Catholic teens confirmed amid year of turmoil in Texas town

Published: 2008-05-27

ELDORADO, Texas (CNS) -- As the crow flies, the Yearning for Zion Ranch is about eight miles from the bell tower at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, tucked just inside the city limits of Eldorado in west Texas. One can, in fact, stand outside the front doors of the Eldorado Catholic church and see the tops of the glistening spires and steeples that jut up to the north from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple on the ranch. Despite their proximity, the chasm between the two religions has seldom been so evident as it was the evening of May 21, when 10 youths from Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Peter, the parish mission church in nearby Mertzon, received the sacrament of confirmation. Their journey on the sacramental road, the young people will say, was not unlike the road traveled by their peers in other parts of the state or country. However, the news of what may be occurring at the ranch, run by a polygamist sect, and the resultant horde of media that descended on the town offered insights few other confirmation candidates will likely ever experience. "I don't agree with a lot of what they do, in particular multiple marriages and the other things they have said may be going on," said 16-year-old Timothy Cuevas, "but I must be religiously tolerant of others."

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