Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated what he called a “Mass of Peace” at Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday, pausing in a direct plea to the Trump administration to scale back its immigration enforcement efforts as protesters gathered far away.
“We are together with everyone in our country praying for peace, and we are praying especially for immigrants in our country,” said Gomez when he spoke from the pulpit on Wednesday afternoon.
“Today, we pray especially for our government leaders, law enforcement and those who protest and protect immigrant families in this struggle here in Los Angeles.”
As police helicopters hovered above the nearby protest, the archbishop asked God to “reawaken the conscience of the American people.”
The faithful filled the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels with a Mass presided over by Archbishop José H. Gomez.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
His speech coincided with a student walkout, with young protesters gathered at the Metropolitan Detention Center a kilometer away.
More than 500 students carrying signs and waving flags gathered at the intersection of Aliso and Los Angeles streets and marched to the jail, where a group of police officers stood behind yellow security tape.
Los Angeles is the largest diocese in the United States, home to 3.8 million Catholics. Most of the faithful are immigrants and most of them are Latino. Born in Mexico, Gomez is the first Latino to become the archbishop of Los Angeles, and the highest-ranking Latino bishop in the United States, according to the church.
Religious leaders remain at odds with the president, despite long-standing strategic alignment between the administration and the rising wing of American Catholicism.
Archbishop José H. Gomez leads the Mass on Wednesday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I don’t know if anyone is right about what’s going on right now,” said Isaac Cuevas, the archdiocese’s executive director of health, justice and peace. We should not be this kind of people.
Catholic institutions in the region responded to last year’s brutal raids by pouring in charity, reorganizing many grocery stores for grocery deliveries and helping directly in many communities described as besieged.
But the political response was muted. Some pastors joined the protests, but the church refrained from doing the same at higher levels.
A monk walks past the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“It breaks my heart, because I am an immigrant,” said Lupita Sanchez, a Franciscan nun who joined Mass on Wednesday. “The only way we can help the world is to pray.”
Prayer was at the heart of Gomez’s message on Wednesday. But some Catholics were more critical.
“The humble priests were out on Day One, not only making donations but working for justice,” said Catholic activist Rosa Manriquez. “Now we have a few bishops and cardinals coming out and being there, which is very important. About our archdiocese – not so much.”
Gomez is a longtime member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic organization with deep ties to the Trump administration.
Vice President JD Vance has made a 2019 transition that is steeped in some of the party’s most prominent minds. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a member, and five of the nine justices are staunch Catholics with ties to the party.
Members of the Catholic Church filled the cathedral.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Trump’s recent 9th Circuit appointee, Eric Tung, also converted under the influence of the organization.
“During the height of this regime, our archbishop was the president of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference,” said Manriquez. Their silence made this helpful. You cannot argue with the statistics of how many Catholics voted for this regime.”
In the 2024 election, one in five Trump voters identified as Catholic, a Pew Research Center study found.
Pope Leo XIV, shown leading Mass in December, strongly criticized the Trump administration’s tactics.
(Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Pope Leo XIV, who became the bishop of Rome after the death of Pope Francis last spring, strongly criticized the tactics of those managers, calling them “high contempt.” Last fall, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly in support of a “special message” criticizing immigration enforcement and calling for reform.
They wrote: “To our brothers and sisters from other countries, we stand with you in your suffering. We oppose the indiscriminate deportation of many people.”
Times staff writer Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.
