Patricio Fernández Flores (July 26, 1929 – January 9, 2017) was an American prelate of the
Catholic Church. He served from 1979 to 2004 as archbishop of the
Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas, bishop of the
Diocese of El Paso in Texas from 1978 to 1979, and auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio from 1970 to 1978.
Flores was the first
Mexican-American
Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...
to become a Catholic bishop.
Biography
Early life
Patrick Flores was born on January 9, 1929, to Patricio and Trinidad Fernandez de Flores, American
migrant worker
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers ...
s, in
Ganado, Texas. In the tenth grade, Patrick Flores considered dropping out of high school after his father became ill, but changed his plans after a bishop offered to finance his education. Flores worked as a
janitor
A cleaner, cleanser or cleaning operative is a type of Industry (economics), industrial or domestic worker who is tasked with cleaning a space. A janitor (Scotland, United States and Canada), also known as a custodian, Facility Operator, porter ...
at a local cantina.
Flores graduated from
Catholic Kirwin High School in
Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...
. He studied at St. Mary's Seminary in
La Porte, Texas and at St. Mary's Seminary in
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
.
Priesthood
Flores was ordained into the priesthood for the
Diocese of Galveston-Houston on May 26, 1956, by Bishop
Wendelin Nold in Galveston.
In the early 1960s, Flores directed the
Christian Family Movement in the Galveston-Houston diocese and the Bishop's Committee for the Spanish Speaking, a ministry that encouraged bilingual congregations. In October 1969, Flores joined 47 other Hispanic priests to establish
PADRES
{{About, the Roman Catholic priests' organization, other uses, Padres (disambiguation)
''Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos, y Sociales'' ( Spanish for "Priests Associated for Religious, Education, and Social Rights") is a Chica ...
''Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos, y Sociales'' (
Spanish for "Priests Associated for Religious, Education, and Social Rights"), an organization meant to draw attention to the problems of Hispanics in the church and society.
Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
appointed Flores on March 9, 1970. as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.and titular bishop of
Italica
Italica () was an ancient Ancient Rome, Roman city in Hispania; its site is close to the town of Santiponce in the province of Seville, Spain. It was founded in 206 BC by Roman general Scipio Africanus, Scipio as a ''Colonia (Roman), colonia'' f ...
. He was consecrated on May 5, 1970. by Archbishop
Luigi Raimondi.
Flores chose as his episcopal motto ''Laborabo non mihi sed omnibus'', "I will work not for myself but for others".
Also in May 1970, Flores was appointed chairman of the Texas State Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, that is charged with the responsibility fo ...
. He was appointed in July 1970 as national chaplain for the
League of United Latin American Citizens. In 1972, Flores co-founded the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio.
Bishop of El Paso
On April 4, 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed Flores as bishop of the Diocese of El Paso. He was installed on May 23, 1978.
Archbishop of San Antonio
On August 23, 1979,
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
appointed Flores as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. He was installed on October 13, 1979.
In 1980, Flores became a member of the Hispanic Caucus Committee, and in 1981 founded Catholic Television of San Antonio, the first diocesan television station in the United States. In 1997, when Reverend
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (; November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...
announced a religious crusade at the
Alamodome
The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat domed indoor multi-purpose stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is located on the southeastern fringe of downtown San Antonio. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 milli ...
in San Antonio, Flores taped radio spots in English and Spanish to promote the event. Graham later credited Flores for the large response.
In 1993, Flores filed a lawsuit against the City of
Boerne, Texas. St. Peter's Parish in Boerne had wanted to expand their church building to accommodate more worshipers, but the city refused permission because it was an historic adobe structure. The archdiocese sued the city, citing provisions of the federal
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religio ...
(RFRA) of 1993. The lawsuit eventually led to the landmark
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
decision ''
City of Boerne v. Flores
''City of Boerne v. Flores'', 521 U.S. 507 (1997), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a signif ...
'' (1997). Ruling in favor of the City of Boerne, the Supreme Court struck down certain RFRA provisions as unconstitutionally exceeding the powers granted to the
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
under Section Five of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution.
On June 27, 2000, Nelson Escolero, a native of
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
and a legal U.S. resident, held Flores and his secretary hostage with a fake grenade for over nine hours at the Catholic Chancery. Escolero had recently been arrested for driving with a suspended license and feared
deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...
to El Salvador. Escolero surrendered peacefully to police that evening. Flores was later credited with helping to defuse the standoff.
The archdiocese on February 3, 2003, settled a lawsuit brought by Julia Villegas Phelps for $300,000. She claimed to have been
sexually assaulted by Michael Kenny, an archdiocese priest, and that Flores had dismissed her accusations. Kenny later admitted to Flores to having a sexual affair with Villegas Phelps. When questioned in a legal deposition, Flores remarked, "Our priests are not babies, I'm not going to keep an eye on them 24 hours a day."
Retirement and legacy
After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, Flores submitted his letter of resignation as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio to Pope John Paul II. The pope accepted his resignation on December 29, 2004.
On October 6, 2007, ''A Migrant's Masterpiece'' an hour-long documentary depicting Flores' life premiered in San Antonio. Directed by Hector Galan, it seeks to place the archbishop's life in the context of "the history of Latinos in Texas,
ndthe Civil Rights Movement in Texas" according to Pat Rogers, communications director for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. The film was funded through private donations to the Archdiocese and uses rare archival film and interviews with the Flores' family. It eventually aired on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
.
On May 27, 2015, Flores and the archdiocese were accused in a lawsuit of ignoring
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
allegations against a priest. The plaintiff claimed that while he was a minor in a San Antonio orphanage in the 1980s, he was sexually abused by Jesus Armando Dominguez, then a seminarian at Assumption Seminary. The plaintiff said that he brought his complaints to Flores, who did not follow through on a promise to investigate them. Dominguez later fled to Mexico to avoid criminal charges in California.
Flores died on January 9, 2017, of congestive
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood.
Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...
and
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
at the Padua retirement home in San Antonio.
References
Resources
*
Special section- San Antonio Express-News
at Catholic hierarchy
Biographyat Answers.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Patrick Fernandez
1929 births
2017 deaths
People from Ganado, Texas
American people of Mexican descent
20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States
Roman Catholic bishops of El Paso
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio
Roman Catholic archbishops of San Antonio
Janitors
Bishops appointed by Pope Paul VI
Members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre