tvc.dsj.org | September 25, 2018
WELCOME
Continued from page 12
There has been a threat right now
of using nuclear weapons. If you’re
going to threaten, then that’s consid-
ered an act of will and intent to use
those weapons. So the position of t he
nuclear threat cannot be held morally
anymore. It was supported back in
the 80s during the Cold War as a step
towards denuclearization, but not as
a permanent policy. So that’s what
stirred up a lot of interest in the issue
of non-proliferation. I was invited to
speak to several groups. There was
the Ploughshare group that gathers
nationally and often in New Mexico,
where a lot of the research is done on
nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.
So I spoke to them there and I was
invited to the U.N. in New York and
then to an international gathering in
London.
You know it was interesting be-
cause previously I thought the whole
nuclear issue was resolved in the 80s
with the end of the Cold War, but it’s
not. We’ve got all of these nuclear
weapons across the country that are
dangerously stored. We’ve got the
BISHOP CANTÚ
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most weapons right behind Russia,
and people don’t realize that. They
thought since we hadn’t heard about
nuclear weapons in decades, it must be
resolved. That’s not the case. time and time again and is always fresh
and pertinent to every age.
LIZ: Your episcopal motto is “Zeal for
the Lord’s house consumes me.” Can you
speak to how you made this choice? BISHOP CANTÚ: There is Saint
Peter. I feel close to him in the sense
that he was always putting his foot
in his mouth and I feel like I’m doing
that all the time as well. And yet how
he was transformed after the Resur-
rection and I have seen that over and
over in my life, which surprises me. I
love the psalms in part because I love
poetry. There’s something just beau-
tifully succinct about those heartfelt
prayers and the fact that most of those
psalms are complaints.
I often complain directly to God
about life, about how life is just not
fair. Why do innocent people suffer?
Those are the mysteries of life that
I have yet to understand. And it’s
always in a concert in the context of
faith. At the end of each Psalm there
is an act of faith. Even though I may
not understand it, I trust it.
BISHOP CANTÚ: It kind of has
a double meaning. When you think
about what God’s house is, you think
about the afterlife. There is this burning
desire to be with God in perfect, peace-
ful, joy. But there’s also His house right
here on earth.
When Pope Francis went to Mexico
City, he spoke about building a home
of dignity of a human person. I’ve been
really taken by the profound message
of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s a mes-
sage of human dignity and of ecclesiol-
ogy, that she sent Juan Diego to build
a church and made him a protagonist
as a lay person with little-to-no status.
That is what the Gospel is about, that
every one of us has the dignity to be
when we are baptized and that we have
a duty to evangelize.
LIZ: Do you have a favorite Scripture
that you often go back or a favorite apostle?
Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Las Cruces,
New Mexico.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, 500 years
ago, was the first one to give us an elo-
quent example of the new evangeliza-
tion and what the Spaniards were not
able to do very effectively. She came in
her maternal wisdom and her kindness
and her utter respect for the dignity
of the indigenous, spoke to him (Juan
Diego) in his own language, appeared
to him in his own culture using the
very hieroglyphics that the indigenous
understood in the image that told the
entire story of Christ, who brings them
light and brings dignity. That’s an im-
age and a story that comes back to me
Continued on page 14
Welcome
Coadjutor Bishop
Oscar Cantú.
We pray our Lord will bless
your ministry to the people of
the Diocese of San José.