Whispers in the Loggia and New Advent have exciting breaking news for the church in the US:
Pope Benedict will name Jose Gomez, 58, archbishop of San Antonio since February 2005, as coadjutor-archbishop of Los Angeles.
In the process, the native of Mexico — the lone American bishop professed as a numerary (full member) of Opus Dei — will make history, becoming the first Hispanic prelate placed in line for a Stateside red hat.
The appointment would bring to a close several months’ worth of intense consultation and speculation since word of Cardinal Roger Mahony’s request for an understudy began circulating late last year. A coadjutor will first spend some months learning the ropes alongside the 74 year-old cardinal before succeeding to the helm of the 5 million member local church — its Catholic population estimated to be three-quarters Latino — shortly after Mahony reaches the retirement age of 75 next February 27th.
Born in Monterrey and ordained for Opus Dei in 1978, Gomez served in Texas from 1987 in both Houston and San Antonio. A former executive director and president of the National Association of Hispanic Priests, in 2001 Pope John Paul II named him an auxiliary to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, then rocketed him into the lone senior US post customarily held by a Latin cleric on his appointment to San Antonio in late 2004. Six months after his installation there, TIME magazine named Gomez one of the nation’s 25 most influential Hispanics.
Praise God! Truly excellent news, and the Archbishop will be a tremendous blessing to the L.A. archdiocese, if he can get his assistant bishops to fall back in line with orthodoxy, something I have to question after seeing their “performances” at the LA education conference Mass.
Maybe we’ll see a new proliferation of the Latin Mass here now.
For a few years I’ve been hoping that Archbishop Gomez would be the successor to Cardinal Mahony. This is terrific news.
I don’t know how Archbishop Gomez governs, but my understanding is that he is an improvement over the previous archbishop of San Antonio, the Mahony of Texas Archbishop Flores.
I only hope that he is as orthodox as some of the comments are saying about him.
I don’t want an improvement over Cardinal Mahony, I want an orthodox bishop that will change the diocese back to being an orthodox Catholic diocese.
The ramification for Anglo Catholics is huge here too
Also see
Archbishop Gomez: Everything you need to know
http://www.thesacredpage.com/2010/04/archbishop-gomez-everything-you-need-to.html
I had been involved in various ministries in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for many years after entering the Church in 1997 and before moving to Houston in 2006. I worked for a brief time at the downtown chancery office as well (which I have to say I enjoyed immensely) several years ago. And yet, based on my very limited experience, I can only see things as benefiting from this transition. I think Archbishop Gomez is a good pick, and I wish him well. He has a lot of work ahead of him. St. JosemarÃa Escrivá, pray for us!
For the record, Cardinal Mahony seems happy with this pick: http://cardinalrogermahonyblogsla.blogspot.com/2010/04/coadjutor-archbishop-named.html
Does he have a choice? 😉