VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Armando Xavier Ochoa of El Paso, U.S.A., as bishop of Fresno (area 91,268, population 2,778,000, Catholics 1,084,000, priests 166, permanent deacons 46, religious 152), U.S.A.
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We pray for His Excellency Armando Ochoa. His public acts are a matter of record. The true faithful of Fresno would be well-advised to educate themselves about this man, his history and what he stands for vis-a-vis the Catholic Faith.
ReplyDelete..There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars: and upon the earth distress of nations,by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves,men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved; and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty".
ReplyDeleteGod is so good. Amen
Thank you beloved Holy Father for taking Bishop Ochoa from our city, please send us a Holy Ortohodox Bishop.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it! This guy did a poor job in El Paso. Does anyone believe he will change elswhere? Or is he a friend of the Pope?
ReplyDeleteAfter what this bishop did to Father Rodriguez, he should have been transferred to Siberia.
ReplyDelete....very interesting in light of his treatment of the heroic and courageous Padre Rodriguez whom the bishop banished into the outposts of the diocese for merely teaching the authentic, moral truths of our Catholic faith.
ReplyDeletePoor Fresno, though!
God bless Fr. Rodriguez; may God have mercy on this bishop.
Why did they just transfer him? Isn't supposed to be sacked for running away ( "selling" could be the right term)from his responsibility. He is one of those guys who may sell his soul to the devil to avoid persecution from the IRS.
ReplyDeleteSometimes--God forgive me--I despair that the Vatican is irremediably tone-deaf where the high clergy is concerned. Bishop Ochoa's conduct in El Paso, vis-a-vis Father Michael Rodriguez, brought discredit on his episcopacy, all the more so because Father Rodriguez was doing what the bishop should properly have been doing in the first place. Yet this man is being foisted on a California diocese? Don't they know how to use an Internet search engine at the Vatican, to see what their bishops are up to? Or do they just have something against the Catholics of Fresno?
ReplyDeleteI entered the seminary of El Paso under Bishop Ochoa. However I left once I became aware of the the theological, liturgical, and moral heterodox version of Catholicism he supports and fosters. The sacerdotal 'culture' in El Paso is devastated. I pray the Holy Father will assign a courageous and orthodox bishop to this Diocese, for over the past thirty years it has become a spiritual wasteland and desperately needs authentic Catholicism to be restored.
ReplyDeleteHoly Father please send the Diocese of El Paso, Texas a bishop who will support the Traditional Latin Mass and the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Select a bishop who does not want to please man (politicians).
ReplyDeleteHoly Father, please look into what is happening to us Catholics in El Paso, Texas (USA). Unfortunately, this plague is spreading all over our nation. Please send us a Holy and Orthodox Bishop. Our neighboring state of New Mexico is also in need of a Holy and Orthodox Bishop. To our beloved Father Michael Rodriguez, Blessed Virgin Mary is watching over you. GOD our Father have mercy on us!
ReplyDeleteHeresy is nothing new to the Church Our Lord founded. Would we somehow expect that It would not be attacked from the inside as well as from the outside? We had better wake up and smell the coffee. Just because someone is dressed up as a Catholic Priest, Bishop or Cardinal does not mean that they regard as "good" that which an authentic Catholic would regard as good. I am not even in the United States, but I have been following the antics of this gentleman and his rebellion against the Church that feeds him. Do you wonder why they don't send you good bishops? Maybe it is because their own agenda is other than Catholic. By their fruits you will know them.
ReplyDeleteI am very grateful to the Holy Father for taking away Bishop Ochoa from El Paso. I didn't pray or expect that to happen. I still can't believe it happened. Nevertheless, our family is now praying that a holy Bishop be sent to El Paso so the Catholics here can finally be educated in the truths of the faith, just like we at San Juan Bautista Church used to have when Fr. Rodriguez was here.
ReplyDeleteRather than expose a scandal,sometimes a person who has not lived up to his "repuation" is removed from his position and transfered "UP" to quiet the matter. Perhaps this is the case with Bishop Ochoa. We will pray for him and the diocese of Fresno and may God hear our prayers for the diocese of El Paso as we pray for a Bishop who will defend the true reachings of the Church and listen to the spiritual needs of his flock.
