Photo: Catholic News Service
“Archbishop Flores brought to the Church in San Antonio a new meaning of pastoral leadership. He was passionately pastoral. He loved being with people, and there was never a time when he put something else above his pastoral concern, knowing the people and their needs and being close to the people. That’s where he was brilliant.” – Fr. Bill Morell, OMI
San Antonio Archbishop Emeritus Patrick Flores was a longtime friend and supporter of Oblate School of Theology. Dr. Scott Woodward, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, expressed the OST community’s heartfelt sadness at his death Monday at Padua Place, an assisted-living retirement home for diocesan priests.
“Archbishop Flores was an iconic leader for the Church in South Texas and the nation. His leadership was especially transformational for the Hispanic community,” Dr. Woodward said. “His loss will be felt throughout our community and throughout the Church in the United States. OST extends its deepest condolences to the family of Archbishop Flores, to Archbishop Gustavo, and the entire Archdiocese of San Antonio as we mourn his passing.”
The two former presidents of OST who led the School during his tenure as Archbishop of San Antonio, Father Pat Guidon, OMI, and Father Bill Morell, OMI, expressed their gratitude for the archbishop’s support of the School, his ability to embrace needed change and his pastoral style of leadership.
Fr. Guidon, who led OST from 1970-95 and was instrumental in expanding its mission to serve a wider clientele, praised the archbishop for his willingness to entertain the questions coming out of the changes in theological and seminary education in the 1970s and for realizing that faithful people should be strong enough and willing to face them.
“He saw seminaries as preparing ministers who would empower people to face reality with faith, acknowledging the transcendence of God and the existence of mystery and recognizing what values made their lives in this world worthwhile,” the priest said.
“Archbishop Flores had a deep sense of what it means to be pastoral. He exercised his ministry more by example than by mandate. He related well to the other OST trustees, acknowledged the competence of faculty and administrators in their own fields and trusted their judgment,” he added.
He noted that in times past, a bishop virtually owned the seminary, but today, seminaries and theological schools must meet professional standards as well to be recognized as graduate schools.
Fr. Guidon observed that Flores’ personal background of experiencing discrimination as a dark-skinned Hispanic taught him never to exclude anybody. “He believed that faith in God is not only to help save one’s soul but also to fulfill their dignity here on earth as people made in the image of God in this world,” the priest recalled.
On a humorous note, he recalled a priestly ordination in the Valley. Since the new priest was from a migrant worker family, as Flores was. “The Archbishop said to him, ‘I want to give you some advice from one cotton-picker to another.’”
Fr. Bill Morell, OMI, succeeded Fr. Guidon and led the School from 1995-2004. He now is the Oblate Executive of the Oblate Missionary Society Inc. He remembers Archbishop Flores for his personal and public commitment to the model of formation for diocesan seminarians that involves both Assumption Seminary and Oblate School of Theology and for his enthusiastic support of OST’s Lay Ministry Institute and the Instituto de Formación Pastoral/Pastoral Formation Institute, the lay ministry training programs in both English and Spanish – especially in Spanish.
Archbishop Flores had helped launch those programs together during Father Guidon’s administration. During Fr. Morell’s tenure, Flores supported their expansion to the west end of the archdiocese through on-site programs.
Occasionally, a diocesan seminarian would express discomfort with attending OST. “He’d tell them it wasn’t designed to make them comfortable; it was designed to prepare them for ministry in this diocese, and he believed in what the School was doing.” He would tell them that if they believed that OST was not good for them, they were not going to be seminarians for this archdiocese.
Some seminaries are stand-alone institutions, but Assumption and OST collaborate in the same manner as seminarians in Rome live at the Pontifical North American College but attend other universities around the city.
“Archbishop Flores brought to the Church in San Antonio a new meaning of pastoral leadership. He was passionately pastoral. He loved being with people, and there was never a time when he put something else above his pastoral concern, knowing the people and their needs and being close to the people. That’s where he was brilliant,” Fr. Morell commented