Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles


The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. state of California. Based in Los Angeles, the archdiocese comprises the California counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The cathedral is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and its present archbishop is José Horacio Gómez. With approximately five million professing members, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is numerically the single largest diocese in the United States.
The Archbishop of Los Angeles also serves as metropolitan bishop of the suffragan dioceses within the Ecclesiastical Province of Los Angeles, which includes the dioceses of Fresno, Monterey, Orange, San Bernardino, and San Diego.
Following the establishment of the Spanish missions in California, the diocese of the Two Californias was established on 1840, when the Los Angeles region was still part of Mexico. In 1848, Mexican California was ceded to the United States, and the U.S. portion of the diocese was renamed the Diocese of Monterey. The diocese was renamed the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles in 1859, and the episcopal see was moved to Los Angeles upon the completion of the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in 1876. Los Angeles split from Monterey to become the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego in 1922. The diocese was split again in 1936 to create the Diocese of San Diego, and the Los Angeles see was elevated to an archdiocese. The archdiocese's present territory was established in 1976, when Orange County was split off to establish the Diocese of Orange.

History

Christianity in southern California dates back to the Spanish establishment of missions in what was then known as the Las Californias province of New Spain. From 1769 to 1823, the Franciscan order led by Junípero Serra and later by Fermín de Francisco Lasuén established twenty-one missions between present-day San Diego and Sonoma, six of which were located in the present-day territory of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In response to the 1781 establishment of the Pueblo de Los Angeles, in 1784 priests from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel set out for the pueblo and established the Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles Asistencia as a sub-mission. The asistencia fell into disrepair after being abandoned several years later, and La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles was built on the site in 1814; the church remained the only Catholic church in Los Angeles for many years.
Las Californias was split into two provinces in 1804, and the area comprising present-day California became part of Alta California. In 1840, the diocese of the Two Californias was erected to recognize the growth of the provinces of Alta California and Baja California. The diocese was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Mexico with its episcopal see located in Monterey, and included all Mexican territory west of the Colorado River and the Gulf of California.
In 1848, Alta California was ceded to the United States after the Mexican–American War, and the Mexican government objected to an American bishop having jurisdiction over parishes in Mexican Baja California. The diocese was split into American and Mexican sections, and the American section was renamed the Diocese of Monterey. Another large split occurred in 1853, when much of present-day northern California, as well as present-day Nevada and Utah, formed the Archdiocese of San Francisco; Monterey became a suffragan of the new archdiocese. In 1859 the diocese became known as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles to recognize the growth of the city of Los Angeles; the see was transferred to Los Angeles and to the new Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in 1876.
On June 1, 1922, the diocese split again, this time into the Dioceses of Monterey-Fresno and Los Angeles-San Diego. Bishop John Joseph Cantwell, who had previously been Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, became bishop of the Los Angeles-San Diego diocese, which comprised the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. On July 11, 1936, the diocese was elevated to become the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with John Joseph Cantwell as its first archbishop; concurrently, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties were split to form the suffragan Diocese of San Diego, and the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno was transferred to become a suffragan of the new archdiocese. On March 24, 1976, Orange County was split to form the Diocese of Orange, establishing the archdiocese's present-day territory consisting of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties.
In addition to the dioceses of Monterey, Orange, and San Diego, the archdiocese's present-day suffragan dioceses are Fresno and San Bernardino.

Pastoral regions

In 1986, Archbishop Roger Mahony subdivided the Archdiocese of Los Angeles into five administrative pastoral regions. Each region is geographical, and is headed by an auxiliary bishop who functions as the region's episcopal vicar. The five regions are:
On July 16, 2007, Cardinal Roger Mahony and the archdiocese reached a record-breaking settlement with 508 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. The settlement was worth $660 million, with an average of $1.3 million for each plaintiff. Mahony described the abuse as a "terrible sin and crime", after a series of trials into sex abuse claims since the 1940s were to begin. The agreement settled all outstanding civil lawsuits against the archdiocese and dwarfs the $157 million settlement paid by the Archdiocese of Boston since Massachusetts law places a legal dollar cap on how much money a non-profit group can be required to pay.
In 2014 the diocese agreed to pay $13 million to settle a final group of 17 sex abuse lawsuits, including eleven that involved "a visiting Mexican priest who fled prosecution and remains a fugitive more than 25 years later". The settlement followed a court order forcing the Archdiocese to release files which showed that it had shielded accused priests, for example by ordering church officials not to turn over a list of altar boys to police who were investigating.
From May to December 2019, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles provided numerous documents to California State Attorney Xavier Becerra in preparation for a series of pending lawsuits which are expected to be filed after a new California law which will temporarily remove the statute of limitations. The new law goes into effect on January 1, 2020. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is one of six Catholic dioceses throughout the state of California which is expected to be subpoenaed during the upcoming lawsuits.

