THE GOOD NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN

HOME

PAST
GOOD NEWS

May 16, 2010

The Good News...

           ...A Letter of Congratulations

To our Venerable Brother Eusebius J. Beltran

Metropolitan Archbishop of Oklahoma City

We were happy to learn that you, Venerable Brother, in the coming month of May are going to be reaching the 50th year since your reception of priesthood ordination. We are therefore pleased to send this letter to you to show you that we share your joy and also to show the fraternal communion in the Episcopate whereby we are joined to you.

Since we know that in fulfilling your sacred ministry you have worked with the utmost care, it is our intention to use this occasion to congratulate you for your past accomplishments and to speak with you as brother to brother.

As priest you were appointed a minister of divine grace, love and mercy, and you were especially attentive in realizing the spiritual well-being of the faithful in the Church of Atlanta where you were, among other things, a Pastor, the Secretary for Priests, the Presiding Judge of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, the Director of the Clergy Personnel Board, one of the Archdiocesan Consulters and the Vicar General.

In 1978, Pope Paul VI, our Predecessor of happy memory, aware of your special gifts and your pastoral skills, appointed you the Bishop of Tulsa, and almost 15 years later you were transferred to the Metropolitan See of Oklahoma City.

In the exercise of your very important Episcopal ministry, you have worked closely with the Roman Pontiff and with the Magisterium of the Church. With diligence and wisdom you have made every effort that the faithful entrusted to your care might follow Christ, the Lord and Giver of Life, and that they might grow daily in human and divine virtue and at the same time that they might know and seek the things that are above (cf. Col 3, 2-3), thus conferring in no small measure on the well-being of the entire Mystical Body.

Therefore, as you observe this happy event in your lifetime, dear brother, may you receive all good things joined with these prayers:  May Christ the Eternal Word of the Father and the Savior of mankind, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the dawn of our salvation, protect you, his well- deserving servant.

May He Who is both provident and gentle, continuously enrich you with an abundance of heavenly gifts.

May our mention of all these things and the Apostolic Blessing which from this See of Blessed Peter we willingly bestow on you and you in turn impart to the priests, deacons and religious and all the faithful entrusted to your care, be a witness of our mutual charity and a sign of endearment.

Go joyfully in the Lord, most beloved son.

Given at the Vatican, April 20, 2010, in the sixth year of our pontificate.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI