LOS ANGELES — The pope Tuesday appointed Archbishop Jose Gomez, former auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Denver, as the next head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a move that underscores the growing importance of Latinos in the American church and which could spotlight the nation’s largest diocese in the coming debate over immigration reform.
The appointment was also evidence that Pope Benedict XVI wants a strong defender of orthodoxy at the helm in Los Angeles, an archdiocese whose membership is nearly three-quarters Latino.
Gomez, 58, is an archbishop of Opus Dei, the conservative movement favored by the Vatican. The Mexican-born Gomez was named coadjutor for Los Angeles, which means he will take over the archdiocese when current archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony retires Feb. 27, his 75th birthday.
Gomez, who now leads the Archdiocese of San Antonio, appeared at the downtown Los Angeles cathedral, taking most questions in Spanish and vowing to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority. He noted the first four bishops of the Los Angeles territory were Latino, and his appointment is a return to the church’s roots.
“It’s one of the great Catholic communities in the world,” he said. “Los Angeles, like no other city in the world, has the global face of the Catholic Church.”
Gomez recently was elected chair of the Committee on Migrants and Refugee Services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and will be the voice of the Catholic Church on immigration reform, said Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
In Denver, Gomez was the driving force behind the creation of Centro San Juan Diego, a formation center for lay leaders and a social-services center for immigrants. About 30,000 adults visited the center last year to learn English and computer skills and obtain free legal advice to gain citizenship and fight deportation.
Victim support groups renewed claims Tuesday that Gomez was unresponsive to their concerns about the handling of several clergy abuse cases involving members of separate religious orders. Church officials have said appropriate actions were taken by those orders against the priests.
The abuse crisis did not factor in Gomez’s tenure in Denver. By the time allegations started coming to light in 2005, Gomez had moved on to Texas.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
