With tensions high and emotions still roiling for many in the Southland’s immigrant community, Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated a special “Mass for Peace” Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, calling for prayer and urging a “spirit of cooperation.”
Gomez designated Wednesday as a “Day of Prayer for Peace in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,” highlighted by the Mass and followed by a Holy Hour led by Cathedral Pastor Fr. David Gallardo.
“Today, we join our prayers with those of our Catholic brothers and sisters all across our country,” Gomez said as he began his homily. “We pray for peace. Peace in our streets and neighborhoods, and peace in our hearts.”
Gomez also offered prayers for government leaders, law enforcement and demonstrators.
“We ask the Lord to take away the spirit of confrontation and give us a spirit of cooperation,” he said. “We ask Jesus to open every hardened heart and awaken again the conscience of America.”
According to the archdiocese, the day of prayer was offered “especially for immigrants and their loved ones — parents, children, and families who are carrying heavy burdens and living with anxiety about the future. In this moment of pain and disruption, the Church seeks to walk closely with those who suffer, offering the assurance that they are not alone and that they are held in prayer by the wider community of faith.”
Catholics across the country participated in similar Masses after Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued an appeal “to pause before the Lord in a Holy Hour for Peace — a time of renewal for our hearts and for our nation.”
“We are in a tense moment, a time of division and even violence. But our country has faced hard times before and overcome them,” the archbishop said as he closed Wednesday’s homily. “We can do that again, with prayer and moral seriousness, with the spirit of nonviolence, and with a commitment to America’s founding principles.”
Wednesday’s events at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels followed the arrests of over four dozen anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday, the second night of a nationwide movement to end funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokeswoman, said police made 51 arrests Saturday evening, with 47 adults and three juveniles cited and released for failure to disperse. One person was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, she added. Saturday’s protests came after violence broke out Friday night, when multiple protesters were arrested for throwing objects at federal agents at downtown’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
There were additional protests in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, and police declared an unlawful assembly near City Hall. More demonstrators were also reported near Temple and Alameda streets by the federal building, where a dispersal order was issued.
Gomez’s comments were not his first regarding recent protests against immigration enforcement in the U.S., prominently in Minneapolis.
On Jan. 27, in his weekly column on the archdiocese’s news platform Angelusnews.com, Gomez called for restoring “order and peace to our streets” along with limiting “deportations to violent criminals or those guilty of other serious offenses” and holding hearings on a bill to change immigration laws.
“I am deeply troubled by the violence in Minneapolis and the ongoing climate of fear and uncertainty here in Los Angeles and in cities across the country, as federal immigration enforcement actions continue,” Gomez wrote.
“As a pastor, my heart aches for our people and for our country. We pray for those who have lost their lives or been injured. We pray for the safety of our law enforcement officers, and for wisdom for our leaders. We pray especially for our immigrant brothers and sisters, who are powerless and caught in the middle of this struggle, living in fear for their futures. The country cannot go on like this.”
He went on to say in the column, “It serves no national interest to deport undocumented men and women who are contributing to the good of our society, it only leaves children without their parents. Surely, we can find another way to hold these men and women accountable for breaking our laws.”
Gomez also called for hearings on H.R. 4393, a House proposal billed by its sponsors as the “Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act of 2025.”
“The bill holds undocumented immigrants accountable for breaking federal law, requiring them to undergo a criminal background check, pay back taxes they owe, and it imposes a stiff penalty fee,” the archbishop wrote. “The bill would also sharply limit enforcement actions at `sensitive locations’ such as churches, hospitals, schools, and courthouses.”
Gomez added that, “there is much to improve in this legislation, but it is a genuine, good-faith starting point. And we need to start somewhere. And we need to start now.”