by John L. Allen Jr.
Paving the way for America’s first Latino cardinal, the Vatican announced April 6 that Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio has been named a coadjutor in Los Angeles, meaning that he will eventually succeed Cardinal Roger Mahony as leader of the archdiocese’s 4.3 million Catholics, the largest in the country in terms of population.
Gomez, 58, was ordained a priest in Opus Dei, and has a reputation as a defender of church teaching with a special emphasis on catechesis. Yet Gomez has also taken strong stands on social justice issues, especially immigrant rights, and people who have worked closely with him say he’s a practical figure willing to listen.
“He’s by no means an ideologue,” said Jesuit Fr. Allan Figueroa Deck, executive director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity of the U.S. bishops’ conference. “He’s very accessible, and fairly matter-of-fact in his approach to figuring out what works.”
Deck called Gomez’s appointment to Los Angeles “a great moment in the history of the Catholic church in the United States, a sign of the leadership that Latinos are exercising and need to exercise.”
Fr. David Garcia of San Antonio, who serves as a senior advisor to Catholic Relief Services, said that when Gomez arrived in San Antonio in early 2005, there was some trepidation that social justice ministries which had flourished under populist Archbishop Patrick Flores might suffer. In fact, Garcia said, that hasn’t been the case.
“He didn’t come in and squash anything,” Garcia said. “He encouraged what was already there, and gradually blended in some of his own priorities.”
That perception was echoed by Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, perhaps America’s best-known Hispanic Catholic theologian, who divides his time between San Antonio and Notre Dame.
“Any fears people had about him because of Opus Dei were quickly dispelled,” Elizondo said. “He’s a very moderate person. Ideological categories don’t really fit him.”
Elizondo said he was especially impressed by Gomez’s social concern.
“He often said that we can’t let San Antonio become like cities in Latin America, with a sharp distinction between rich and poor,” Elizondo said.
Garcia said another feature of Gomez’s personality is that he has both a strong personal vision, but also a capacity to listen.
“I’ve been in priests’ meetings where he would propose something, and it was pretty clear which way he wanted it to go,” Garcia said. “But if a good majority wanted to take another look at it, he would. It wasn’t always a foreordained conclusion.”
Gomez was born in Monterrey, Mexico, on December 26, 1951, into a fairly well-to-do family. His father was a doctor, and Gomez studied to become an accountant before eventually being ordained a priest in 1978. In college he joined Opus Dei, a “personal prelature,” akin to a non-territorial diocese, which fosters an ethic of seeing work as a path to holiness. In church politics, Opus Dei is conventionally seen as leaning to the right.
Gomez studied theology in Rome and at the University of Navarre in Spain, the largest Opus Dei-affiliated university in the world, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology and a doctorate in moral theology. After ordination, he served in several roles for Opus Dei in Houston, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1995.
Gomez was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Denver in January 2001. He served under Archbishop Charles Chaput, who hailed Gomez this week as “one of the best minds in the church in the United States,” as well as a leader with “a great gift for bringing people together from very different backgrounds.”
Within the U.S. bishops’ conference, Gomez has served as the first chairman of the Committee on Cultural Diversity, and now chairs a subcommittee for the Church in Latin America. He’s also chair-elect of the Committee on Migration, and a member of the Committee on Doctrine. Gomez is the founder of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, devoted to promoting dialogue between the church and the Hispanic community.
In San Antonio, one Gomez priority was promoting vocations to the priesthood. In 2008, he ordained nine new priests, the highest number since 1930. He led a capital campaign to build a new residence hall for Assumption Seminary, which today boasts a student body of 83.
Gomez has long been an important point of reference for Hispanic Catholics, who are projected to represent more than 40 percent of the country’s total Catholic population by 2030. In 2005 Gomez was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States, and in 2007 he was on a CNN's list of “Notable Hispanics” in America.
On a personal level, Deck described Gomez as a humble and approachable figure.
“He’s not a stuffed shirt at all,” Deck said.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org]
Our earlier story: Latino Opus Dei archbishop to head Los Angeles
