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For years in this Colonna I have repeatedly raised a simple challenge to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez:
Stand up for Los Angeles as LA needs you.
The largest Catholic parishioner in the United States has largely attacked the liberal cities he is supposed to serve, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, since 2011. He opposed the “awakening” culture and refused to meet progressive Catholic groups. When the Dodgers respected the permanent Dul sisters in 2023, he, a drug group that has developed the habit of nuns while raising funds for marginalized people, led a special mass at the Cathedral of Angel Women, the equivalent of a public exorcism.
Most perplexed, the Mexican-born archbishop remained mostly quiet as Donald Trump promised in the 2024 presidential election, Herod promised to expel legal immigrants and those without legal status. As head of the American Congress of Catholic Bishops at the end of the last decade, Gomez wrote and spoke about the need to treat all immigrants with dignity and completely fix the country’s broken system. But when the archbishop, an occasional contributor, a national Catholic reporter, anointed him that year, named him the “warrior of a failed culture,” his order gradually turns to the right.
Latrick’s leaders have been particularly depressing as they have taught American peers how to accept Latino immigrants since the 1920s when they helped refugees from resettlement in Mexico’s Christer War. In the face of federal threats in the 1980s and 1990s, administrative legends like Luis Olivares and Richard Estrada transformed the Church of La Placita near Orvera Street into a sanctuary for Central American immigrants. Gomez’s predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, attracted national attention for attacking anti-immigration laws during his sermons and marching alongside immigration rights protesters.
So when LA began pushing back against the Donald Trump immigrant raid earlier this month, Gomez expected that he would do little if the La Aria priest witnessed what was going on, just to see the troublesome federal crackdown.
Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries appeared in a viral video declaring the message that humans are not illegal. His fellow Jesuits, Dolores’ Mission Rev. Brendan Busse, was with the activists during the June 9th attack on Migra.
I especially admired Father Peter O’Reilly, who was a priest of the Archdiocese of LA for 44 years before retiring in 2005. The 90-year-old clergyman was at Gloria Morina Grand Park on June 8th. O’Reilly told his hometown of Ireland television station it was important to let immigrants know that “we were with them.”
Gomez? The Archbishop issued a weak salsa statement about how he was “troubled” by the attacks. His Instagram account urged people to light candles a few days later for peace. That same day, Bishop Kevin Van of Orange and his auxiliary bishop’s parishes posted a letter condemning the attack.
You know things are upside down in this world when OCs are down more due to immigration rights than LA.
Faith leaders will lead a prayer vigil at Gloria Morina Grand Park on June 10th to support members of the community facing immigrant raids in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
I wanted to blow up Gomez last week, but I prayed and held back that he might change for the better. So I’m happy to report he started.
On June 10, the same day he posted a prayer call on Instagram, the Archbishop attended an evening interfaith vigil with Boyle, Basse and other faith leaders, telling more than 1,000 people: “Immigration is more than politics. Gomez asked the following day to all the parishes of the Archdiocese of LA to hold a special mass with the current issues of immigration in mind. He led one of the lunches at the cathedral and paid tribute to the parishioners, saying, “We want to go out and comfort our neighbors, strengthen our hearts and encourage them to maintain their faith.”
Gomez saved his most stinging remarks this Tuesday in a regular column for the Archdiocese publication Angelus News. Nevertheless, he cannot resist the shots in the Biden administration, but he still said about the Trump attack: “This is not a policy, it’s just a punishment, it only brings cruel and arbitrary consequences.” In his view, a photo of a young woman holding a sign in front of a California highway patrol officer, who reads “Yes was an immigrant.”
“It made sense for him to show up,” Basse said. Since Trump took office, the Dolores Mission has been holding training on a rapid response network that has warned people about immigrant attacks. “But I hope there’s more. The parish has a huge capacity for organising and I hope his leadership can really move people.”
Busse said that when controversy arises, the first instinct of too many religious leaders is to “return to a place of safety.” “But there are also brave and courageous invitations. All we need to do is step into the situation to bring about the peace we are praying for.”
Joseph Tómas McKellar is the executive director of Pico California, a faith-based community organization network that co-hosted the interfaith vigil that Gomez spoke last week. The nonprofit organization used to teach LA Archdiocese and McKellar’s citizenship and English classes recalled attending a meeting of Modesto’s social justice groups in 2017 as an active participant “in the conversations of these small groups.”
The head of Pico California said that Gomez’s recent re-emergence from his year in the political wilderness “has been deeply encouraging. … Our bishops and our sect leaders have a special responsibility to exercise prophetic leadership.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese said Gomez was not available for comment as he was taking part in the retreat of the Catholic bishops’ US Congress. Earlier this week, the group announced their reflections declaring that “the surge in immigration enforcement activities will lead us to not be able to listen to the obvious cries of anxiety and fear that can be heard in communities across the country.”
There is no hope that Archbishop Gomez’s politics will fully reflect the progressive soul of LA. He is the only American bishop to be part of the Orthodox Opus Dei movement and sits on the Church Advisory Committee of the Napa Institute, a rich Catholic organization that has worked tirelessly to tilt the church to the right over the past decade. Its co-founder, Orange County-based millionaire developer Tim Bush, wrote earlier this year without sarcasm that the Trump administration was “the most Christian I’ve ever seen,” and Gomez said he was “one of my closest advisors.”
But I’m glad Gomez moves in the right direction when the city needs him the most. I continue to pray that his voice will become bold and strong, and that millions of Catholics in the area, and all Angelenus, follow the archbishop’s call for action, and that he will do more to help immigrants.
I hope Gomez said to me in his mind, near the end of our chat.
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