San Diego Bishop Cirilo Flores dies
SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Bishop Cirilo Flores died Saturday after a battle with cancer, San Diego's Catholic diocese announced.San Diego Bishop Cirilo Flores dies, battled prostate cancer | UTSanDiego.com
Bishop Flores, 65, died at 2:47 p.m. Saturday at the Catholic-run Nazareth House in Mission Valley where he was receiving care for prostate cancer, the diocese said in a statement. Tom Martinez, Monsignor Steven Callahan and the Sisters of the Nazareth were at his side.
The diocese announced in August that Bishop Flores, who suffered a stroke in his office about five months ago, was battling prostate cancer and was being treated at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday the diocese announced the cancer was "widespread, very advanced and very aggressive" and that Flores would be moved to the Nazareth House for palliative care, designed to relieve pain and stress during a serious illness.
Whispers in the Loggia: "This Beautiful Disciple" – San Diego's Cirilo Dies at 66Raised in Corona, about 10 miles west of Riverside, Flores was the third of six children. His mother, Armida, was a high-school dropout; his father, Cirilo, an immigrant from the coastal Mexican state of Sinaloa. Devout but poor, his parents could not afford to send their son to Riverside’s Notre Dame High School. Notified of the boy’s plight, the local Knights of Columbus — a Catholic social group — paid his tuition.As an adult, Flores would become a fourth degree Knight, the organization’s highest rank.
Flores had not been seen in public since Holy Week, on the Wednesday of which (April 16th) he suffered a mild stroke. While the diocese reported that the bishop's recovery was progressing and initially foresaw his return within weeks, the story took a marked shift over the last month after Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles visited, reportedly to find Flores some 80 pounds lighter and learning that his southern suffragan had neglected routine medical care for several years. In response, Gomez took personal charge of the bishop's health, bringing Flores north to LA as his guest in the archbishop's residence at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. After an initial battery of tests there raised further alarm, in mid-August the bishop was admitted to USC's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, where earlier this week Flores was diagnosed with "a widespread, very advanced and very aggressive" cancer "of unknown origin" which had spread into his bones and precluded any options for treatment.
Biography of Bishop Cirilo Flores
his last tweet:
Bishop C. Flores
We're called, like Christ, to
be lamps shining on all the dark places of human experience, to bring to
bear his Light. (2 Pt 1:19)
Bishop Flores death from prostate cancer is most tragic since it might have been avoided with early detection and treatment. I know this since I have just recovered from surgery for this disease after early detection with a PSA test. I hope that his death will shine a light on this dark place, and brother knights will not hesitate to get screened for this disease, which God has given us the tools to fight.
see:
spendergast: Improved secondary testing could make Routine prostate cancer screening effective
spendergast: Raising Awareness in Prostate Cancer | San Diego 6 | Health & Beauty
Funeral Set For Catholic Bishop Cirilo Flores | KPBS
Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego > DIOCESE > News and Calendar
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