A priest begs forgiveness for withholding the Eucharist: "We abandoned you."
Fr. Sergio Muñoz Fita
Balm for the soul.
After I returned from a beautiful Holy Thursday Mass and Adoration last night, I received a text from a local friend who attends a parish across town:
“Fr. Sergio apologized and asked forgiveness…. oh my goodness!!!! Crying over here.”
I couldn’t fully process what I just read, but, hoping against hope, I quickly opened the attached link and went to the homily (1:11:42 mark). It was just as she said, and better than I could have imagined.
Here are the unexpected, remarkable words of the pastor of St. Anne Roman Catholic Parish in Gilbert, Arizona, Father Sergio Muñoz Fita, at last night’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper:
I feel the need to publicly apologize for the events of the past year. I am a priest, and therefore in a small way, I represent the Church. I represent her to you, and also in this world that God loves so much. When people see me out in the world—in a restaurant, in a supermarket, in a store, at the doctor’s office—they see the Church. When you come to me for advice, you are not looking for my opinion, which is as fallible and fragile as your own. You want to find the guidance and the Truth that God has given to the Church.
That is why, aware of this reality, I want to ask your forgiveness this evening, and God’s forgiveness in the name of the Church, for my sins and hers. I ask for forgiveness for having left you without the Eucharist for many weeks last year. Many of you, in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, turned to your father for bread, and we gave you a stone. We failed you by denying you the only Food that could sustain your hope. We abandoned you when we should have been closest to you. For this, at this holy Mass, I ask your forgiveness.
The worst thing is that I cannot assure you that such a thing will not happen again, because as far as I know, I have not heard anyone express regret for what happened. What I can promise you is that I will never again be a party to something similar, and that if obedience places me in such a situation again, I will withdraw so as not to be a responsible and guilty party to something that, even today, weighs on my conscience, as the act of which I am most ashamed in my entire life.
Fr. Sergio, a humble, holy priest of God, has said the words that so many of the faithful have waited to hear. He went on to say more (this time in Spanish), specifically about the ways in which we have wounded Our Lord’s heart as we relegated Him to “non-essential” status. I have posted that translation in the comments.
Our gratitude for Fr. Sergio, and for all holy priests, knows no bounds. God bless you, Father! You have renewed our hope!
(The video is cued up to Father’s homily.)
