Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles, a statement from Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced today.
Archbishop Gomez, 58, will automatically become head of the three-county Archdiocese of Los Angeles, comprising approximately 5 million Catholics, upon Cardinal Roger Mahony’s retirement at age 75 on Feb. 27, 2011. A Mass of reception for Archbishop Gomez is scheduled for May 26. Cardinal Mahony will introduce Archbishop Gomez later today at a press conference.
“I welcome Archbishop Gomez to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with enthusiasm and personal excitement,” said Cardinal Mahony on his blog Cardinal Mahony Blogs L.A. “The auxiliary bishops and I are looking forward to working closely with him over the coming months until he becomes the archbishop early in 2011.
“I have known Archbishop Gomez since he became auxiliary bishop of Denver in 2001, and subsequently, the archbishop of San Antonio in 2004,” Cardinal Mahony added. “Over the years he has been a most effective leader working with priests serving the Spanish-speaking communities across the country, and his leadership in proclaiming the dignity and rights of our immigrant peoples has helped motivate many people to advocate for our immigrants.”
Born in Monterrey, Mexico, and spending his early priesthood in Texas, Archbishop Gomez will become the first Hispanic archbishop of Los Angeles. When he succeeds Cardinal Mahony in 2011, Archbishop Gomez will head the largest Catholic archdiocese in the United States, with more than 5 million members, 70% of them Hispanic.
“I’m very grateful to the Holy Father for giving me this opportunity to serve the Church with a mentor and leader like Cardinal Roger Mahony,” Archbishop Gomez said. “I’m grateful to the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, for supporting the Holy Father’s confidence in me. I will try with all my strength to earn that trust.”
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Praise be to God for giving us in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles such a good shepard.
“Perfect choice” for those on the ultra right, yet another bewildering and disheartening choice for many others. No doubt Opus Dei is elated with one of their own at the helm of the USA’s largest diocese. The extension of their influence is frightening.
Mahony turned out to be such a disappointment in his massive cover ups of ia. In that regard, Gomez couldn’t possibly do worse and probably will make improvements. We’ll wait and see. I’m glad to be in NY. At least we have a jolly conservative.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Great things are in store for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles!
If Opus Dei members and bishops serve faithfully in and for the Church, why is it disheartening that one should be the Bishop of the archdiocese of LA? Jesus said, “...Teach all that I have commanded you, for I will be with you always.”. Right and left are limited and primarily political terms. Christianity is about being faithful: the vertical dimension.
I doubt very much that Gomez is typically Right in an American sense. His views on immigration, for instance, are bound to be rather more nuanced.
His views on immigration are not nuanced, they are quite clear. He will not only do much good in LA, but in the whole nation. It’s great to see such a high-profile position going to “conservative” with a refreshingly Christian view of immigration! From a talk he gave in ‘08:
In Catholic teaching, the right to migrate is among the most basic human rights. It’s very close to the right to life. Why? Because God has created the good things of this world to be shared by all men and women—not just a privileged few.
That means that if a person can’t find the necessities of life for his family, he has the right to leave his country and to seek these things in some other country.
Now, it’s true that the right to immigration is not absolute. Church teaching recognizes the government’s right to regulate immigration. To weigh immigration’s impact on the economy and our national security.
But the Church also insists that no country can deny this basic human right out of exaggerated fears or selfishness. And Catholic teaching presumes that the more prosperous a country is, the more generous that country should be in welcoming foreigners.
We need to help our people and our leaders to examine their conscience in light of these principles of Catholic social teaching.
As we stress the Church’s moral principles, we need to be more sensitive to people’s fears. My friends, the opponents of immigration are also people of faith. Many of them, unfortunately, are Catholics. They are hard-working Americans, and our brothers and sisters.
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