The mission of mercy

In this season of the Resurrection, Pope Francis has given us a great gift.

He has announced a Holy Year, an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. It will start during Advent, on Dec. 8, the Immaculate Conception, and it will continue until Christ the King Sunday, November 20, 2016.

Easter and religious freedom

It was a beautiful Easter. More than 10,000 people came to join us for worship services at the cathedral during Holy Week. And across the archdiocese, we baptized nearly 2,000 new Christians at Easter.

¡Que viva el Beato Oscar Romero!

In God’s providence, the beautiful and challenging Gospel passage that we just heard was the same Gospel that was proclaimed at the final Mass celebrated by Archbishop Oscar Romero, 35 years ago this week.

It is time to end the death penalty

It is time for our country to put an end to the death penalty.

There is a case pending right now in the U.S. Supreme Court that is looking at the practical problems with the way capital punishment is administered through lethal injections. The justices will hear arguments on the issue next month.

Religious education and the encounter with Christ

As I write, I’m getting ready for our annual Religious Education Congress, as I know many of you are, too.

The Congress is one of the high points of every year here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — and it has been for decades.

Vatican appoints new San Diego bishop

This morning, Pope Francis named Bishop Robert McElroy, Auxiliary of San Francisco, to be the new Bishop of San Diego, which is one of the six dioceses that make up the Ecclesiastical Province of Los Angeles.

On behalf of all the faithful here in the Province and in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, we welcome Bishop McElroy to Southern California.

The parish is the heart of the new evangelization

As I continue to visit parishes around this great archdiocese, I see every day that the life of faith is lived in the heart of the parish.

We turn to our parishes for the Eucharist and the sacraments. We turn to our parishes to hear the Word of God, and to bring us together to serve to the poor and others in our community.

In our time

We are living in times of rising religious extremism and violence.

As I write, I’ve just read the sad news that 90 Christians have been kidnapped from two villages in Syria. Of course we were all shocked earlier this month by the news that 21 Coptic Christians were executed in Syria — killed, as Pope Francis said, “for the mere fact of being Christians.”