Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez and the late Pope Francis assumed their positions two years apart.
Both were pioneering Latinos — Gomez became the first Mexican-born head of the largest U.S. archdiocese in 2011, and Francis became the first pontiff from the Americas in 2013.
Both inherited messes left by their predecessors — Gomez needed to right his L.A. see after decades of sex abuse scandals under Cardinal Roger Mahony, and Francis had to figure out how to rule in the shadow of Benedict XVI, the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.
Each came from religious movements long controversial in the Catholic world — the progressive Jesuits for Francis, the conservative Opus Dei for Gomez. They both earned plaudits for doing the hard work of ministering from blue-collar cities — Buenos Aires for Francis, San Antonio for Gomez. That’s why Catholics worldwide warmly welcomed them — and crowned them with the expectation to make history.
After his death the day after Easter at age 88, Francis was hailed for pushing Catholics and others to forsake egotism and materialism in favor of a kinder, more tolerant world focused above all on the marginalized.
The man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio oversaw a church that grew from 1.3 billion Catholics when he started to 1.4 billion today, according to Vatican figures. His reign was not perfect, and his liberal creed antagonized enough conservative Catholics that a counter-movement has emerged in the U.S., complete with its own conferences, private schools and publications. History will nevertheless remember Francis as a pope of consequence, who met the proverbial moment in a way that would make St. Peter proud.
In a statement after Francis’ death, Archbishop Gomez prayed for Catholics to remember the pope’s call “to urgent tasks that are still not finished,” such as standing with society’s downtrodden, evangelizing and creating a peaceful world.
It’s a nice sentiment, and I hope Gomez really takes it to heart.
In an area that used to produce influential Catholic churchmen the way the Dodgers churned out Rookies of the Year, Gomez has amounted to the living equivalent of a hair shirt: a mode of piety that serves no one but the wearer.
Los Angeles has changed mightily since Gomez started here 14 years ago. The poor have gotten poorer, and the rich have retreated to their camera-protected homes. Corruption has infected the body politic, leaving a chasm in local leadership desperate for someone to fill. In the last five years, Angelenos have weathered COVID, the City Hall audio leak scandal, the Palisades and Eaton fires, and now the specter of tariffs and immigration raids devastating a global city.
Yet Gomez has largely urged his flock to lead contemplative lives in the name of Jesus, Mary and the Saints, which pales to the witness practiced not just by Francis but by many in the L.A. Archdiocese itself.
A photograph of Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell is set near the entrance of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in 2023. O’Connell was gunned down at his home in Hacienda Heights.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Here is where Father Luis Olivares defied church and government officials to make La Placita Church a sanctuary for Central American refugees during the 1980s. Where Father Gregory Boyle created Homeboy Industries to bring dignity and meaning to the lives of former gang members. Where since the 1980s, Father John Moretta has counseled parishioners at Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights on the troubles that afflict their neighborhood.
Where one of Gomez’s own auxiliary bishops, the late David O’Connell, fought environmental racism on behalf of Black parishioners in South L.A., stood with striking hotel workers and prayed with parishioners outside Planned Parenthood clinics. Where members of the Catholic Worker serve free meals on Skid Row.
When I think of those examples and so many more, I think of Pope Francis. I don’t think of Gomez — and that’s a shame.
There was a time when the archbishop seemed as if he would work in that realm of the Beatitudes. In 2013, he released a book titled “Immigration and the Next America” that advocated for comprehensive immigration reform and the worth of all people coming into this country. As recently as 2020, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels rang its bells in memory of George Floyd, while Gomez used his regular letter to Angelenos to decry racism as “a blasphemy against God” and urged everyone to “root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society.”
But as L.A. became more progressive, Gomez retreated into his conservatism.
During his three years as the first Latino head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Gomez pursued culture war nonsense instead of actual issues. When Joe Biden, a liberal and a lifelong Catholic, was inaugurated president, the archbishop penned a letter accusing him of planning to “advance moral evils” like gay marriage, abortion rights and employer-funded contraception.
That same year, Gomez traveled to Spain to deliver a speech trashing “woke” culture. Two years later, when the Dodgers honored for its charitable work a drag troupe that dresses in nuns’ habits, Gomez held what he described as a Mass of “healing” that amounted to an attempted exorcism on behalf of the whole city.
Of all the reasons Gomez could have held a commemorative service in the City of Angels, this was it?
As the College of Cardinals meets at the Vatican in the coming weeks to elect Francis’ successor, Gomez, a mere archbishop, will stay home. He has about two more years before he has to send the next pope the letter of resignation required of all bishops and cardinals when they turn 75.
To Archbishop Gomez, I say: Repent of your underwhelming tenure. Find inspiration from the passing of Papá Francisco. Give L.A. the succor it needs, while you still have time.
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