and conform” our lives to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.

In his famous work, “Cur Deus Homo” St. Anselm answers the hard question his young student, Boso, poses about the death of Jesus. Boso does not simply ask why Jesus had to die. No. Young Boso wants to know why Jesus had to die this way: tortured to death and crucified. St. Anselm’s answer is very telling: “You have not considered the gravity of sin.”

In other words, this horrific death of Jesus on the cross gives us a dark assurance that not one single corner of the universe escapes the salvific power of Jesus Christ. By suffering such an excruciatingly painful death, Jesus takes on all of the world’s sin, all of the world’s suffering, all of the world’s injustices, and all of the world’s dark dysfunctions. He even descends into hell. Even the darkest corners of hell receive the radical offer of salvation accomplished by the cross of Christ.

The noted Christian Anthropologist, Gil Bailie, when speaking to high school students once suggested that Jesus dies in a bloody big screen production, so we don’t have to live in one. The problem is not that this crucifixion of Jesus failed to be efficacious. The problem is that we act like it never happened. We continue our gang banging and violence. We look away when we see the human dignity of children robbed at our border. We turn away from darkness of unwanted children lost through abortion. We minimize the adult sexual misconduct against agricultural workers in our packing plants and orchards. We maintain a blind eye at injustice. Interiorly we self-justify our own sins. Like St. Matthew in Caravaggio’s famous painting, we keep our eyes down. We focus on the small change.

Yet at the Eucharist the oblation of the holy people we receive includes all of their lives: the good and the bad. All of this we offer to God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is as though in Caravaggio’s painting, we shift positions. We move away from the customs table counting our money. As priests, we join Jesus at his side as one of his disciples. We become an “Alter Christus,” imaging for those we serve – especially the poorest and most oppressed – the very presence of Christ.

No. We cannot solve the injustices of the world on our own. No. We cannot take away the suffering and sorrow so many of our families face. But we can bring them the joy of the gospel. We can feed them with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. We can nourish them with Christ himself. We can give them the hope and assurance that whatever they face they are not alone, and that no injustice and no oppression can steal from them the joy of being a follower of Jesus.

As the famous moral theologian, Fr. Servais Pinckaers notes in his book on the Beatitudes: “We need no teachers to tell us that good fortune and joy will make us happy. But what we could never have discovered for ourselves is that poverty and suffering could be the most direct road to happiness and that Christ has chosen them as our way to the Kingdom. This is a paradox well worth proclaiming from mountaintops.”

Brothers, thank you for proclaiming the joy of the Gospel from the mountaintops. Thank you for seeing suffering and poverty as the unique pathway that leads you and those you serve most directly to Christ. Thank you for accepting the high call to be good and holy priests of God. Congratulations on your first anniversary as priests. May God lead you to many more years of this unique happiness. Peace be with you!

The Eucharist: The Joy of Easter
Homily for the Ordination of Deacon Kurt Hadley as Priest for the Diocese of Yakima

haz clic aquí para leer en español

Jeremiah 1:4-9; Hebrews 5:1-10; Matthew 9:35-38

Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson
Bishop of Yakima

Peace be with you! By fortunate coincidence we celebrate this ordination of Kurt Hadley between Easter and Ascension. The Gospel of St. Luke from which we read this liturgical year stresses the unity of Easter and Ascension. Indeed, St. Luke starts his final chapter with the words “on the first day” and then narrates all that happened on that “first day”: the empty tomb, the women telling the brothers the “Good News” of his rising, the disciples on the road to Emmaus who discover Jesus in the breaking of the bread, Jesus´s appearance to his followers in Jerusalem, his eating fish with them, his leading them to Bethany, and his Ascension. These all happen the same day on that “first day.” In St. Luke these events occur on the same day which is the “first day” so we grasp that this journey from Easter to Ascension is one event.

Permit me to suggest that a parallel unity exists among the scriptures Kurt requested for his ordination as a priest: the prophet Jeremiah, the Evangelist St. Matthew and the Book of Hebrews.

Both the opening reading from Jeremiah and the Gospel from St. Matthew point to preaching. We hear of God sending Jeremiah off to preach in our opening reading. Our Gospel cites the poignant observation from St. Matthew the Evangelist that as Jesus preached he “had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.”

Commenting on this passage from St. Matthew, Hilary of Poitiers noted: “No instigator had stirred up the crowds. They were not harassed and helpless because of some mishap or disturbance … but because no shepherd was about to restore to them the guardianship of the Holy Spirit.”

Simply put, when we preach God is present – as Jeremiah discovers. When we preach, Jesus becomes as real and as attractive for the flock in front of us as he did for the flock in the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Certainly, our traditional reading from the Book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as the new Melchizedek offering the one and singular sacrifice that brings forth eternal salvation. As Catholics, we know that in the sacrifice of the Mass the crucified Christ becomes real in all of his humanity and all of his divinity through the simple elements of bread and wine. Yet this risen presence of the crucified Christ ripples out infinitely from the Eucharist as well.

Thus, with the prophet Jeremiah and the Evangelist St. Matthew surrounding this testimony from the Book of Hebrews we also know that this risen presence of the crucified Christ becomes real when we open up the scriptures through our teaching and our preaching. The risen Christ is present now. He draws near us now. He stands before us now. He points us back to his predecessor Melchizedek and forward to every ordained priest. The risen presence of Christ crucified points us this day to you: Kurt Hadley.

