Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Latin: Archidiœcesis Angelorum in California, Spanish: Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the southern coastal portion of the U.S. state of California. The archdiocese's cathedra is in Los Angeles, and 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 Velasco. With over five million professing members and weekly liturgies celebrated in 32 languages, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is numerically the single largest and most ethnically diverse archdiocese 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 was seen 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.
The sexual abuse scandal in the archdiocese resulted in a $880 million court settlement, a record-breaking amount, in 2024; bringing the total settlement payouts for the archdiocese to over $1.5 billion. Instances of sexual abuse within the archdiocese are documented starting in the 1930s, though instances from the 1970s through 1990s have been more highly publicized.
With the papal bull Apostolicam sollicitudinem of April 27, 1840, Pope Gregory XVI set up a new episcopal see, to which he gave the name of Diocese of California (also interchangeably called "Diocese of Two Californias" or "Diocese of Both Californias"). He assigned to it a vast territory taken from that of the Diocese of Sonora, now the Archdiocese of Hermosillo in Mexico. It included Alta California, encompassing the present states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming, and the Baja California Territory, encompassing the modern Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. He set the episcopal residence at San Diego and made the diocese a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mexico City. Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM became the first bishop of the new diocese, with Mission Santa Barbara serving as its pro-cathedral.
After ceding Alta California to the United States at the close of the Mexican–American War, the government of Mexico objected to a bishop based in the United States having jurisdiction over parishes in Baja California, which was Mexican territory. The Holy See divided the diocese into American and Mexican sections. On November 20, 1849, with the episcopal residence moved to Monterey, a more central position for the new diocese, the American section became the Diocese of Monterey. The Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey served as the pro-cathedral of the American diocese.
In 1853, Pope Pius IX erected the Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Francisco, taking the territory that now constitutes Nevada, Utah, and much of northern California from the Diocese of Monterey.
In 1859, the same pope renamed the Diocese of Monterey as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles to recognize the growth of the city of Los Angeles. The bishop moved his principal residence to Los Angeles and used the Mission of Santa Barbara as a pro-cathedral until the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana opened in 1876.
On June 1, 1922, Pope Pius XI renamed the diocese again, making it the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego, and simultaneously erected a new diocese, named the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, in what had become northern portion of its territory after the erection of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. This changed the title of Bishop John Joseph Cantwell from Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles to bishop Los Angeles-San Diego, which then comprised the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
On July 11, 1936, the same pope elevated and renamed the diocese as the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with Cantwell becoming the first archbishop of Los Angeles, concurrently erecting the Diocese of San Diego with the territory of Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, and designated the new Diocese of San Diego and the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno as suffragan of the new metropolitan see.
Pope Paul VI subsequently split each of the three dioceses of the Metropolitan Province of Los Angeles into two.
These actions established the present configuration of the Metropolitan Province of Los Angeles.
In 1986, Roger Mahony designated five geographical administrative pastoral regions, each led by an auxiliary bishop who functions as the region's episcopal vicar. The five regions are:
There were many cases of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese, first reported as dating from the 1930s. Cases were ignored or dealt with secretly until the 21st century, when priests were dismissed and a report and apology produced.
On July 16, 2007, Cardinal 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 archdiocese 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 financial 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 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 went into effect on January 1, 2020. The archdiocese is one of six Catholic dioceses in California that were expected to be subpoenaed during the upcoming lawsuits. In January 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported that the archdiocese settled a sexual abuse case against a former archdiocesan priest for $1.9 million.
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 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.
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.
Gómez is assisted by the current auxiliary bishops: Marc Vincent Trudeau and Alejandro D. Aclan. In addition, Edward W. Clark, Joseph Martin Sartoris and Gerald Eugene Wilkerson are retired auxiliary bishops still living and residing within the archdiocese.
Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno (1840–1846)
Joseph Alemany (1850–1853), appointed Archbishop of San Francisco
John Joseph Cantwell (1922–1936), elevated to Archbishop of Los Angeles
There are five colleges and over 50 high schools within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Many churches have affiliated primary schools as well.
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.
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.
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 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. As of January 1993, no provinces in the United States celebrate the solemnities of Epiphany (which transfers to the Sunday after January 1), Corpus Christi (which transfers to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday), Saint Joseph, or the Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 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.
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