If True, This Won't Sit Too Well With the Left Coast Gang

Whispers in the Logia has the following report about the probably new Co-adjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles. Given he is a member of Opus Dei, I suspect that even though he is Hispanic, it won't sit too well with some of those who lean so far left they can see the sunrise as it sets.

It will be interesting to see if he has the will &/or courage to clean up the mess left by Mahony.

El Tiempo Ha Venido -- Reports: Gomez Up to LA

SVILUPPO: Additional confirmation given... Official: press conference scheduled for 10am PT tomorrow at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
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It is without precedent and of seismic import: for the nation's approximately 30 million Hispanic Catholics, a watershed moment could come as soon as tomorrow with the appointment of one of their own as the shepherd-in-waiting of continent's largest local church.Echoing word given earlier today to Whispers by a church official informed of the decision, New Advent's Kevin Knight cites unnamed sources to report tonight that, in his pontificate's most significant appointment on these shores, Pope Benedict will name Jose Gomez, 58, archbishop of San Antonio since February 2005, as coadjutor-archbishop of Los Angeles.

In the process, the native of Mexico -- the lone American bishop professed as a numerary (full member) of Opus Dei -- will make history, becoming the first Hispanic prelate placed in line for a Stateside red hat.

The appointment would bring to a close several months' worth of intense consultation and speculation since word of Cardinal Roger Mahony's request for an understudy began circulating late last year. A coadjutor will first spend some months learning the ropes alongside the 74 year-old cardinal before succeeding to the helm of the 5 million member local church -- its Catholic population estimated to be three-quarters Latino -- shortly after Mahony reaches the retirement age of 75 next February 27th.

Born in Monterrey and ordained for Opus Dei in 1978, Gomez served in Texas from 1987 in both Houston and San Antonio. A former executive director and president of the National Association of Hispanic Priests, in 2001 Pope John Paul II named him an auxiliary to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, then rocketed him into the lone senior US post customarily held by a Latin cleric on his appointment to San Antonio in late 2004. Six months after his installation there, TIME magazine named Gomez one of the nation's 25 most influential Hispanics.In the USCCB, the archbishop serves as chair of the bench's Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church and the body's Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America; in the latter capacity, Gomez led a three-bishop delegation to quake-ravaged Haiti to assess the situation in early March.

A low-key, media-savvy theologian committed to the late pontiff's vision of the New Evangelization, Gomez's concept of the church was thoroughly fleshed-out in You Will Be My Witnesses, a lengthy February pastoral letter "on the Christian Mission" published on his fifth anniversary as head of the 850,000-member San Antone church.

A close ally of (and legend among) the Hispanic community from his early priesthood when he marched alongside the famed labor leader Cesar Chavez, Mahony -- the first native-born archbishop of Los Angeles -- will celebrate a quarter-century at his hometown church's helm in mid-September. Since his June 1985 appointment, the SoCal fold has more than doubled in size.

Word of the impending move began surfacing over the weekend. Multiple calls made to the LA chancery's media relations office through the day remained unreturned as of press time.As ever, more to come.