"Just a Thought" continues in La Prensa of San Antonio, 5-5

Just a Thought: Chance meeting with Archbishop Flores
By Steve Walker

In the late nineties as a Public Speaking teacher at McCollum High school I was afforded the opportunity to host 51 guest speakers for my Speech classes. One of those speakers was none other than Archbishop Patrick Flores the first Mexican-American Archbishop in the United States.

He was gracious, articulate and told a very good story growing up as a migrant worker, attending 10^th grade twice because he missed so much school that he was forced to repeat his sophomore year.

He informed my students about his dreams of becoming a singer. He shared that it was okay that God didn’t allow him to be a singer because he realized God had bigger plans for him as a priest and an Archbishop.

The students received him well. He was one of their favorite speakers that spoke to them. The faculty was abuzz as well when he showed up to the campus. He was very humble and drove himself to the campus. My students walked him out to his car when he left.

Ironically during the nineties I was still in the Army Reserve and each year flew to Washington D.C. for my two weeks annual drill at the Pentagon. Last week I shared my encounter on my way to D.C. with former HUD Secretary & Mayor Henry Cisneros.

On one of my trips back to San Antonio I had a short layover in Dallas. As I sat in the airport waiting for my flight, I happened to look up and there was the Archbishop sitting next to me waiting for the same plane to take us home. I reintroduced myself and we chit chatted for about 40 minutes waiting to board our plane and get back to San Antonio.

I profusely thanked him for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit with my students and encourage them in their dreams. He said he enjoyed visiting with them talking about his life and answering some of their questions. He said he was used to speaking to students attending catholic school and I was one of the few public school teachers who invited him to speak. That made my day.

Having been raised Catholic, attending St. Gregory’s Catholic School in Balcones Heights and scheduled to attend Central Catholic in 1960, I shared with him that I was crushed that we moved to Massachusetts two weeks before school started and I missed the opportunity to attend what was and still is a great school in San Antonio.

He laughed and told me that it appeared I turned out all right after all. That was good to hear from the Archbishop of San Antonio during our short respite in the Dallas airport.

As I wrote last week about my disappointment on moving and not attending Central Catholic High School and being a classmate of former Mayor Henry Cisneros, I take heart that the Archbishop was very encouraging to me.

The archbishop was also very kind to my students by willingly share part of his life experiences with us. After that encounter in Dallas I did speak with him again on occasion over the years in San Antonio.

Anyway, as always, what I write is “Just a Thought.”

Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist. His column “Ask the Judge” column ran in La Prensa for the last two years.