ReplyDeleteHoly Father, please send us a shepherd who will meet the spiritual needs of the people in El Paso. We need a bishop who will be attentive to his flock and support the Tridentine Latin Mass. Thank you, Holy Father. God Bless You.
ReplyDeleteWe are very thankful to Pope Benedict for removing Bishop Armando Ochoa from El Paso. I hope that in the selection of our new Bishop, the Holy Father takes into account all the terrible suffering we have endured as a result of bad Pastoral leadership in our city with Bishop Pena and Ochoa. Our city was once an almost all Catholic City but now we can clearly see a mass fleeing from the lax Catholicism practiced in most Churches. Tepeyac Institute which is run by the Diocese is responsible for all the heretical teaching and unlearning of the true Catholic Faith. I weep for our dear city. Please Holy Father send us a faithful and holy Bishop.
ReplyDeleteThank you Holy Father for transferring Bishop Ochoa to Fresno, even though it's a blessing for us in El Paso I am now worried about the souls he will harm in that Diocese. Ochoa stated in his interview that he was "ready to listen and serve the needs of God's people" which is hard to believe since he took away our only Priest that gave us the Traditional Latin Mass, who would hear confessions everyday and lead the faithful in Rosaries and many more devotions. Fr. Rodriguez even taught catechism classes for free to anyone who was willing to learn more about their faith. Bishop Ochoa sent away our only holy priest and since then has FAILED to listen to the faithful and serve the needs of God's people in El Paso. I don't understand how Bishop Ochoa can go on record stating that he will serve the faithful in Fresno. His track record shows the complete opposite. Holy Father, thank you for responding to the needs of the faithful in El Paso, but I beg you please send us a good, holy, faithful Bishop according to the heart of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you,
My prayers are for the catholics of Fresno, CA. They are being saddled with one of the worst bishops ever to have been ordained as such. After all wasn't he Auxiliary to one of the worst Cardinals in the curia?
ReplyDeleteMay our Dearest Holy Father please send us a truly Holy and Faithful Bishop. We El Pasoans have suffered tremendously the loss of the Catholic Faith in our Diocese due to bad leadership and poor teaching at Tepeyac Institute. I pray for the people of Fresno.
ReplyDeleteWho says prayers aren't answered. Heaven heard our pleads and cries. Thank you, Holy Father for reassigning Bishop Ochoa. We beg you to please send us a holy and courageous Bishop to defend the faith and to take souls to heaven. Please Holy Father we need your help. God bless you.
ReplyDeleteThank you Holy Father for hearing our pleads. Please send us a good Bishop to lead the faithful in truth. We are in desperate need of a good couregous bishop to defend the sanctity of marriage and protect our children from all the vicious lies of the world. God bless you my Holy Father.
ReplyDeleteGet us Father Rodriguez to become a Bishop than I will know that the Vatican has started to clean house. Until then, its the same story we see all over the U.S. since the 1960's which is heretical Bishops. Please give us a Catholic Bishop for once, and we will know that the future looks brighter for Catholics
ReplyDeleteGod willing the diocese of El Paso will get a good Bishop soon who will defend the true teachings of the Church. Until then, Bishop Ochoa's advisors are still here, eyeing the flock.
ReplyDeleteGod bless the Holy Father for this action. Priests who love and proclaim the truths of the Catholic faith should not have their light hidden under a bushel. But Father Michael will
ReplyDeleteshine wherever he goes; hopefully he will go back to El Paso. Keep him in your prayers. Pray for Bishop Ochoa as well; that he will see this as a charitable act of correction for the benefit of his soul and repent. Let us also pray that the Pope will appoint orthodox Bishops to the dioceses of Las Cruces and El Paso who will support good priests like Padre Rodriguez. Ad veniat regnum tuum
Thank you Holy Father for transferring him. He transferred Fr. Rodriguez, and with him went the Latin Mass in El Paso. I feel great sorrow that I no longer have the chance to go to a Latin Mass. Please, please send a Holy, Orthodox, Traditional Latin Mass accepting bishop!!! One in El Paso and Las Cruces!!
