EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Wisconsin native who helped a border community come to grips with a mass shooting, the COVID-19 pandemic and historic migration is celebrating 10 years at the helm of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso.
Bishop Mark J. Seitz on Sunday reflected on a decade of service in an overwhelmingly Catholic community where he has preached compassion for the stranger and called on people to turn to God in their darkest moments.
The bishop celebrated his decennial just days after a federal judge sentenced Patrick Wood Crusius to 90 consecutive life sentences for hate crimes related to killing 23 people and wounding 22 others at an El Paso Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019.
“This terrible exhibition of hatred and the unfathomable loss that so many people experienced… how many life sentences can there be? How many times can we kill a killer in order to heal?” Seitz said. “The only one who can heal is God. […] Not to say the pain will ever fully go away, but we will find a way to move forward, to endure, and even become better people and a better community…”
Seitz said the church remains on watch of how it can spiritually assist survivors of the massacre and family members of the victims – who last week had a chance to face the killer in court and tell him how much he wronged them and their loved ones.
“The chance for people to face the killer and tell him how much they have suffered is very important, but it also revealed how (bad) the hurt is, even four years after,” the bishop said. “The church needs to be there; Jesus needs to be there. I hope we will be able to assist the victims and all our community to find a way to move forward and remind people that God is present here and capable of bringing good out of evil.”
Seitz became a priest in 1980 and a bishop in 2010. He came to El Paso in 2013 after serving as the auxiliary bishop in Dallas. He presided over the diocese’s centennial celebration in 2014 and coordinated events in El Paso to coincide with Pope Francis’ visit to Juarez, Mexico, in 2016.
The El Paso bishop also was heavily involved in local efforts to provide a humanitarian response to a series of migrant surges beginning in the fall of 2018 and coming to a slowdown late last May, as the U.S. government forced asylum-seekers to apply online or risk losing future immigration benefits if they just showed up between ports of entry.
“From the day I came, I felt I was a part of the family. The welcome I received was incredible,” Seitz said. “We all have our moments like every family, but ultimately, we realize we are together in this, not just on this side of the border, but as a binational community.”
