Counting the Days in Los Angeles

Jose Gomez, the new Archbishop of Los Angeles

With former Archbishop of Milwaukee Rembert Weakland heading toward oblivion, albeit fitfully, and his successors having made headway cleaning up the Augean mess he left behind, let us now contemplate with pleasure the upcoming retirement next February of the equally egregious Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles. His successor was named today and it looks as if Catholic traditionalists at last have something to look forward to in that beleaguered diocese.

Jose Gomez, who has been tapped to take over the archdiocese of Los Angeles, has risen rapidly through the Catholic church and earned a national reputation.

In replacing Cardinal Roger Mahony, Gomez, 58, would instantly become the most prominent Latino bishop in the United States, leading an archdiocese that is by far the nation’s largest and is dominated by parishioners with roots in his native Mexico.

If his personal history is any guide, he also could be expected to guide the Los Angeles church along a more traditional -- some would say conservative -- path than Mahony, known as one of the most progressive archbishops in the country and an impassioned fighter for immigrants’ rights.

This is especially encouraging:

A long affiliation with the conservative teaching group Opus Dei guarantees him the Vatican's doctrinal confidence and a support and information network leading high up in Rome.

Gomez will take his chair in perhaps the ugliest church in Christendom, courtesy of Cardinal Mahony, and there is little he can do about that. But he can do something about the deplorable liturgical innovations Mahoney foisted upon his dioocese. More important, let us pray Archbishop-to-be Gomez deals with predatory priests with greater alacrity than did Cardinal Mahony, who appears to have ignored the problem until it could be ignored no longer and was then forced to write a check for 660 million diocesan dollars to the 508 victims of those monsters.