SAN ANTONIO (TEXAS), JUNE 29 (ZENIT.org)

    The Catholic community of San Antonio, Texas, lived through long hours of anguish over the fate of their Archbishop, Patrick Flores, who was taken hostage in his office in the Episcopal Residence by a man with passport problems. The assailant entered the office saying he had a bomb in his hand. At 9 p.m. yesterday, the Archbishop was released and his assailant arrested.

    Bishop Terence Noland, diocesan Vicar, said he had no knowledge of recent threats against the Archbishop. "Archbishop Flores is one of the outstanding persons of our city, who has always been concerned about peaceful coexistence. I am not aware of any intent to harm him precisely because he is much loved by all the people."

    While he was kept hostage, the Archbishop's colleagues, friends, and faithful prayed intensely for the man known simply as Patrick or Patricio. Since he became Archbishop in August, 1979, he has gained a reputation as advocate of the poor and immigrants, and energetic opponent of violence.

    His bilingual ability and humble origins have contributed to bring him close to the one million Catholics of his large Hispanic-American diocese, which includes 23 counties and runs the length of the Texas-Mexican border. His bilingual Sunday Mass from the Cathedral of San Fernando is televised throughout the western United States.

    Archbishop Patrick Flores, 70, decided to be a priest while working in a dance hall as a teenager, cleaning up left over beer and cigarettes. "I thought I have had no vision or anything like that, but said to myself that I could not go to work for smoke and pestilence," Flores said to the A.P. in 1996. He became the first Catholic Bishop of Mexican origin in the country.

    Archbishop Flores was born in Ganado, 70 miles south of Houston. He was the seventh of 9 children of a family of immigrant farm workers. He was ordained a priest in 1956. He left school in the 10th grade, but the Bishop of Galveston helped him finish his high school education in order to enter the seminary. After working for years as a priest in Houston, he was named Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio in 1970. He was a Bishop in El Paso before becoming Archbishop. In 1987 he received Pope John Paul II as a guest during his visit to San Antonio. ZE00062901

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