This is the hour for love.

Dear Friends in Christ,

I greet each of you with a heart filled with gratitude and hope. Already in the short time since my ordination as your 8th Bishop, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of you in our parishes and communities. Thank you for your kind welcome and prayers for me by name. It has been and will be a significant support to my ministry to know that you are praying for me. Know that I will pray for you each day.

This is a special moment in the life of the Diocese of Tucson, and it gives me great hope for all that lies ahead for us. In many ways, what I have already experienced reflects the theme of this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal: “This is the hour for love.” We see that love lived out through service to one another. St. Thomas Aquinas explained love as “willing the good of the other”. When we love one another…it isn’t simply a feeling or a sentiment…it is a decision to see the other and then do what we can to will the other’s good so that he or she will recognize his or her dignity as a person loved distinctively by God.

The Annual Catholic Appeal gives each of us the chance to will the good of the other by a gift for the good of others. Your generosity allows our Diocese to continue the work entrusted to us: supporting our parishes, preparing future priests for ministry, and sustaining ministries that accompany people in every stage of life.

I am deeply grateful for your support. If you have not already done so, I invite you to join us in participating in the Annual Catholic Appeal.

No gift is too large, and no gift is too small. Every gift given in love for the good of the other becomes part of something much larger than any one of us. Together, we help ensure that the Diocese of Tucson is alive and engaged in God’s grace, so I ask you to be as generous as you can.

Be assured that you remain in my prayers every day and I thank you sincerely for your prayers for me.

May God bless you and your families abundantly.

Bishop James A. Misko
Bishop of Tucson