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Just days after federal immigration agents raided Los Angeles’ Fashion District in June, LA Archbishop José H. Gomez took the stage with other faith leaders at nearby Grand Park, declaring in front of hundreds that everyone — including immigrants — had fundamental rights.
The archbishop then seemed to take a swipe at President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as he asserted that all men and women have dignity.
“This beautiful belief is what makes America great,” said Gomez, who leads the LA Archdiocese, the nation’s largest Catholic community.
To Catholics like Angel Mortel, a lead organizer with the multifaith organization LA Voice, this moment was incredibly meaningful amid so much chaos. Protests against the raids had erupted downtown. Demonstrators were being tear-gassed at marches. The National Guard arrived in the city. With so much fear and uncertainty, Mortel was inspired by the simple fact that Gomez showed up, noting that Catholic leadership is often absent from interfaith actions.
“I hadn’t seen that from him previously. I felt very hopeful that this could signal an opening for more Catholic participation in speaking out against the raids and other injustices,” said Mortel, a parishioner at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights.
Since the raids began in LA County — a region where 83% of all parishes offer Spanish-language Mass — the LA Archdiocese has supported immigrants in various ways. It has provided training to about 180 priests, deacons and religious sisters to accompany immigrants to their court hearings. An archdiocesan funding initiative was established to help immigrants. LA Archdiocese bishops visited detainees at the Adelanto Detention Center in December, celebrating Mass with undocumented immigrants held at the facility.
But to some Catholic leaders and organizers, there’s room for more. They’re yearning for Gomez, an immigrant from Mexico, to be more available at protests, vigils and press conferences — just as he was last summer. They want to see him publicly denounce what they see as an ongoing assault on human dignity, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids indiscriminately targeting Latinos and at times turning deadly.
“There’s so much more space for a prophetic voice,” Mortel said, lamenting that Gomez’s reserved personality sometimes limits public action, even as his influence “would reverberate across the United States.”
Right now, the influence of Gomez — a well-established advocate of immigrant rights — is not clearly trickling down to all parishioners.
Alicia, a Catholic from Koreatown, said there is “no support” from the archdiocese in protecting immigrants. She wants to see Catholic leaders meeting with politicians and petitioning for immigration reform that can benefit hardworking immigrant families. Alicia, who is undocumented and did not want her last name published for safety reasons, was not familiar with Gomez’s efforts to help immigrants.
“I think it’s because he [Gomez] doesn’t come out to say, “‘Well, here I am. I want to help. I want to do something,” she said. “We know he’s there, but beyond that, we don’t know much about him.”
Alberto Avila, a parishioner at Our Lady of Solitude Church in East LA, said he’s learned of archdiocesan efforts helping immigrants during Mass. “I heard that they were providing a lot of support to people who don’t want to go out or who are afraid to leave their homes,” Avila said.
On the archbishop’s role during this time, Avila said: “I put myself in his shoes, I imagine his role is to guide the parishes, and the parishes are the ones who communicate with us.”
Isaac Cuevas, the director of immigration and public affairs for the LA Archdiocese, credits Gomez with encouraging priests and deacons to get involved, sparking the visit to detainees in Adelanto.
“People know and understand who the archbishop is and where his heart is, and that he stands with immigrants,” Cuevas added. “But, the other thing is that he’s got a tremendous amount of responsibility, and he does the best he can with balancing his commitments.”
Cuevas said it’s challenging for the archbishop to “drop everything at a moment’s notice every time there’s a rally for anything.”
That’s why, Cuevas said, auxiliary bishops can be present when Gomez cannot. In November, for example, Auxiliary Bishop Matt Elshoff joined LA Mayor Karen Bass and Angelica Salas of CHIRLA for a procession leading up to an immigration congressional hearing in LA.
Credit: Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
To Catholics, human dignity is considered a gift from God and the foundation of a moral vision for society.
The ICE-inflicted violence against immigrants and U.S. citizens — in places like LA and Minneapolis — threatens that principle, said Lloyd Barba, a professor of religion at Amherst College.
“As Catholics, we’re supposed to speak to the dignity of humans, and the failure to do that when the state is dehumanizing people is a pressure point,” he said.
Barba is well aware of Gomez’s “big moment in June.”
“The eyes of the country were on Los Angeles, and when you are the archbishop in Los Angeles, where all of these immigration raids are going down, you’ve got to have something to say,” Barba said.
Now, Barba said, the issue is how to “sustain that energy and to sustain that prophetic witness.”
Gomez has faced criticism in recent years for placing more focus on denouncing social justice movements and fighting culture war battles than supporting immigrant rights.
Many LA Catholics remember former LA Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony, who is regarded as one of the Catholic Church’s most outspoken advocates for immigrants.
During Ash Wednesday Mass in 2006, Mahony attacked an anti-immigrant bill and pledged a campaign of civil disobedience in the archdiocese’s parishes if it became law, the Washington Post reported.
In a 2010 panel at Fordham University, Mahony said Catholics should be “front and center” in fighting for immigration reform. “… Not only because it is a matter of justice, but also because it is part of our identity, of what we are as a church,” he said.
In Gomez, Barba said, “I don’t think we should expect a Mahony.”
“But, we might be pleasantly surprised … If he’s thinking of immigration, not as a culture war issue, but as a human rights issue, I think the context is going to push him more and more into action,” Barba said.
For Father Brendan Busse, who pastors Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, there’s an opportunity for more. With an organizing network as “unmatched” as the church has historically been, he wonders what could be possible if the archbishop encouraged all parishes to host “Know Your Rights” workshops and rapid response training. Dolores Mission, for example, has opened its sanctuary to organizations like Unión del Barrio to train residents on how to patrol their neighborhoods for ICE activity.
Busse also suggested more guidance on how trained priests can connect with those who need court accompaniment. Could the archbishop, Busse wondered, direct pastors to share a specified phone number during announcements after Mass that parishioners could call if they need accompaniment?
Busse, a Jesuit priest who has been at vigils and protests denouncing the raids, looks back to the archbishop’s presence at Grand Park as “a powerful moment for the whole city of Los Angeles.”
“He’s been advocating for many years for immigration reform. I think his style is to sometimes do that behind closed doors or in other places where advocacy happens, but to see him stand on stage and say very clearly that it’s not just about policy, it’s about human dignity, that was very powerful,” he said.
“In moments like this, we’re called to a kind of bravery, even taking some risks in stepping forward, stepping into the space when people are getting persecuted and rights are being violated, and lives are being lost.”
