Jonathan Garza

Political Science Major

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

this hurts😔

[Eric Sammons @EricRSammons]

There is something profoundly Biblical about a solitary imperfect man pleading with God to spare the world.

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

Being able to visit the Basilica Papale e Sacro Convento di San Francesco in Assisi last year was amazing. Visited & prayed at the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi.

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

“Someone who “I am against abortion, but I’m in agreement with inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life””

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

Pope Leo XIV: “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life.”

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

@CelamWeb @USCCB “We do have to be the people who insist that human relation is the most important thing and that needs to be cultivated and protected and preserved and not just using people as data centers” -@bpdflores

[EWTN News @EWTNews]

The U.S. bishops have published a pastoral plan calling for a faithful replica of St. Juan Diego’s tilma to be enthroned in every diocese in the United States as the Church prepares for the 500th anniversary of the Guadalupe Marian apparitions in 2031.

The proposal is set out in “One Tilma, One Heart: Walking with Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Footsteps of Saint Juan Diego” and is part of the Intercontinental Guadalupe Novena’s 2025–2028 strategic plan, which aims at “a profound spiritual renewal and unity under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

Bishops from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada each carried home tilma replicas after their historic meeting last week at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB); Bishop Oscar Cantú of San José, California; Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcía of Matamoros, Mexico; and Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Canada, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, attended the meeting.

Under the plan, each diocese in the U.S. will receive a tilma for enthronement in its cathedral followed by two years of missionary activity including pilgrimages, service, and catechesis as the image travels to parishes beginning in 2027.

The original tilma, the cactus-fiber cloak on which Mary’s image miraculously appeared on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico in 1531, remains at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

The replicated images are printed on cloth similar to the original, and those touched to the original tilma will be treated as third-class relics.

The pastoral plan presents the tilma not only as an object of devotion but also as a “living catechetical witness” meant to make Catholics messengers of hope like St. Juan Diego.

Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, said at the bishops’ June plenary that a tilma for each diocese could be ordered at a low cost and that images would be presented to ordinaries in Baltimore in November for veneration in cathedrals or other sites designated by the local bishop.

After enthronement, the image is to travel through parishes and what organizers call “contemporary Tepeyacs,” or places marked by suffering, exclusion, migration, and violence. Local missionaries known as Juandieguitos will accompany the image, listen to community concerns, and help establish “sacred little houses” as sites of welcome, reconciliation, and Guadalupan formation, according to the pastoral plan.

A bilingual Order of Enthronement of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, originally prepared by the Mexican bishops’ liturgy commission, was also posted by the USCCB. The rite envisions a solemn diocesan Mass with procession, a prayer of consecration, and a blessing of the community “under the mantle of Mary.”

The bishops noted that the effort is in preparation both for the 2031 anniversary of Mary’s apparitions at Tepeyac and for the Great Jubilee of 2033, the Church’s planned extraordinary Holy Year of Redemption, marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.

Citing Pope Francis’ Dec. 12, 2022, homily at the beginning of the Guadalupan novena, hoped-for fruits of the effort include the “renewal of a Christocentric faith through Marian mediation,” reconciliation of polarized communities, strengthening of Hispanic cultural identity, and a network of Marian shrines as “privileged spaces for the rebirth of hope.”

Francis said in his 2022 homily on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that “although this horizon seems bleak and disconcerting ... this too is a propitious time of salvation, in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mother, continues to give us his Son.”

A suggested timeline has dioceses naming Guadalupan ambassadors in late 2026, initial formation in January 2027, and diocesan enthronements from February through December 2027, with pastoral follow-up continuing through 2031.

More: https://t.co/qyj0TCETB5

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

Happy Birthday to Bishop Flores (my boss). May the Lord grant you many more years in life and in the Diocese of Brownsville. Thank you for your guidance and wisdom!

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Just War Doctrine.

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

“I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls.” - Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, President, USCCB
@ArchbishopOKC

[Catholic News Service @CatholicNewsSvc]

Pope Leo XIV responded to President Trump’s social media post saying:
“I do not look at my role as being political, a politician. I don’t want to get into a debate with him. I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Listen to him, and to the “interior Teacher” to whom he refers.

[Jonathan Garza @Mr_JGarza]

“We do have to be the people who insist that human relation is the most important thing and that needs to be cultivated and protected and preserved and not just using people as data centers” -@bpdflores

Great talk yesterday by Bishop Flores. Visit the diocesan YouTube channel.

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Last evening with young adults, sponsored by UTRGV Campus ministry, Edinburg. I offered a few thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, from what I would call a “Catholic humanist” point of view. Excellent questions and discussion. I had a great time; I hope the students did too.

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Press conference at the conclusion of the meetings of the bishops of the Texas/Mexico border.
“In these massive detention centers, migrants are relegated to anonymity and oblivion. Their own families do not know where they are. This is fundamentally unjust.”

[Catherine Hadro @CatHadro]

A throwback to when @matthadro wrote about @bpdflores - the @USCCB’s newly-elected VP - and his love for Tolkien. His old X handle was Amigo de Frodo for those who remember!

https://t.co/GP6PoVlVHs

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Congratulations to Archbishop Coakley. I’m honored by the confidence expressed by the body of bishops. I’ll do my best, con la ayuda de Dios. We must work together to announce the Gospel of Christ, and all that the Gospel implies for the defense of human dignity.
Dios por delante

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Contemporary proponents of the death penalty seem to have serene confidence in the ability of the modern secular state to administer death sentences justly, as if the contemporary secular arm had such a great record of deciding who has a right to live and who doesn’t.

[Warren @swd2]

Imagine if this many people cared about school shootings

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

Thank god they are focused on the priorities of all Americans.

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received both her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude. While at Harvard Law School, she served as a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. 

Charlie Kirk dropped out of community college.

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

This aged well.

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

Habemus Papam! We have a Pope!

The Cardinals gathered in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel have elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Pope, who took the name Pope Leo XIV.

[Colm Flynn @colmflynnire]

And with that, the doors to the Sistine Chapel are closed and the cardinals are cut off from the outside world. May God grant them guidance and wisdom in their decision.