The announcement that Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio has been appointed co-adjutor archbishop for Los Angeles and successor to Cardinal Mahony leaves the mainstream media very confused.
The media is alternately ecstatic and apoplectic over Pope Benedict’s choice for the city of Angels. Several news outlets, notably the LA Times, have already written several articles about what to expect from Archbishop Gomez and have even tried to send thinly-veiled warnings. But in most of the coverage, the media makes the same mistake that it always makes when it tries to cover religion like politics. They attempt to view all matters through the lens of politics and feel compelled to attempt to classify everything in terms of the modern political definitions of ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative.’
Trying to do this with Archbishop Gomez has left their collective heads spinning.
Archbishop Gomez is a Mexican-born hispanic. Hooray!
Archbishop Gomez is a full member of Opus Dei. Gasp!?!
Archbishop Gomez is a staunch defender of immigrants. Hooray, he is a progressive!
Archbishop Gomez is a staunch defender of life. (He even denounced a Catholic university when it invited Hillary Clinton.) Horror, he is a conservative!
Archbishop Gomez has a history of dedication to the poor. Progressive!
Archbishop Gomez is vocally opposed to homosexual marriage. Conservative!
I could go on. They are perplexed. How can a Bishop be ‘orthodox’—which in the mind of the media means ‘conservative’ and uncaring—and still dedicated to the poor and the defenseless?
A one word answer: Catholic. What the media consistently does not get is that ‘orthodoxy’ in a truly Catholic sense entails love for all the teachings of Jesus, as handed down through the Church including the command to love.
Archbishop Gomez loves the Church, the poor, the homosexual, the immigrant, and the unborn all at the same time. He is Catholic.
So when the media reports on the Church, they should take off the politically-colored glasses of red and blue and remember one thing. It’s the love, stupid.
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Beautiful piece. Insightful and witty. And if I may add a detail about love, it would be the order. Loving God first brings about true love for people. That will make it real and burn-out proof. The other way around, “loving” people to first without regard to God ends up in failure as Judas, a vocal advocate of the poor, has shown.
This seems to happen everytime a very orthodox, and dare I say traditional minded, Bishop gets appointed somewhere.
I remember when I was in Detroit and Vigneron was appointed to replace Cardinal Maida. Now, Cardinal Maida was a well loved man by many both in and out of the faith, but not necessarily because of what his particular beliefs about the faith were. Instead it was about his name, longevity, public works, etc… But as we learned more about Abp. Vigneron, the same type of reports popped up. Near the end, it almost seemed as if the two were running against one another in a RACE for Archbishop, and we would have to vote on it. Of course, all of this was done in couched terms, so as to not have the media be accused of having any religious or theological bent to them at all.
It is really easy for casual Catholics to fall into the trap. The problem is that - such reporting creates two “sides.” Casual “conservatives” can fall into it just as easily as casual “progressives.” Once that split exists, the media has effectively won in their agenda. That is why I think you hit the nail square on the head: this is about a CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP.
The faith shouldn’t have two co-equal sides to it. Instead it should have CATHOLIC ORTHODOXY and… something less than. Yes, there are seemingly opposite “Sides” here, but they are far from co-equal. If we convince anyone of this idea though, what happens then is that we could not celebrate the “less than Orthodox” as a “champion” of a different Catholic slant, ... if the media can’t do that, they may have no use for the religion at all. If the media loses the “progressive” Catholic as an ally they may have to go back to bashing them every chance they get… Oh wait…
My favorite headline came from The Telegraph in Britain .....
POPE’S ‘REVENGE’ AS LA GETS OPUS DEI BISHOP
Payback to Hollywood for producing Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code.
I emailed the authors of the LA Times article that had the idiotic headline of “Gomez is both progressive and conservative” and made all these points to them. I got a very funny email back from Scott Gold, one of the authors, in which he claimed that the only possible way to analyze the church is in terms of modern political categories.
Reminds me of the observations that Chesterton made in Orthodoxy (which is timeless). We are Catholic. That’s all and that’s everything. For many, that’s too much to bear.
Great article!
Michael C: How sad that the only way a reporter/journalist/author can view the world and especially The Church is colored through the lens modern political categories. It should be the other way around: the true only way to analyze the world and modern political categories/parties is through the lens of The Church.
Pat,
I’ll take Opus Dei over Opus Times.
Lauren: If all one has is a hammer, then everything else looks like a nail. Or, one does not give what one does not have. (Nemo dat quod non habet.) So, we cannot expect much from the secular press. All they know is the world. It would be nice to have something like a Catholic USA Today but isn’t that what the NCRegister is for?
Lauren…thanks for reminding us of that wonderful quote from Chesterton!
It should become the “motto” for all within the walls of the
Church while doing away with the political labels. Every time a
member of the media tries to distort real Catholicism this way
he/she should be brought up short!!! and reminded with this quote
of GK! Again, thanks!
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