The Vatican’s choice of a Mexican-born archbishop, Jose Gomez of San Antonio, as the next prelate of Los Angeles reflects the formal acknowledgment of a remarkable, decades-long shift in the center of gravity of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church — from Northeast to Southwest, from Eurocentric to Latino-dominated.
The 58-year-old Gomez has the potential to reshape the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over most of the next two decades, assuming he can successfully steer it past the shoals of a lingering sexual abuse crisis. In him, Pope Benedict XVI clearly saw a leader for a new kind of American church, one that is in sync with changing demographics but also adheres to Benedict’s traditional notions about Catholic theology.
“This is an epic moment in the life of the church in the United States,” Cardinal Roger Mahony said Tuesday as he introduced his successor during a news conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, itself a symbol of L.A.’s position as the new capital of U.S. Catholicism.
Gomez, who stood near Mahony, nodding and smiling slightly as he was introduced, struck a humble tone in his own remarks to reporters. “I know that God will give me the grace to serve this local church well, as Cardinal Mahony has done for so many fruitful years,” he said.
The RC Diocese of Monterey has a Mexican (rather, Mexican-American) Bishop. He was appointed a few years ago, when his predecessor (standard Irish-American) retired. Back then, I had been singing with the diocesan choir, so I got to meet the prior Bishop, as well as Cardinal Mahoney, very peripherally.
If you go to the official web site for the RC Diocese of Monterey, have a look at the Bishop’s web page. Notice that Jesus is not in the picture, but Guadaloupe (the Mexican Virgin) is very prominent. If you carefully look at the Bible he’s holding, it is a version of the New Community Bible, noted (I am told) for being translated into English from Spanish (rather than from Greek, Hebrew, Latin into English).
That sends quite a message, doesn’t it? The RC Church has been behind legalizing “undocumented” Mexican immigrants, but lately in this diocese, a portion of the yearly diocese collection is being set aside specifically for that purpose, if I understand the bulletin correctly.
Here at T19, it is often noted that many Christian churches have been losing membership in droves, but the more conservative ones (RC, Mormon) have been gaining. At least in RC, if you go to a Mass in California, you are likely to see an ever-dwindling small group of elderly Italians and Irish at the English language Mass, and an ever-growing large group of mostly Mexicans at the Spanish language Mass. It seems to me that cross-generations (children of the prior generation of faithful in the same community), the RC Church has been losing members even faster than TEC.
Wow, I knew there were a lot of Latino Catholics, but I’m still flabbergasted that 70% of the over 4 million RCs in the LA archdiocese are Hispanic. That’s incredible. And a former Opus Dei priest too. This could be an interesting episcopate to watch. May the Lord uphold him and make him strong and fruitful.
Hmmm. Interesting that the Archdiocese of LA is more than twice the size of the entire Episcopal Church. ++Jose Gomez has his work cut out for him.
David Handy+
Kudos for the Vatican on this one! They get it!! I guess it is the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles with the tunnel vision. In an area teeming with Hispanics, many of them unchurched, the mainly white liberal convention delegates pick a lilly white partnered lesbian as bishop. One wonders what they were thinking….church growth and diversity it obviously wasn’t!
Blessings
Seraph
This appointment will never bring them the kind of growth the TEC is seeing in dioceses like Navajoland.