ReplyDeleteThere are many Roman Catholics in the Diocese of El Paso, TX, and throughout the United States who are very grateful to our Holy Father for transferring Bishop Armando Ochoa out of El Paso. No bishop is above the teachings of the Church, and Bishop Ochoa is not supporting the Church's teachings with regard to marriage and the sinfulness of homosexual activity. He is also not obeying Pope Benedicts's directives on the Latin Mass. We hope the Holy Father appoints a new bishop to El Paso who is holy, wise, and faithful to Holy Mother Church. fahiived and irrmarrint r
ReplyDeleteThe failure to remove incompetent bishops from office is endemic. There can only be two reasons for this. One reason would be that those authorities responsible for such things are unaware of the damage these people are creating. I find this difficult to accept. The other reason would be that there is some amount of empathy and perhaps even agreement involved. This seems more plausible
ReplyDeleteSt. Cyprian wrote to the Ephesians circa 258 A.D:
ReplyDeleteThe priest who imitates that which Christ did, truly takes the place of Christ, and offers there in the Church a true and perfect sacrifice to God the Father.
Has Bishop Ochoa truly attempted to imitate Our Lord in the mass and through his vocation? If so, his example would flow forth a holy priesthood within the diocese, but sadly the contrary has happened.
The typical attitude of obeisance paid by Catholic faithful to our superiors is a good and necessary thing. But like almost everything, there are exceptions. The current half-century crisis in Holy Mother Church is a good example. The enemies of the Church who have risen to power within Her have benefitted tremendously from the loyalty of the faithful - in this case a misplaced loyalty. To our superiors who care about the Church: enough already! Set the losing game plan aside. No more "good" bishops. We deserve and demand heroic bishops. To our superiors who are bent on taking the Church apart: we are on to you. God help us to expose you.
ReplyDeleteWe have the gift of faith, the supernatural ability to believe what God has revealed, to trust him for everything, and to expect him to intervene in our lives.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pope Benedict for transferring Bishop Ochoa from El Paso, TX. I pray for a 'new' Bishop
that loves the Traditional Latin Mass so the people that have not heard of it can learn like I have. Fr. Michael Rodriguez is the priest who knows what he is doing in the Catholic Church. We need him back soon, please. Thank you.
I will never understand why heterodox priests are anointed as bishops, or why bishops who act contrary to the faith (and persecute orthodox priests in their dioceses) are allowed to continue as shepherds of the faithful. Those of us who live in El Paso and the surrounding area (diocese of Las Cruces, NM) are SICK AND TIRED of being led astray! PLEASE, Holy Father, send us a shepherd after Christ's own heart. We are DESPERATELY in need of orthodoxy around here!
ReplyDeleteWhere is this "holy, orthodox bishop" that is supposed to replace Bishop Ochoa? I don't think he exists in the Church today. We Catholics "in the trenches" know what kind of bishops we have in the Church today.
ReplyDeleteBy the Grace of God and according to what we see and hear from Fr. Rodriguez, he would be the perfect one to take over the bishopric of El Paso. Fr.'s Love for the Church in El Paso, his Love for the priesthood and his Love for Catholic Truth are so evident that he gets persecuted for it. His willingness to profess his Faith no matter what, already makes him like a bishop should be. Maybe God will guide those in charge to find the best candidate right there in Texas. So let the prayers go up begging our Lord to begin the restoration of the Church by conversion of the current bishops, and if not, then may He get rid of them and put real Catholic Bishops in their place. God's will be done.
While it is truly an act of Divine intervention that we are no longer plagued by an unorthodox bishop, it is still lamentable that now the "infection" is being transferred to another part of "the body". May Our Lady continue to beseech the Divine Physician to heal us!
ReplyDeleteThe next time there's a collection in your parish for Peter's Pence, instead of money, put a letter to the Pope into the collection basket detailing Ochoa's ungodly persecution of Fr. Rodriguez and the SIN of foisting this renegade bishop off on the people of Fresno. If the Pope gets enough of these--instead of cash--maybe he'll send the renegade a request that he retire.
