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Lost in Translation: The Media Isn't Getting Archbishop Gomez

by Alejandro Bermudez 

The Vatican’s selection of Archbishop José Gomez to succeed Cardinal Roger Mahony as Archbishop of Los Angeles is an historical landmark. Gomez will become the first Hispanic to lead Los Angeles, the largest diocese in the United States. He will also become the first Hispanic cardinal from the United States, which signals that the Vatican understands how important Hispanics will be to the future of the Church in the U.S.

Unfortunately, the core of this epochal decision has been lost on a secular media absorbed with its own agenda. Reporters have focused on Gomez’s “take” on the sex scandal and the pope, his relationship with Opus Dei, or if he will support labor unions as much as Cardinal Mahony does.

After a mediocre initial report and an openly hostile opinion column, the Los Angeles Times decided it might be a good idea to find out what Hispanics in L.A.’s barrios think. In a story buried deep in the paper, they discovered a “pervasive sense of pride, even elation, greeted the news that a compatriot would become the heir apparent.” The article continued with more reactions:

“Of course it makes you feel good. He’s one of us; he understands us,” said Juan Bramusco, 60, originally from Mexico's Zacatecas state. Many agreed that such an appointment was long overdue in an archdiocese that is now 70% Latino.

... “It’s a recognition of the numbers, basically,” said a delighted Msgr. David O'Connell, pastor of St. Michael, as he directed parishioners to the various events Tuesday evening. The sex-abuse scandals that have battered the church's global image don't seem to have deflated attendance at St. Michael and other Southern California parishes brimming with new Latino immigrants ...

According to Tod Tamberg, an archdiocesan spokesman quoted by the Times, “a number of churches founded in the early 20th century in the core areas of Los Angeles that were left near empty as a result of migration to the suburbs filled up again with the immigration that began in the 1980s.

“The Virgin of Guadalupe, the transcendent standard-bearer of Mexican Catholicism, has become a ubiquitous symbol whose feast day is celebrated with mariachis even at wealthy St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his family worship,” the article added.

The Times could have written much more about L.A.’s Catholic resurgence, but more importantly, it could have written about Archbishop Gomez in a substantive and thoughtful way that avoids the clichés of the “Conservative vs. Liberal” paradigm.

In a little-known speech delivered in 2008 to the Missouri episcopal conference, Archbishop Gomez gave a rare glimpse into his personal views on one of the most hot button topics in America today: immigration.

Avoiding grandstanding, he said the issue “is deeply personal for me.”

“I come to this debate as both an American citizen and an immigrant, born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico,” he explained. “Some of my ancestors were in what’s now Texas, since 1805. (At that time it was still under Spanish rule.) I’ve always had family and friends on both sides of the border. So I have many conflicting emotions about the way this debate has played out in recent years.” 

In the speech, Archbishop Gomez quoted Emperor Julian the Apostate complaining that Christians’ care for strangers and their example of holiness was contributing to the spread of “atheism.” (He called Christians “atheists” because they didn’t believe in the pagan gods.)

“It is disgraceful that when … the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men should see how our people lack aid from us,” the pagan emperor had written.

“My friends, my point in this little history lesson is this,” Archbishop Gomez commented. “From the beginning there was something very different about Christians. Something even their enemies, like Julian, couldn’t help but notice – and admire, no matter how reluctantly.”

“The Church’s interest in immigration is not a recent development,” he said. “It doesn’t grow out of any political or partisan agenda. No. It is a part of our original religious identity as Catholics, as Christians. We must defend the immigrant if we are to be worthy of the name Catholic.”

Archbishop Gomez has always admitted, as he said in that conference, that “we need to be more sensitive to people’s fears. The opponents of immigration are also people of faith. Many of them are Catholics. They are hard-working Americans, and our brothers and sisters. They are afraid. And their fears are legitimate… they’re afraid that an influx of foreign workers will drive down their wages or cause them to lose their jobs. These are not baseless fears. And as this financial crisis unfolds… those fears are only going to get worse.”

“The fact is that millions of immigrants are here in blatant violation of U.S. law,” he continued. “This makes law-abiding Americans angry. And it should. Why should they obey the laws if others aren’t punished for breaking them? As advocates, we can’t ignore this fact or somehow argue that our immigration laws don’t matter.”

Then he made one of the most interesting, but little considered proposals to tackle the immigration issue:

The Church needs to be a voice for mercy as well as justice. We have to insist that those who come to our country respect our laws. If they are here illegally, they can’t expect to escape punishment. But I would suggest that intensive, long-term community service would be a far more constructive solution than deportation. This would build communities rather than tear them apart. And it would serve to better integrate the immigrants into the social and moral fabric of America.

There is much more to say about Archbishop Gomez’s mind and thought. At least this much is a good starting point.

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)