For years on this columna, I’ve repeatedly posed a easy problem to Archbishop José H. Gomez:
Arise for Los Angeles, as a result of L.A. wants you.
The pinnacle of the biggest Catholic diocese in america has largely stood athwart the liberal metropolis he’s presupposed to minister since he assumed his seat in 2011 however particularly for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. He has railed towards “woke” tradition and refused to fulfill with progressive Catholic teams. When the Dodgers in 2023 honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag troupe that wears nun’s habits whereas elevating funds for the marginalized, he led a particular Mass on the Cathedral of Our Girl of the Angels that amounted to a public exorcism.
Most perplexingly, the Mexico-born archbishop stayed largely quiet because the Herod that’s Donald Trump promised to clamp down on authorized immigration and deport folks with out authorized standing throughout his 2024 presidential run. As head of america Convention of Catholic Bishops on the finish of final decade, Gomez wrote and spoke movingly about the necessity to deal with all immigrants with dignity and repair this nation’s damaged system as soon as and for all. However his gradual flip to the correct as archbishop has gone to date that the Nationwide Catholic Reporter, the place I’m an occasional contributor, labeled him a “failed tradition warrior” once they anointed him their Newsmaker for that yr.
Gomez’s devolution was particularly dispiriting as a result of L.A. Catholic leaders have taught their American friends the right way to embrace Latino immigrants ever since Archbishop John Cantwell helped refugees from Mexico’s Cristero Warfare resettle within the metropolis within the Twenties. Clerical legends like Luis Olivares and Richard Estrada reworked La Placita Church close to Olvera Avenue right into a sanctuary for Central American immigrants in the course of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties within the face of threats from the feds. Gomez’s predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, lengthy drew nationwide consideration for attacking anti-immigrant laws throughout his sermons and marching alongside immigrant rights protesters, a cross to bear that Gomez by no means warmed as much as.
So when L.A. started to push again towards Donald Trump’s immigration raids earlier this month solely to see an onerous federal crackdown, I anticipated Gomez to do little whilst L.A.-area clergymen bore witness to what was taking place.
Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries appeared in a viral video proclaiming the righteous, if well-worn, message that no human being is unlawful, but in addition that “we stand with anyone who’s demonized or neglected, or excluded, or seen as disposable … it’s kinda how we roll right here.” His fellow Jesuit, Dolores Mission pastor Brendan Busse, was there with activists throughout a June 9 migra raid at a manufacturing unit within the Garment District that noticed SEIU California president David Huerta arrested for civil disobedience.
I particularly admired Father Peter O’Reilly, who was a priest within the L.A. Archdiocese for 44 years earlier than retiring in 2005. The 90-year-old cleric was at Gloria Molina Grand Park on June 8, the day protesters torched Waymo automobiles, simply blocks away from the Cathedral of Our Girl of the Angels. O’Reilly informed a tv station in his native Eire afterward that it was necessary for him be there to let immigrants know “we had been with them and for them.”
Gomez? The archbishop put out a weak-salsa assertion round that point about how he was “troubled” by the raids. His Instagram account urged folks just a few days later to mild a candle and pray for peace. That very same day, Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann and his auxiliary bishops posted a letter condemning the raids, which they maintained “invoke our worst instincts” and “unfold crippling worry and anxieties upon the hard-working, on a regular basis devoted amongst us.”
You realize issues are upside-down on this world when O.C. is extra down for immigrant rights than L.A.
Religion leaders lead a prayer vigil in Gloria Molina Grand Park on June 10 to face in assist of neighborhood members dealing with immigration raids in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
I needed to blast Gomez final week however held again, praying that he may change for the higher. So I’m pleased to report he’s beginning to.
On June 10, the identical day he posted his Instagram name for prayer, the archbishop additionally attended a night interfaith vigil together with Boyle, Busse and different religion leaders to inform a crowd of over 1,000 folks, “Immigration is about greater than politics — it’s about us, the type of folks we need to be.” Gomez requested all parishes within the L.A. Archdiocese the next day to carry particular Plenty with L.A.’s present immigration troubles in thoughts. He led the lunchtime one within the cathedral, telling parishioners throughout his homily, “We need to exit and console our neighbors and strengthen their hearts and encourage them to maintain the religion.”
Gomez saved his most stinging remarks for this Tuesday in his common column for Angelus Information, the archdiocese’s publication. Whereas not ready to withstand a shot on the Biden administration, the soft-spoken prelate nonetheless mentioned of Trump’s raids: “This isn’t coverage, it’s punishment, and it will possibly solely lead to merciless and arbitrary outcomes.” Accompanying his ideas was a photograph of a younger girl holding an indication that learn, “Jesus was an Immigrant” in entrance of California Freeway Patrol officers in riot gear.
“For him to point out up was significant,” Busse mentioned. Since Trump’s inauguration, Dolores Mission has hosted coaching for the fast response networks which have alerted folks about immigration raids. “However I hope there’s extra. The diocese has an enormous capability for organizing, and I hope that his management can transfer folks in a big method.”
Busse mentioned the primary intuition of too many spiritual leaders is “to step again into a spot of security” when controversy emerges. “However there’s additionally an invite to be courageous and brave. What we have to do is step into the scenario to carry the peace that we’re praying for.”
Joseph Tómas McKellar is govt director of PICO California, a faith-based neighborhood organizing community that co-sponsored the interfaith vigil final week the place Gomez spoke. The nonprofit used to show citizenship and English lessons within the L.A. Archdiocese and McKellar remembered Gomez attending a gathering of social justice teams in Modesto in 2017 as an energetic participant “in these small group conversations.”
The PICO California head mentioned Gomez’s current reemergence from his years within the political wilderness “was deeply encouraging. … Our bishops and the leaders of our denominations have a particular duty to train prophetic management. The prophets are those who denounce what’s damaged on this world, but in addition announce a special imaginative and prescient. I do see him extra embracing extra that decision and that problem to replicate.”
An archdiocese spokesperson mentioned Gomez was unavailable for remark as a result of he was at a retreat for america Convention of Catholic Bishops. Earlier this week , the group launched a mirrored image declaring, “Nobody can flip a deaf ear to the palpable cries of tension and worry heard in communities all through the nation within the wake of a surge in immigration enforcement actions.”
I’ve no expectations that Archbishop Gomez’s politics will ever absolutely replicate L.A.’s progressive soul. He stays the one American bishop affiliated with the orthodox Opus Dei motion and sits on the ecclesiastical advisory board for the Napa Institute, a corporation of wealthy Catholics that has labored mightily over the previous decade to tilt the church rightward. Its co-founder, Orange County-based multimillionaire developer Tim Busch, wrote earlier this yr with no irony that Trump’s administration “is probably the most Christian I’ve ever seen” and informed The Occasions in 2023 that Gomez “is one among my closest advisors.”
However I’m glad Gomez is shifting in the correct course, proper when town wants him probably the most. I proceed to wish his voice will get bolder and stronger and that the area’s thousands and thousands of Catholics — and all Angelenos, for that matter — comply with the archbishop’s name to motion to assist immigrants whereas pushing him to do extra.
I hope Gomez retains in his coronary heart what Busse informed me close to the top of our chat: “If the religion neighborhood doesn’t get up when there’s an ethical concern to face up for, then I don’t know what occurs.”
