Catholics around Southern California expressed joy Tuesday at the announcement that Archbishop Jose Gomez, from\u00a0San Antonio, will replace Cardinal Roger Mahony when he retires next year as\u00a0head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
Rev. Carlos Leon, parochial vicar of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana, said he has\u00a0followed Gomez\u2019s work in Texas and credited him with bringing many people to the priesthood. He hopes Gomez will be able to do the same in Los Angeles, especially with the city\u2019s large Latino population.<\/p>\n
"He will be able to reach out to more Spanish speakers because he will be able to understand us more deeply," Leon said. "He knows our roots."<\/p>\n
"We have to pray for him," Leon said. "We have to be pious and to pray for his success."<\/p>\n
Maria de Los Angeles-Garcia, 83, and her husband Eusebi Ramirez, 68, who were attending noon mass at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, known as \u201cLa Placita,\u201d also expressed strong support for Gomez.<\/p>\n
The couple said they were thrilled that Gomez was Latino and believed he would restore order and help rid the church of the problems that have long plagued it, such as the priest sex abuse scandals that have chased away members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy\u201d Gomez is Latino, said Maria, who added that she had been praying for a Latino archbishop, \u201csomeone saint enough to clean house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jorge Contreras, 68, who has worked as a church security guard for 20 years, said he was surprised when he heard the news that the new archbishop was Latino. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor him, it\u2019s a great thing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut not just for him, but for all Hispanics. We need change. We need someone who is going to understand our roots and culture and I think he\u2019s that kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salvador Landa, an administrator of the Saint Anne Church in Santa Ana, said\u00a0Gomez would attract more people to the church, not just because he is Spanish-speaking but because he\u00a0has a deep understanding of the Latino culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cCardinal Mahony spoke Spanish very well, but I think having a person coming from a Latin culture would make a difference,\u201d Landa said. <\/p>\n
He pointed out\u00a0Gomez\u2019s comments in his first news conference in\u00a0Los Angeles signaling his support for comprehensive immigration reform. <\/p>\n
\u201cSee, being Hispanic, since he knows the needs of the people, he will want to help people where they are at. He knows where people are coming from,\u201d Landa said. \u201cI used to be undocumented myself, a long time ago. I can connect to people because I know where they\u2019re coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, Landa said, Gomez has shown that he is able to reach more than just the Spanish-speaking communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s more important is that the new archbishop has the leadership, talent and abilities to lead the multicultural community in Los Angeles,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing Catholic, masses are said in so many languages in Los Angeles. What\u2019s important for the archbishop is that he can help grow their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landa\u2019s church in Santa Ana is more than 90% Latino, he said, with six out of 11 masses in Spanish. <\/p>\n
–My Thuan Tran in Orange County and Ruben Vives in Los Angeles <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Catholics around Southern California expressed joy Tuesday at the announcement that Archbishop Jose Gomez, from\u00a0San Antonio, will replace Cardinal Roger Mahony when he retires next year as\u00a0head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Rev. Carlos Leon, parochial vicar of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana, said he has\u00a0followed Gomez\u2019s work in Texas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}