Appealing to “the base”: Los Angeles Archbishop celebrates along side a host of pro abortion, pro homosexual politicians.

Archbishop Gomez could have helped pass AB 60 and celebrated its passage without giving honor and credibility and obvious “vote-for-these-good pro-abortion and pro-homosexual Democrats” coverage on the front cover of his own weekly newspaper.

See what all the fuss is about

Editor’s note: I’m sure the archbishop engaged in very extensive dialog before appearing on the dais with all those glad-handed, morally bankrupt  political hacks. Perhaps Pope Francis will warn the Archbishop about the type of company he keeps.  But I doubt it!

I believe the old saying goes, “You lie down with dogs – you wake up with fleas.”  Or some variation thereof …

LA fallout: Only the pope has authority to deal with accusations against a cardinal, but the local bishop is the undisputed head of his particular church.

While Gomez’s decision to strip Mahony of his administrative duties and reduce his public role was unprecedented in the American Roman Catholic Church, Mahony can still act as a priest, keep his rank as cardinal and remain on a critical Vatican panel that elects the next pope.

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Archbishop Gomez: America’s story really started with Catholic missionaries.

Archbishop Gomez, who wrote his column from Rome after receiving the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI, said American Catholics need to see that the July 1 memorial of Bl. Junipero Serra and the Fourth of July “belong together.”

“America’s story starts with those Spanish missionaries. Our national character and identity are deeply marked by the Gospel values they brought to this land,” he said, noting the many places named in Spanish for saints, sacraments and other objects of faith.

“The Mass was being celebrated here years before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” he said, deeming this missionary legacy to be part of the identity of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

“California was among the first outposts for the evangelization of America. California must now become a leader in the new evangelization of our country,” the archbishop wrote.

Participants in the new evangelization should bring the signs of God’s love to Los Angeles and to the world. The archbishop cited Bl. Junipero’s comments that Missions will provide this country with “what is most important – the light of the Holy Gospel.”

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Immigrants and a new priest have revitalized a failing Los Angeles church

by Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times

May 26, 2010

His parishioners describe Father Paul Griesgraber as “old school,” a term that is almost laughably open to interpretation, given the 2,000-year history of his particular school, the Roman Catholic Church. In his case, it is used with affection and respect to describe a priest who trusts in the majesty of the Catholic Mass and invests it with deep spirituality — in both English and Spanish.

He is also a priest who brings people streaming through the doors of his church, St. Catherine of Siena in Reseda, a place that, in many ways, reflects the larger Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Once largely white, St. Catherine’s is now mostly Latino. Immigrants have pumped new life into the parish, and Spanish-language Masses draw larger crowds than those in English.

“The church was dead,” Olga Calderone, St. Catherine’s health director, said bluntly of the time before Griesgraber arrived last summer. “Now we are bringing the cultures together. … This is the beauty that Father Paul has brought to our church.”

It is also what parishioners at St. Catherine’s hope the next archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, will bring to an archdiocese that has been battered in recent years by a devastating sexual abuse crisis even as it has grown to become by far the largest Catholic community in the nation.

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Good news from Los Angeles: gays, progressives and liberals hate to see Cardinal Mahoney go!

These are only some of the comments of a disappointed, openly gay priest who is no longer permitted to exercise priestly faculties:

Cardinal Mahony, wrote Fr. Farrow, “who likes to view himself as a progressive, would never voluntarily be replaced by a member of the ultra-reactionary group, Opus Dei. His replacement by someone from Opus Dei clearly communicates that Mahony has lost all practical influence in Rome and was not able to name his successor.”

“What does this mean for the future of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles and California?” asked Farrow. “It means a sharp thrust to the right. The Archbishop of Los Angeles does not merely run the church in LA; he also has tremendous influence on naming the bishop in its associated sees (i.e. San Diego, Orange, Monterey, Fresno, and Riverside) and Region XI, which includes the rest of California. Many of these sees will soon require new bishops and Gomez will have tremendous influence in naming who those bishops will be. He will also reshape the education and formation of new priests for the whole region since St. John’s Seminary, where priests are trained and formed, is under his direct control.”

“(Archbishop) Gomez is an excellent choice from the perspective of Rome,” wrote Fr. Farrow. “He is a member of Opus Dei and therefore ‘orthodox’ and more importantly subservient to Rome. He is a Latino who speaks broken English with a heavy Spanish accent and possesses a populist ‘easy going’ demeanor. He will be a huge hit with Latinos in Southern California and politicians will think twice before confronting Gomez on any point.”

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Editor’s note: After a long string of various scandals and embarrassments, plus some $600 million in abuse settlements, things (finally) appear to be looking up for left-coast Catholics!