As a priest, in your teaching and in your preaching by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will make real for those you serve the risen presence of Christ just as you will make real his risen presence in the celebration of the Church´s sacraments – most especially the Eucharist. In the same way that St. Luke’s “first day” points to a single-day event of resurrection and ascension so does your ordination as a priest point to a parallel unity between feeding the flock with the Body and Blood of Christ and feeding the flock with solid teaching and good catechesis, because otherwise they would be “sheep without a shepherd.”

So, Kurt, welcome to this “first day.” Enter into this one sacrifice. Become and live into who you are ordained to be: the icon of Christ in Word and in Sacrament for this, His Church. Peace be with you!

Deacon: Serving “Hellenists” and “Hebrews” Today

Homily for the Ordination of Edgar Quiroga to the Transitional Diaconate
for the Diocese of Yakima
Sirach 2:1-11; Acts 6:1-7; John 15: 9-17

Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson, Bishop of Yakima

(haz clic aquí para leer en español)

Peace be with you! What does it mean to be a deacon? Our second reading from the Acts of the Apostles provides the strongest scriptural basis for understanding the role of the deacon in the early Church. It seems that there were tensions in the early Church between the Hellenists and the Hebrews. The Greek-speaking Hellenist widows were being neglected in the daily charitable distribution. As a result – and note this well – the first deacons listed in this passage from the Acts of the Apostles all had Greek names: Stephen, Phillip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch.

Indeed, while visiting Mundelein Seminary this last spring I had a brief exchange with Fr. Gus Belauskas. He mentioned in passing that one of the striking features of this passage from the Acts of the Apostles is that the division was solely linguistic between the Aramaic-speaking community that was Jewish in origin and the Greek-speaking community that was Jewish in origin. All these people were of the Jewish faith following the “Way” as the early Christians were called.

Today we are painfully aware that our country’s social tensions can be more than merely linguistic: they are cultural and racial. Serving in a diocese that is nearly three-fourths Hispanic and a diocese where most Catholics attend Mass in Spanish, these tensions can become magnified even among our parishioners. Yet the Acts of the Apostles suggests that it is precisely these kinds of tensions that gave rise for the need for the Order of Deacons in the early Church.

So, if being a deacon necessitates service in times of tension how do we prepare ourselves? A clue can be found in the opening reading we just heard proclaimed by Edgar Quiroga’s mother in his native Spanish language: “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourselves for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast and do not be impetuous in time of adversity. Cling to him, do not leave him, that you may prosper in your last days. Accept whatever happens to you.”

Permit me to begin with the words “my child.” I recall many years ago when I first went to Mexico as a seminarian for Spanish language studies how parents addressed their children “mi hijito” or “mi hijita.” It roughly translates in both masculine and feminine forms as “my child” or “my little one” not unlike the tenderness captured in the opening two words we just heard from Sirach. Yet being new to Spanish, I heard those phrases “mi hijito” and “mi hijita” as one single word because native Spanish speakers slide the possessive adjective “mi” in with the noun for child “hijo” y “hija” (the “h” is silent).

“Mi hijito.” “Mi hijita.” This is what Sirach does scripturally. Sirach deliberately starts with the parental tenderness of God in order to deliver the hard and direct warning that follows. “Prepare yourself for trials.” “Be of sincere heart and steadfast.” Facing trials, accompanying our people in their fears – be that of deportation or be that of being a white minority in a small Central Washington town that has undergone dramatic change – means we must remain, in the words of Sacred Scripture, “sincere of heart” and “steadfast” in our love – even if those we try love reject us as “Hellenists” because of our language or our heritage. We must bring to mind and heart that opening phrase from Sirach: “my child.” “Mi hijo.”

How do we prepare ourselves spiritually to be a deacon? Permit me to suggest a second phrase from Sirach: “Cling to him.” Like a child clings to his mother so in times of division we must cling to God. Indeed, this is the promise of Jesus in today’s Gospel from St. John: “As the Father loves me so I have loved you.” The spirituality of the deacon requires us to remain in God’s love as we serve even in the most difficult of circumstances. In this regard I cannot help but recall how I – as bishop – when I wash the feet of parishioners on Holy Thursday – always wear a deacon dalmatic under my chasuble. I remove my chasuble and in a deacon dalmatic – the liturgical vestment you will see on Edgar today – I wash the feet of parishioners as a symbol of my love for them and – more importantly God’s love for them regardless of whether they are modern day “Hellenists” or “Hebrews.” The wearing of the diaconal dalmatic by the bishop in the Holy Thursday washing of the feet is a regular reminder that I must – in the words of Sirach – “cling to him.”

“Cling to him” and “Stay close to him.” While the painful tensions surrounding language and cultural sometimes seep into the life of our Church, I would note that most of the time we live a deeper and very opposite truth here in Yakima. Because we focus on Jesus – as Spanish and English – or “Hebrews” and “Hellenists” – we live a solution to the political and social tensions of our country that powerbrokers of media and politics can only dream about. We do so because of Jesus. Because of Jesus, we come together as a single Catholic family of faith. Because of Jesus, Mexico sends us their best. That’s not fake news! That’s Good News! That’s the Good News worth trumpeting from the pulpits across the Diocese of Yakima.

Cling to him! Stay close to him! Those words of Sirach are my words to you too, Edgar. Cling to him and stay close to him in those you serve as deacon. In doing so know the gentle joy of the Gospel always present and always real in all those you serve be they “Hellenists” or “Hebrews,” and become the deacon God ordains you to be this day. Peace be with you!

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