This is H.U.G.E.!!!
Rocco of Whispers in the Loggia is reporting that Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio is going to be appt'ed coadjutor-archbishop of Los Angeles!
This means that when Cardinal Mahony begins his much-deserved retirement in less than a year, Archbishop Gomez will take up the reins of a archdiocese in desperate need of reform, starting with the Religious Education Conference/Circus and moving right on to the dismal condition of seminary education/formation.
Archbishop Gomez is an Opus Dei numerary. And I imagine that the idea that BXVI is going to give one of the Church's largest, wealthiest, and most influential liberal archdioceses to an Opus Dei bishop is going to send the NCR/America/Commonweal/LCWR-types into fits.
Archbishop Gomez is an Opus Dei numerary. And I imagine that the idea that BXVI is going to give one of the Church's largest, wealthiest, and most influential liberal archdioceses to an Opus Dei bishop is going to send the NCR/America/Commonweal/LCWR-types into fits.
Gomez is only 58, so he will have a long, long, long tenure in L.A.
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They were already going into fits. There have been rumors circling for the last 5 years that Benedict was replacing episcopal sees with "Opus Dei-type bishops". So this validates their worries :)
ReplyDeleteBut I'd be patient. Just as with Benedict, this type of reform will take time. Gomez is not a hatchet job type of administrator, but who knows.
Alan, he did a pretty good job of straightening out some of the worst junk in SA. Flores was a wonderful pastoral bishop, but allowed all sorts of new age nonsense to go on right in the chancery.
ReplyDeleteGomez will need some top-notch helpers from outside the archdiocese to straighten things out there.
Indeed he will! St. Josemaria Escriva, pray for us!
ReplyDeleteIs Gomez a numerary (I thought those were celibate lay members) or a cooperator?
ReplyDeleteHe will need prayers and will also need people not to demand reforms overnight. The Mahoney mess has taken years to put in place; they won't be fixed quickly.
Just read the news on Whispers... definitely will be interesting to see what Abp Gomez will do with the church over there. I think Rocco also reported earlier the possibility of another see being carved out of the LA territory. ^^
ReplyDeleteBTW... any chance you're coming to STL for AI's commencement? Rocco is giving the commencement address. :)
DT
DT, I'm in Rome until June 22.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news. I especially like to picture how this appointment will play out in the LCWR-types-fantasy-world. None of those vapid golden-agers will have the faintest idea who he is or what he has done, but they'll pass along the word "conservative" that somebody heard somebody else use for him, so so they'll mark him as unacceptable right from the start. What a major victory for a new coadjutor that will be: to approach his new job with the disapproval of one of the more organized anti-church-friendly (but quickly self-extinguishing) organizations around. Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteAbp. Gomez is a numerary.
ReplyDeleteAbp Fin of Kansas City KS, n, DiMarzio of Brooklyn and Myers of Newark are supernumerary members of Opus Dei