He continued, “And I can’t help but recall today the words of one of your favorite saints, St. Rafael Guízar Valencia.”
“St. Rafael said: ‘A bishop can do without the miter, the crosier, and even without the cathedral. But he cannot do without the seminary, since the future of his diocese depends on it.’ I believe these words very much. They are an inspiration for my ministry.”
Gomez also recalled how “the atheist government of Mexico persecuted St. Rafael. How they violently forced him to shut down his seminary in Xalpa in 1921” and that it was “through their sacrifices and ministry they helped keep the faith alive in a very dark time.”
Archbishop Gomez said that the Church faces a different type of situation in our country now, which is no less dangerous. “[T]he faith is seriously threatened by our society’s growing indifference to spiritual values. Our culture no longer understands the values of the gospel. And that means it can’t understand the supreme gift of the priesthood. It’s sad to say, but in our culture it simply doesn’t make any sense that a bright and talented man would want to leave behind the promise of career and family to dedicate his life to Jesus Christ.”
In the midst of this culture, “Assumption Seminary is a sign of contradiction”. And a great sign of hope. We have 90 seminarians—33 from San Antonio alone,” said the archbishop. He continued, “[m]y brothers, you are a testimony to the working of the Holy Spirit in America in this new century!”
The archbishop drew inspiration from the late Pope John Paul II who said that “the Church in San Antonio has a very special calling that flows from our history as ‘crossroads’ and ‘a meeting of cultures, indigenous and immigrant’ from every part of the world.”
