{"id":488909,"date":"2026-01-03T07:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488909\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T07:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:21:39","slug":"seek-2026-bishop-olson-of-fort-worth-speaks-about-what-hes-praying-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488909\/","title":{"rendered":"SEEK 2026: Bishop Olson of Fort Worth speaks about what he\u2019s praying for"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Amira
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By Amira Abuzeid<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Jan 2, 2026 \/
\n 20:00 pm<\/p>\n

Bishop Michael Olson, whose diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, is hosting the SEEK 2026 conference, said he is praying for unity in Christ.<\/p>\n

Olson said he has observed that young people attending the conference have \u201ca real openness to God\u2019s call. They very much want to make a difference for Christ\u201d with their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of communion that the Church has that postmodern reality undercuts. Young people, however, want to be disciples of the Lord. They want to belong, but they want to belong in the way he calls them to belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding what is moving him spiritually right now, he said in an interview that \u201cthe heart of my prayer is the prayer of Jesus: That all may be one, as he and the father are one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is praying that \u201cwe all find communion and unity in Christ, as his Church, which is his intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all differences that we\u2019re tempted to be divided over, especially in the sacraments and the liturgy,\u201d he said he prays to help foster a sense of communion among people within the Church.<\/p>\n

Immigration<\/p>\n

About immigration, a prominent issue in Texas, Olson said that along with the majority of the U.S. bishops, he affirms the rule of law and the integrity of borders, \u201cbecause without that, there is no sense of peace; there\u2019s chaos and lawlessness and the most vulnerable suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said we all have to stop \u201cdefining ourselves by partisan ideologies, which feels like the dominant \u2018religion\u2019 in the U.S., for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to lend comfort [to immigrants] and to provide security. As an international issue and as a nation, we must help other nations to ensure their borders,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the challenges for the leadership of other nations are gangs. The most vulnerable are paying the price, terrified by the tyranny of the gangs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look at ourselves and say, how have we promoted [those challenges] in areas of foreign policy? We\u2019re reaping what we\u2019ve sown,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we faced before with abortion and the death penalty, we now face with immigration: The dignity of the human person must be focused on, as well as the primacy of family life as the basis of society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Parish and school security<\/p>\n

Asked about how security at parishes and Catholic schools is handled in his diocese following recent violence at Catholic schools, he said for the past seven years, the diocese has employed the Guardian ministry, which involves fully vetted, trained, and armed parishioners in partnership with the police.<\/p>\n

Those in the ministry are \u201cproactive in cultivating a spirit and practice of deescalation, in the spirit of discipleship with Christ, in order to protect the vulnerable and weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Story continues below)<\/b><\/p>\n

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Olson said at the rest of the SEEK conference he plans to spend time with the young people, giving a talk to the seminarians on prayer and St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux.<\/p>\n


\n \"Amira
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Amira Abuzeid is a senior editor for EWTN News with a special interest in bioethics, technology, theology, and religion in public life. She attended Cornell University, where she received a bachelor\u2019s degree in government. She did graduate work in theology at Harvard University and holds a master of science degree in psychology from Divine Mercy University. She also completed the National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics through the National Catholic Bioethics Center. The former editor-in-chief at CatholicVote, she is very interested in how Christians think about and live out their faith in the public square. Amira has seven children whom she adores and lives in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Amira Abuzeid Jan 2, 2026 \/ 20:00 pm Bishop Michael Olson, whose diocese of Fort Worth, Texas,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,220614,7371,7372,30266,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-488909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bishop-michael-olson","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-seek","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115829963771692553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}