Joyful noise was made upon hearing the appointment of San Antonio's archbishop, José Horacio Gomez, S.T.D., 58, as the next archbishop of Los Angeles (the 5th).
The spin doctors (Peters and Palmo) are rejoicing in their common prediction that His Excellency would be chosen by the Holy Father to pastorally lead the Los Angeles Catholics but most of reasonable sense could have predicted this gesture. Of course we know that they have the pulse on the Church in America!
Archbishop Gomez is the first Mexican-American to lead an archdiocese in the USA and he's also the first member of the Prelature of the Holy Cross (Opus Dei) to do so.
Archbishop Gomez faces a sizeable challenge as the new shepherd of LA: 5 million Catholics (of 11 million people) in 3 counties (87,000 sq miles), 288 parishes in 120 cities, 224 grammar schools, 50 high schools. 70% of the Catholics are Latino.
Thanks be to God for Archbishop Gomez's positive response to the Lord's call to serve in this way.
Take a look at some of Archbishop Gomez's writings:
The Encounter with Jesus Christ and the New Evangelization of American Culture (2007)
Disciples and Teachers of the Word: Living the Gospel Message of Reconciliation (2007)
Immigration in 21st-Century America: Its Root Causes and the Obligations of Catholic Social Teaching (2008)
To Seek God in the Spirit of Truth (2008)
La predicación y la enseñanza: Evangelization, Education, and the Hispanic Catholic Future (2009)
Men of Brave Heart: The Virtue of Courage in the Priestly Life (OSV, 2009)
