Sandro Magister, "The United States Rediscovers Its Mother Tongue: Latin" (www.chiesa, September 13, 2011): "With more and more Latin American immigrants, the number of Catholics will soon exceed one hundred million. But the first evangelization was also Catholic and Hispanic. A shocking reinterpretation of American history and identity, by the bishop of Los Angeles."In a political climate where some candidates are campaigning on platforms pushing English as the mandatory national language, Los Angelis Bishop José H. Gómez offers the ante-Anglican historical thesis "that the United States will lose its national identity if it forgets that it is rooted in the Hispanic Catholic missions in the new world."
The new (old) language, of course, is "Latin." Well ... Spanish. "Los Angeles," "San Francisco," "San Diego," "Sacramento," "Santa Barbara," "Santa Fe" ... all named after the Spanish missions that dotted the American Southwest in the first settlements from the Old World.
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For me, the shock value of Bishop Gomez's "reinterpretation" of American history lay in its utter frivolousness. He burbles that "the United States will lose its national identity if it forgets that it is rooted in the Hispanic Catholic missions in the new world." This is not true, as anyone with a functioning brain cell or two knows, because the United States consists of much more than California and Florida, and across that vast expanse Spain played no role whatsoever.
If the good bishop does truly worry over questions of national identity, perhaps he ought to consider the horrendous problems caused by illegal immigation from Hispanic countries, principally Mexico. He ought to ponder the enormous problems Los Angeles suffers with violent crime at the hands of drug gangs, most of whose members are illegals. And if he can spare a little extra compassion for the people of Arizona and Texas, he might also ponder that most of their problems are border issues, and that the land along the border with Mexico has become, precisely, "no country for old men."
Bp Gomez, if you are serious about protecting "national identity," can the politically correct rhetoric and support protection of the borders.
I too had strongly mixed feelings. As a Bishop of LA, I'd expect him to be much more worried about the assimilation of secular values by the Catholic hispanic community than by identity politics. This month in LA the mayor happily leads the Gay Bi Transgender Recognition month and says we shall struggle to compensate for denying gay LA and gay America its rightful inheritance. Meanwhile the newly installed Bishop kicks off his reign by... kissing up to his own ethnic group? As someone very used to the minority mode of conversation in another context (East Coast, African-American), to me his talk seemed not nearly so much galvanizing as unnecessarily polarizing. "Give us our place at the table and in the history books!!" Hmmm. They shall know we are Christians by our ... ethnic identity markers. How incredibly unnecessary, esp. in times like these. Latinos are pouring in here because they want what is here.... Not because they are being denied it.
I'd urge another look at Archbishop Gomez-- he isn't some lightweight politically correct bishop. He's Opus Dei, he wrote a great book on the virtue of courage for priests, and during his short watch as archbishop of San Antonio, the number of seminarians doubled. That's why I was glad when he was appointed bishop here in L.A., where (according to the last count I heard), 25 priests retire every year and only five are ordained.
Since he's a Catholic bishop, not an American politician, Archbishop Gomez is freer to evaluate the horrendous problems caused by illegal immigration from an eternal perspective. Violent crime is a serious problem for the people forced to live in poor neighborhoods, it's true. But I think most Americans who are upset about illegal immigration are chiefly worried about the threat to our economy and our culture.
As for our culture, I think in God's eyes we're already more degenerate than the Hispanics are-- we just seem more respectable because we're richer. At least in Mexico they managed to keep abortion illegal till it was pushed through just for Mexico City a year or two ago. Compare that to America's million abortions every year. There's also our export of porn to the rest of the world, and the way our president forced African nations to accept contraception as a condition of receiving financial aid. As for our economy, the worry is understandable but I think the main problem there is coming from our own indigenous politicians-- and anyway, wealth is nothing compared to a threat to anybody's immortal soul.
So I don't think all these Hispanic immigrants are threatening our *eternal* welfare. But two things that ARE a serious threat to morals and to faith itself are grinding poverty and the separation of families. As for grinding poverty, there's lots of it in Latin America, which might be why the archbishop seems tolerant of Latinos breaking our law to seek relief. As for separation of families, apparently that happens a lot when a father or part of a family comes illegally to America for work and then can't risk going home for a visit. This has serious consequences for how the children grow up, and for their chances of keeping the faith and getting to Heaven.
So, seeing these Hispanics as immortal souls with serious spiritual and material needs, the archbishop probably hopes to induce Americans to adopt more welcoming policies toward lots of immigrants, even if it means we lose our own riches. He's making his pitch to us by portraying Hispanics as part of our way of life rather than a threat to it (and of course he's correct that Hispanics have inhabited some parts of America longer than Europeans have). I think he's seriously, pastorally concerned for the illegal immigrants and their families, as being perhaps more vulnerable than the rest of his flock.
I don't expect you to agree with all of this, but maybe you'll at least acquit Archbishop Gomez of frivolousness.
Rachel,
You seem to have some very large ideas about what everyone is thinking, God and archbishop included. But I am not making assumptions. I am basing my opinion on what one man actually said. And what he said was factually incorrect, as well as an exercise in homeboy politics. All in all, I'd say that "frivolous" was a rather charitable choice of adjective on my part.
Immigration in America has always been based on the metaphor of the melting pot. If you need an example of that, I refer you to the "shunted, despised but faithful" Polish immigrants (virtually all of them legal) of PP's earlier blog topic. Initially, their poverty as immigrants was every bit as "grinding" as that faced by Hispanics entering this country furtively, and their "family separation" was enforced by the Atlantic Ocean, not by a negligently maintained border which one can slip across virtually at will. Still, they did their paperwork, and melted into the "national identity," somehow without compromising their faith. They did not produce thousands of illegitimate children expressly to gain a legal foothold in America, and did not contribute, as a whole, to a national crime wave, as their Hispanic successors have done.
It is all very well to regard illegal immigrants as immortal souls. As such they are subject to the same moral laws and responsibilities as the rest of us -- to say nothing of the same civil and criminal laws by which those of us here legally are bound. But Ab Gomez was talking about "national identity," which is a political and cultural issue. And if he proposes to express himself on that topic, he ought to bring more to the table than misinformation and a bag full of verbal gimme-fives.
[Note: I am not of Polish descent, nor is any known member of my family. I regard the current fascination with wearing one's ethnicity on his sleeve with utter contempt.]
Ms. Rachel
I was raised in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Archbishop at the time was James Francis Cardinal McIntyre. What a wonderful man he was. Like you I was delighted to learn that Bishop Gomez was assigned to my beloved childhood diocese. I can’t tell you the disappointment that was mine after I read his article about the Latinos. I don’t intend to write a long note here, I hope that someone (Ralph maybe) will deal with your post at length I will make just one comment in reply to “As for grinding poverty, there's lots of it in Latin America, which might be why the archbishop seems tolerant of Latinos breaking our law to seek relief.”
It is Catholic 101, the end never justifies the means.
I cannot recommend this book too highly. http://www.amazon.com/Immorality-Illegal-Immigration-Alternative-Christian/dp/1449001858/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1QYD8GNTDSNE&colid=3QJ6CVN2PPG81
Donna
Well done Mr. Roister-Doister.
Ms. Rachel does not have to purchase the book that I recommended she or anyone else can go to this youtube site and listen to the good padre himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMaNa1K8lJo
Donna
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