The bishops of our country first elected a Latino as president of the U.S. Episcopal Conference of the United States. Our new president is Monsignor José Gómez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles. He was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1951. He received priestly ordination in Spain in 1978 by the personal prelature of Opus Dei. After his ordination he exercised priestly ministry in Spain and Mexico for several years. He came to the United States, in 1987, and became a citizen in 1995. A few years later, St. John Paul II appointed him as a bishop in Denver. He is currently the bishop of the largest diocese in our country.
What does this event mean in the life of the Catholic Church here? Today Hispanics are about half of the Catholic population in our country. In addition, among those under 55 years of age, they comprise a decisive majority of Catholics in the United States, and this number will continue to grow. This new reality demands a change of mentality. We have to transition from thinking that the Church is owned by Europeans and descendants of Europeans, to the reality that the Church is everyone's home, no matter where they are from or what color their skin is. We live together as brothers in this same home, and share our lives as a true family.