Dear Friends:

These recent weeks have indeed been dark, difficult and painful days for us all. The dreadful scandals of clerical sexual misconduct about which we've recently read and heard so much weigh heavily on our hearts and on our minds.

Our hearts truly go out to the victims of these terrible acts and to their families and friends. Our hearts also go out to the guilty and to all who love them. I'm sure we've prayed hard this Lent for all who have suffered and are suffering from awful things that never, ever should have happened.

Our resolve is that they never happen again.

My heart goes out, too, to the 78 priests - in active assignment or now retired -of our own Diocese of Grand Island and to the over 46,000 priests serving our people in the United States or laboring for people in missionary lands. Our own priests here in central and western Nebraska have served so lovingly, so zealously, so pastorally and so faithfully. I'm sure they know how much we appreciate them, love them and esteem them.

And my heart goes out to all of you, our faithful people in our over 80 parish families here in the Diocese of Grand Island. Priests and people alike have surely experienced great personal embarrassment because of what a few have done here in the United States and in other parts of the world. I'm so sorry. But no words of mine can change what you've experienced.

We have knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and stood at the foot of the Cross in a very special and personal way this year. May we also know the joy of Resurrection!

Our trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His promise: "I will be with you all days - even to the end of the world." He built his church on Peter, the Rock, even though Peter was to deny him three times. He sent forth the very men who had abandoned Him in His darkest hour to convince the world that He was God and that we should live as He lived. Our faith is that He will prevail despite all the human weakness that blemishes even His ordained ministers. Neither the Gates of Hell, The Powers of Darkness or human failings will ever prevail against Him.

Sincerely in Christ Jesus,

Most Reverend Lawrence J. McNamara, Bishop of Grand Island