ReplyDeleteI am a parishioner at one of the oldest active parishes in the United States, La Purisima founded in 1680 in Socorro, Texas. It has been very disheartening to myself and my family to see the Faith that was handed down through generations, sometimes at the risk of their own lives during the Mexican persecutions in the last century, being so radically changed and cast aside by someone who should be a shepherd to his flock. We have been without a parish priest for a long time now, baptisms and confirmations are down because the Sacraments are not taught properly. Masses in El Paso have become irreverent parties having more to do with the individual celebrant and congregation rather than the sacrifice of Calvary. I was overjoyed to find Fr. Rodriguez preaching the Truth from that tiny church in a hidden barrio in San Juan. I was truly disturbed to arrive one Sunday to find an empty church and an entire parish dissolved. Please appoint a truly Holy Bishop who will work to hand down the Faith as it has been taught here for centuries.
ReplyDeleteHoly Father I pray for you every time I pray my rosary. Now I will also pray for conversion of priests, bishops,and all clergy. I am asking for the intercession of our Beloved Mother Mary that she may protect and pray for her clergy. Please Holy Father send us a holy bishop for El Paso and Las Cruces (our neighbor). Oh what a good dream to be able to have a Traditional Mass in all the churches here in El Paso.
ReplyDeleteThe Vatican seems to be moving the bad bishops around just like they moved the bad priests. Thanks to the internet and the fact that Catholics can now communicate the deeds of these men to one another, we no longer need to suffer in silence, but be aware of what is coming.
ReplyDeletePlease, Holy See, we know you can hear the cries of the faithful for orthodox bishops. Why are you not doing anything to help? We have no choice but to withhold our hard-earned money and give it to organizations/dioceses that truly do the work of Christ.
If our prayers and petitions cannot move your heart, maybe a lack of funds will.
Holy Father, please send us a holy, brave bishop, who will teach and uphold the santity of marriage between a man and a woman; will not allow his diocese to be run by attorneys and will not tolerate the presence of practicing homosexual priests in the Diocese of El Paso. The faithful would rather be without pastors than to have to tolerate the scandle perpetated by unworthy, evil men.
ReplyDeleteI thank God that Bishop Ochoa will no longer be our bishop in El Paso; he was a consummate politician but never a shepherd of the faithful or concerned with the salvation of souls.
ReplyDeleteI pray for the faithful of the Fresno diocese, that they would not suffer as we have with such a lack of spiritual leadership.
I pray daily that the Holy Father will appoint a good, holy, orthodox, and courageous bishop to come to El Paso, tend the flock, and clean house!
We are storming heaven with our prayers not only for a holy bishop here in El Paso but for holy bishops all over the world.I am positive that our infinate and loving God hears each and every prayer and will answer our prayers far beyond our hopes.
ReplyDeleteOur deepest thanks your Holiness for transferring Bishop Armando Ochoa from our diocese. It is unfortunate that he remains as the administrator of our diocese, but we trust in your decision. These public displays of secular thinking by our diocese, such as the lawsuit and the exile of Fr. Michael Rodriguez are really hurting our diocese and are church as a whole. It really shows the rest of our city that the laity in El Paso is not united in its beliefs of the dogmas of our Holy Church. There are many leaders in our diocese (priests and laity) that tell us that the laws instituted by the heavenly Father and his Son are only guidelines that can be bent or broken when it suited to our lifestyle. Holy Father my family and I pray that an orthodox bishop be sent to us, one that will stand up to these liberal politicians, clergy and laity and show them true strength and wisdom of Christ. We also hope that this bishop will support the Tridentine Mass that we fell in love with. Thank you for all that you do your Holiness.
ReplyDeleteThe method for selecting bishops resembles the method for selecting bank officers. They are vetted through an "auxiliary bishop" process to ensure that they conform in belief and practice to the form de jour. Given the abject crisis in the Church, if this were to occur in a business, the powers-that-be would step back and take account of the failed gameplan. No such thing here. It is business-as-usual. They speak of "holiness" and such things in bishops, but those are just words. Why not send a holy, courageous bishop to El Paso and to Las Cruces - men willing to die for the Faith? They can always hire administrators, for gosh sakes. This is not Wal-Mart we are talking about here.
ReplyDeletePlease help find a just resolution to the lawsuits and loss of the Traditional Catholic Parish Life. Help us fight the devil, world and flesh!
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