February 6, 2021: "The Church is the conscience of every society, in every time and place. And our duty in our country at this time is to help our leaders and our neighbors to hear the cry of the poor — to understand that we belong to one another, to feel our responsibility for the vulnerable and weak."
February 2, 2021: "For much of this past year, America has been confronting the sad reality that racist thinking and practices remain all too common in our society. Millions of our brothers and sisters still experience indignity and are denied opportunity only because of their race."
January 12, 2021: "As Christians, we worship a God who has revealed himself as Love. And as Christians, we know that human beings are made in the image of this God, in the image of Love. We are created out of love. And we are made to love. To love as Jesus loved, and as Mother Teresa and the saints love."
August 1, 2020: “Let’s ask for the grace to continue his mission of love. As I was saying — we are all called to be missionary disciples, no matter how young or how old we are. If we follow Jesus we share in his mission.”
June 29, 2020: "Entiendo el profundo dolor que manifiestan algunos pueblos nativos de California. Pero también creo que Fray Junípero es un santo para nuestros tiempos, el fundador espiritual de Los Ángeles, un defensor de los derechos humanos y el primer santo hispano de este país. Yo tuve el privilegio de concelebrar con el Papa Francisco en su misa de canonización, en el año 2015. Confío en su intercesión para mi ministerio y su deseo de llevar la tierna misericordia de Dios a cada persona, es una fuente de inspiración para mí."
June 29, 2020: "I understand the deep pain being expressed by some native peoples in California. But I also believe Fray Junípero is a saint for our times, the spiritual founder of Los Angeles, a champion of human rights, and this country’s first Hispanic saint. I was privileged to celebrate his canonization Mass with Pope Francis in 2015. I rely on his intercession in my ministry, and I am inspired by his desire to bring God’s tender mercy to every person."
June 2, 2020: "The anger and unrest that has swept Los Angeles and the rest of the country since his death is a sad reminder that racism remains real. Millions of our brothers and sisters still today experience humiliation, indignity, and unequal opportunity only because of their race or the color of their skin."
November 18, 2019: "Every time of crisis in the Church is a crisis of saints, a crisis of Christians not living out their baptismal promises. So, yes, now more than ever, we need to be committed to walking with Jesus more closely and striving to lead a holy life."
August 13, 2019: "El Paso hit me in a personal way. My family is Mexican and American, and we trace our roots back to the early 1800s in what is now Texas; I lived much of my adult life there, including my five years as Archbishop of San Antonio."
July 2, 2019: "Serra was a 56-year-old Franciscan friar when he came to California; he suffered from asthma and a chronic, near-crippling leg infection. He had come to the New World from Spain nearly 20 years earlier, leaving behind his family and a comfortable career teaching theology."
June 18, 2019: "Usually when we talk about the state of the family, we talk about a cluster of issues — contraception and abortion; divorce rates, out-of-wedlock births, people living together rather than getting married; we talk about the growth of same-sex unions and the confusion about sex that we see in our society."
Agosto 30, 2018: "Éste es un momento de tristeza y confusión para todos nosotros, debido a las recientes revelaciones sobre los pecados y abusos en la Iglesia de este país... Y estoy orando todavía más intensamente por las víctimas sobrevivientes de estos crímenes."
August 30, 2018: "It is a sad and confusing time for all of us, with the recent revelations about sin and abuse in the Church in this country... I am praying most intensely for the victim-survivors of these crimes, and am trying to offer what small penance I can for everyone who has suffered abuse by pastors of the Church."
September 19, 2017: "We are still a nation divided by race in many ways. There are too many young black and Latino men dying in the streets or spending their best years behind bars. Too many of our neighborhoods in too many cities remain “lonely islands of poverty,” where people are perishing — just as they were a generation ago when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke those words."
Julio 27, 2017: "Quiero ofrecerles hoy mis reflexiones sobre la importante conversación que ha estado teniendo lugar en la Iglesia este año: la cuestión de cómo vamos a vivir nuestra fe católica y a llevar a cabo la misión de la Iglesia en una sociedad “post-cristiana”. Una sociedad que es cada vez más hostil a nuestros valores y a nuestras creencias."
July 27, 2017: "I want to offer my reflections today on the important conversation that has been going on in the Church this year — the question of how we are going to live our Catholic faith and carry out the Church’s mission in a “post-Christian” society. A society that every day is becoming more and more hostile to our values and our beliefs."
July 3, 2017: "St. Junípero was an immigrant and a missionary, a Hispanic who came to this land from Spain by way of Mexico. His witness reminds us — and we should never forget it — that the mission to America was a continental mission from the beginning. It was a mission to make all the peoples of the Americas, North and South, into a one family — a new world of faith."
May 6, 2017: "I would like to thank Dr. Lamadrid and the Board of Trustees of Marymount California University for granting me the Honoris Causa degree. It is an unexpected honor and a source of joy to be a part of the Marymount family. I’m happy that today I join the ‘Marymount Mariners”. So, thank you very much."
August 30, 2016: "Mercy has been at the heart of the Christian kerygma from the beginning. In his dying and rising, Jesus Christ revealed the truth that God is a Father who is rich in mercy. The good news that the Church proclaims is the “knowledge of salvation … in the forgiveness of sins, through the tender mercy of our God.” The Father’s mercy is the blessing promised to those who are merciful as he is merciful."
