Founded 1890
St. Mary's Catholic Church
1600 East Avenue, R4
Palmdale, CA 93550
Phone: (661) 947-3306 Fax: (661) 947-8687
A Parish of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los
Angeles, CA
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STATEMENT ON THE BEATIFICATION OF
BLESSED POPE JOHN PAUL II
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
I am overjoyed that the Church is declaring Pope John Paul II to be
“blessed.” His beatification will be a beautiful grace for the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles, for California, and for all the nations of the Americas and
the rest of the world. I feel connected to Blessed John Paul by bonds of
filial affection and deep ties of grace. I was a new priest, ordained just
three months, when he was named Pope on October 22, 1978. He called me to be
a bishop in 2001 and, not long before his death in 2005, he called me to be
an archbishop. I knew him as a wise and holy spiritual father. And I feel
the hand of Providence at work in his being beatified as I begin my ministry
here in Los Angeles. Blessed John Paul’s teaching and personal witness
continue to inspire my pastoral ministry. He was a great apostle, a witness
to the resurrection for our time. He taught us that Jesus Christ is the
answer to every human question. In the encounter with Christ, he told us, we
discover God’s merciful face and find the true meaning of our lives. He told
us that in Christ we are all called to be holy, to live our lives for God’s
glory and for the love and service our neighbors. And he
called us to join him in building a civilization of love and a culture of
life. These were not original ideas. They are the essence of the Gospel.
Blessed John Paul’s gift was to make the Christian ideal seem new again. He
lived the Gospel with a passion and intelligence that was compelling and
attractive. He made the Catholic way of life look so beautiful, so alive. He
inspired many to want to follow him, to share the joy of his friendship with
Jesus Christ, to dedicate themselves to what he called the “high standard of
ordinary Christian living.”
Blessed John Paul visited nearly every region of the United States, from
Alaska to Miami and from Boston to Los Angeles. Millions of Americans heard
him speak. He honored the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with a pastoral visit
on Sept. 15–16, 1987. He was welcomed by then-Archbishop Roger Mahony and
retired Cardinal Timothy Manning. He met with cultural leaders and leaders
of other religions. He visited with Catholic school children. He celebrated
Mass at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, at Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum. He gathered all the bishops of the United States here to
meet and to pray together. He used his visit to Los Angeles to make a
special act of entrusting our nation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His message
to our local Church was bold: We must remember the deep Christian and
immigrant roots of our region and nation. He reminded us: before the
American Revolution, Blessed Junípero Serra and the Franciscans were
preaching the Gospel and celebrating the Eucharist in this land. He told us
that our local Church is an icon of what Christ intends his Catholic Church
to be — one family of God drawn from every nation, race and culture. He drew
this beautiful portrait of our Church: “Today in the Church in Los Angeles:
Christ is Anglo and Hispanic. Christ is Chinese and Black. Christ is
Vietnamese
and Irish. Christ is Korean and Italian. Christ is Japanese and Filipino.
Christ is Native American, Croatian, Samoan, and many other ethnic groups.
“In this local Church, the one risen Christ, the one Lord and Savior, is
living in each person who has accepted the Word of God and been washed clean
in the saving waters of baptism. And the Church, with all her different
members, remains the one Body of Christ, professing the same faith, united
in hope and in love.” Blessed John Paul sowed the seeds for a new springtime
of holiness and Christian mission. Those seeds are already bearing fruit in
the lives of millions of Catholics and others. I pray that his beatification
will lead many more to be inspired by his life and teachings — in Los
Angeles, and throughout our continent and world.
A time for Catholic action and Catholic voices
January 26, 2012
Last Thursday in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a remarkable address to a
group of visiting American bishops.
Our Holy Father praised America’s founders for their commitment to religious
liberty and their belief that Judeo-Christian
moral teachings are essential to shaping citizens and democratic
institutions. The Pope warned that our heritage of religious freedom faces
“grave threats” from the “radical secularism” of political and cultural
opinion leaders who are “increasingly hostile to Christianity.”
Last Friday, the day after the Pope’s address, our federal government issued
a ruling that confirmed his worst fears about our country’s antireligious
and anti-Christian drift. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
announced a final decision to mandate that every U.S. employer must provide
health insurance coverage that makes birth control, sterilization, and even
abortion-causing drugs available to its employees free of charge. The
government rejected the U.S. bishops’ efforts to negotiate an exemption for
faith-based employers — including Catholic hospitals, charities and colleges
— that are morally opposed to abortion and contraception. Instead, the
government is giving us until August 2013 to obey or suffer the consequences
— fines so large they could drive some Catholic employers out of business.
It is hard not to see this new mandate as a direct attack on Catholic
consciences and the freedom of our Catholic institutions.
The mandate does not promote any civil liberties and it does not advance any
significant public health goals.
The government justifies the mandate by arguing that employers who do not
provide these services are discriminating against women. But access to free
contraception has never been a basic human right. And there is no evidence
that birth control has any effect on women’s health; pregnancy is not a
disease for which “preventive medicine” is required.
The Health Department justifies denying exemptions to Catholic charities,
hospitals and colleges because it says they are not really “religious”
institutions. This may be the most troubling part of this new mandate.
Because in effect, the government is presuming it has the competence and
authority to define what religious faith is and how believers should express
their faith commitments and relationship to God in society. These are powers
our government has never before assumed itself to have.
In this case, the government is imposing a narrow, radically individualistic
idea of religion — defining religion as only worship and moral teaching.
As many have noted, under this definition, much of what Jesus Christ did
would not qualify as a “religious” ministry. The fact is that everything the
Church does is “religious.” All our ministries and institutions are
motivated by our love for God and our mission to thespread the Gospel. We
don’t do these things because we are social workers or philanthropists. We
do them because we are disciples.
The Catholic Church is the only visible religious group in American public
life that holds consistent beliefs regarding the morality of life issues,
including abortion and contraception. And Catholic institutions make a major
contribution to our social fabric — healing, educating and caring for the
needs of millions of our fellow citizens, especially the poor. So it is hard
to escape the conclusion that the government is singling out the Church with
this new mandate.
But the issues here go far beyond contraception and far beyond the liberties
of the Catholic Church. They go to the heart of our national identity and
our historic understanding of our democratic form of government. There will
be much more to say about this in the weeks ahead. But this is clear: Now is
a time for Catholic action and for Catholic voices. We need lay leaders to
step up to their responsibilities for the Church’s mission. Not only to
defend our faith and our rights as Catholics, but to be leaders for moral
and civic renewal, leaders in helping to shape the values and moral
foundations of America’s future.
In his address last Thursday, Pope Benedict gave us some prophetic advice
for these troubling times.
Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed
Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant
culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which
would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the
issues which are determining the future of American society. The
preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing
articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a
primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the
new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of
catechetical programs at every level.
We need to pray for one another this week and we need to pray for our
leaders.
I entrust us to the intercession of the Mary Immaculate, Patroness of
America, and the Mother of Hope.
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
