Cardinal Mahony Retires, Passes Leadership in LA to Archbishop Gomez

By Benjamin Mann
3/1/2011
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

On Sunday, March 6, one week after the transition, Archbishop Gomez will celebrate his inaugural Mass as Archbishop of Los Angeles.

Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES, CA. (CNA/EWTN News) - With the retirement of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has taken over leadership of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the United States.

"L.A. is home for me now," the Mexican-born archbishop told the cardinal and the assembled worshipers at a Mass marking the transition of leadership on Feb. 27. "I pray that I will be worthy of continuing the work that you have begun here."

Before a crowd of 3,500 faithful at Los Angeles' Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Cardinal Mahony ceremonially passed on his crozier to Archbishop Gomez, investing him with the traditional staff that symbolizes the leadership of the local bishop. On that same day, his 75th birthday, the cardinal submitted his resignation in a faxed letter to Pope Benedict XVI.

On Sunday, March 6, one week after the transition, Archbishop Gomez will celebrate his inaugural Mass as Archbishop of Los Angeles.

At the transition Mass, Archbishop Gomez graciously thanked the cardinal for his leadership of the archdiocese over the course of 26 years. Cardinal Mahony's legacy, he said, is "a Church that radiates the love of God and the truth of the Gospel."

"He has shown us what Christ wants his Church to be - a communion of cultures and a communion of saints, one family of God drawn from every country, race, and language." The archbishop said that Cardinal Mahony "has helped us open our hearts, to love God and to love our brothers and sisters."

As the largest archdiocese in the country, Los Angeles is home to more than 5 million Catholics, 70 percent of whom are Hispanic. Archbishop Gomez, who was born in the Mexican city of Monterrey and later became a U.S. citizen, will be the first Hispanic Archbishop of Los Angeles.

He told the crowd that he hoped to continue Cardinal Mahony's work by inviting people of all backgrounds to participate in the life of the Church.

"I am inspired by his love for the immigrant, for the strangers in our midst," Archbishop Gomez said. "I am challenged by his call for us to live the Gospel - to find Christ among the poor, to love the immigrant as our neighbor and our friend."

Archbishop Gomez also spoke of the centrality of the priesthood to his own life, and the life of the Church.

"Cardinal Mahony knows it. Our brother priests know it," he reflected. "To be his priests, this becomes the reason why we live. To bring Jesus to people, and to bring people to Jesus."

"A priest is a priest forever," Archbishop Gomez pointed out. "And a good bishop never forgets that he is, first of all, a priest." He told the crowd that Cardinal Mahony was "now able to return to full time priestly ministry."

"And that is such a beautiful thing - to be a priest," Los Angeles' new archbishop noted.

While returning to priestly ministry on a smaller scale, Cardinal Mahony will be working on the issue of immigration. He wrote recently that he was "encouraged by the prospects of helping these silent millions in our midst" during his retirement.

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Keywords: Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop Gomez, Archdiocese of Los Angeles,

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

Global Warming
2 years ago
This is catchy but misleading title repeated after LA Times. Abp. Gomez was appointed by the Holy Father and Card. Mahony has nothing to "pass" in this regard.
ChillaKilla
2 years ago
As a naturalized American citizen of Mexican descent I always found Card. Mahony's activism in favor of ILLEGAL immigrants extremely offensive and antagonizing to those of us who struggled to gain entrance into the US by legal means.

He, and other activists within the Church not only minimize the effort, expense and -yes- many times the humiliation those of us who chose to respect American laws endured while going through the tedious and protracted process the Immigration Dept imposed upon us, but they themselves are guilty of coddling those who break such laws and further encourage others to do so; and that has to be wrong.

I don't think that either Bible or the Catechism teach it is morally right to ignore a country's laws,other than those that are clearly unjust or immoral. In fact, Christ, when pressed, taught that one must "give Caesar what is Caesar's..." which clearly implied He Himself felt compelled to obey; hence, Mahony's attitude is one of arrogance and disrespect, not only for his own government, but for the teachings of his Church.,

Further, the Cardinal's attitude is naive in many respects. He ignores the conditions which either tempt, or -in many- cases force those who choose to risk the perils of their illegal journey. Yes, some of the people he gives protection and comfort to are hard working, honest people pressed by dire conditions, but many more among them are people with criminal backgrounds seeking adventure, illegal profit and the opportunity to take advantage of the trusty nature of those who suffer their presence.

Those of us who lived in Mexico and know the culture can, by the appearance of many of the illegal immigrants, recognize and differentiate among the types of people who are now here, seeking to obtain amnesty. These are people we avoided and were afraid of. Many were the petty thieves, burglars, rapists, vagrants drunkards, drug pushers and cons whom Mexicans in general are none to glad to be rid of.
Wealthy Mexicans depend on getting those people out of their country to preserve their ostentatious lifestyle, which now they manage to guard by hiding in their luxurious homes, behind 15 foot walls topped with broken shards of glass, in order to deter being invaded.

Not only that, but the Mexican government, by instructing illegals on how to break American laws, is trying to rid itself of its problems -the criminal element, the unskilled and uneducated- by exporting them to this country! There is no love in Mexico for the US. I was educated for several years in Mexican schools and the textbooks were full of anti-American propaganda, resentment and indoctrination. Is American's attitude a case of 'turning the other cheek? Why is America amenable to being taken advantage of by people who do not want to assimilate but only take advantage of the system?

What Mahony and others like him are doing - especially in this ties of hardship and unemployment in this country- is undermining the American worker. That is not in accordance with a 'Christian spirit' - that is uncharitable and even treasonous to the people of this country and to those of us who have accomplished a measure of success by living within the law.

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