Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Bishop Flores says time here prepared him for new post
Bishop Flores says time here prepared him for new post
by Staff and wire services
Published December 18, 2009
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Bishop Daniel Flores (left), with current Brownsville Bishop Raymundo Pena beside him, is announced to be the next bishop of Brownsville, Texas. |
DETROIT – In an introductory press conference in Brownsville, Texas, the south Texas diocese's bishop-designate said his time as a Detroit auxiliary bishop had prepared him for his new position.
"The ties of friendship and communion that I have formed during my three years in Detroit give me strength to move forward with confidence in the providence of God," Bishop Daniel Flores said Dec. 9. The bishop was in Brownsville for a morning press conference with outgoing Brownsville Bishop Raymundo J. Pena at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced in Washington, D.C. earlier that morning that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Pena, and named Bishop Flores to succeed him.
Bishop Pena, who turned 75 Feb. 19, was the longest-serving active Hispanic bishop in the U.S. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, he was named an auxiliary bishop of San Antonio in 1976 and had headed the Brownsville Diocese since 1995.
Bishop Flores, 48, has been a Detroit auxiliary bishop since 2006. He is a native of Palacios, Texas, in the Victoria Diocese. Now one of 26 active Hispanic Catholic bishops in the U.S., Bishop Flores will be installed in Brownsville Feb. 2.
He said he was grateful to the pope "for having given me this sign of the providence of God."
"I am grateful too for the opportunity to serve as shepherd over the Diocese of Brownsville, a local Church situated in the beautiful Rio Grande Valley, rich in gifts of faith, hope and charity, as well as in tradition and culture," Bishop Flores had said in an open letter posted in English and Spanish on the Archdiocese of Detroit's Web site, www.AODonline.org.
Bishop Flores noted his appointment came on the feast of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, the Mexican Indian to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531.
For many Hispanic Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Bishop Flores being given a diocese of his own is a bittersweet event – their happiness for him tempered by regret at having to lose him.
"He'll definitely be missed. Seeing someone in a leadership role in the Catholic Church who looks like us and talks like us really helps," said Jose Ramirez, 35, a member of Holy Redeemer Parish in southwest Detroit. Texas native Alicia Fuertes, also a member of Holy Redeemer, said, "When Bishop Flores told me, 'Alicia, I'm going back to Texas,' I said, 'OK, maybe I come back to Texas, too.'"
But while she admitted she was just joking about following him to Texas, she said she will definitely miss him. "He's a good man, and I like him. He's very strong spiritually, and when I'm near him I feel strong and happy," said Fuertes, 48.
Nevertheless, she was able to put the turn of events in perspective: "I'm disappointed to lose him, but that's the life. If he's needed there, I understand."
As an auxiliary bishop, Bishop Flores has overseen seven of the 18 vicariates in the Detroit Archdiocese, advised the archdiocese on immigration issues, and helped establish the archdiocesan Office for Hispanic Affairs.
Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, then-Fr. Flores was parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Cathedral, secretary to the bishop, diocesan master of ceremonies, assistant chancellor, rector of St. John Vianney House of Studies and vicar for vocations.
"The years of Bishop Flores' ministry here in the archdiocese have been a great blessing. In particular he has placed the ministry to Hispanic Catholics here on a solid foundation," said Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron in a statement.
"He goes with the love and prayers of all of us, his family in Detroit — where he will always find a ready welcome 'back home,'" Archbishop Vigneron added.
The Brownsville Diocese is in the southern part of Texas, along the Rio Grande, and has a Catholic population of 800,000 and a total population of 940,000.
Michigan Catholic reporter Robert Delaney contributed to this story.
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