Archbishop

The archdiocese is led by the archbishop, who governs from the mother church, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The cathedral was dedicated on September 2, 2002, and replaced the former Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
The Archbishop of Los Angeles is the metropolitan of the Province of Los Angeles of the Roman Catholic Church. Its suffragans are the dioceses of Fresno, Monterey in California, Orange in California, San Bernardino, and San Diego. Metropolitan archbishops historically wielded great administrative powers over the suffragan dioceses. Today, such power is only ceremonial and kept as a tradition.
The Most Reverend José H. Gómez is the current Archbishop of Los Angeles, having automatically succeeded his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, who served for 25 years, upon the latter's retirement which took effect on March 1, 2011. Previously, Gómez served as Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on April 6, 2010. He previously served as Archbishop of San Antonio from 2004 to 2010, and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver from 2001 to 2004. He is an ordained priest of Opus Dei.
Archbishop Gómez is assisted by the current auxiliary bishops: Edward W. Clark, David O'Connell, Robert Barron, Marc Vincent Trudeau, and Alejandro D. Aclan. In addition, Joseph Martin Sartoris and Gerald Eugene Wilkerson are retired auxiliary bishops still living and residing within the archdiocese. Gordon Bennett, S.J., Bishop Emeritus of Mandeville, Jamaica, also resides within the archdiocese, as the Peter Faber, S.J., Fellow in Pastoral Theology and Ignatian Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Bishops

Ordinaries

Bishop of Two Californias

  1. Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno

    Bishop of Monterey

  2. Joseph Alemany, appointed Archbishop of San Francisco

    Bishops of Monterey-Los Angeles

  3. Thaddeus Amat y Brusi
  4. Francisco Mora y Borrell
  5. George Thomas Montgomery, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of San Francisco
  6. Thomas James Conaty
  7. John Joseph Cantwell

    Bishop of Los Angeles-San Diego

  8. John Joseph Cantwell

    Archbishops of Los Angeles

  9. John Joseph Cantwell
  10. James Francis McIntyre
  11. Timothy Manning
  12. Roger Mahony
  13. José Horacio Gómez

    Coadjutor bishops

Current

There are 5 colleges and over 50 high schools within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Many churches have affiliated primary schools as well.

Events

Religious education congress

The archdiocese's office of religious education produces the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the largest annual event of its kind in the United States, with an attendance of approximately 38,000.

Annual Marian procession and Mass

The archdiocese has entrusted the annual celebration of the Votive Mass in honor of Our Lady of the Angels to the Queen of Angels Foundation, a lay association of the Catholic Church founded by Mark Anchor Albert, dedicated to promoting devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Each year since 2011, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels has hosted a Votive Mass in honor of Our Lady, Queen of Angels. The Mass follows a Marian procession which originates from the historic Queen of Angels parish, which is part of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, and culminates at the cathedral.
Since 2011 the Queen of Angels Foundation has sponsored the annual Marian processions, Votive Masses, and fiestas in commemoration of Los Angeles' birthday and the feast of Our Lady of the Angels. Archbishop Gomez has been the homilist and principal celebrant of the annual Mass since 2012. Future Marian processions and Masses will coincide with the City of Los Angeles' official birthday celebrations on the last Saturday of August.

Holy days of obligation

As directed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical Province of Los Angeles, the archdiocese annually observes four holy days of obligation. The Roman Catholic Church currently recognizes 10 holy days, established in the 1917 Code of Canon Law. However, the USCCB has reduced that number to 6 for Latin Church dioceses in the United States., no provinces in the United States celebrate the solemnities of Epiphany, Corpus Christi, Saint Joseph, or the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul as holy days of obligation. The Metropolitan Province of Los Angeles, which includes the L.A. Archdiocese, further modified the list, and as of 2019, celebrates four holy days of obligation on the days prescribed by canon law. The solemnity of the Ascension is transferred from Thursday of the sixth week of Easter to the seventh Sunday of Easter. The province has abrogated the obligation to attend Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, being one of the most diverse dioceses in the world, strives for all of their employees to live and work in accord with Catholic social teaching and servant leadership. "The dignity of the human person, the call to community and participation, rights and responsibilities, dignity of work and the rights of workers, and solidarity, are intrinsic to servant leadership." In an attempt to provide better service and to increase transparency the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the only archdiocese that has a completely updated and searchable administrative handbook available online.

Province of Los Angeles

Primary sources