Blog - Talks & Writings

September 13, 2021: "California lawmakers have passed legislation to replace a statue of St. Junípero Serra at the Capitol in Sacramento with a new monument honoring the state’s native peoples. The Serra statue has been in storage since it was torn down by protesters in July 2020."

September 8, 2021: "Two hundred and fifty years ago tonight, on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 1771, Mission San Gabriel Acrángel was established by St. Junípero Serra, together with Tongva natives, who were this land’s first peoples."

April 15, 2021: "Racism, as we all know, is a grave sin, a spiritual disease and a social injustice. We need to stand together as one Church to eradicate this evil from our own hearts, from the hearts of our neighbors, and from the structures of our society."

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."

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."

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."

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."

March 2016: Catholics in the Public Square, rev. 4th ed. by Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmstead, Bishop of Phoenix

September 20, 2015: "Francis is the Church’s first pontiff from the New World—the lands born from Spanish Christianity’s encounter with the indigenous peoples of North and South America in the age of Columbus and the missionaries who followed him."

May 14, 2015: "There’s just something about Dorothy Day. When we read her writings, when we reflect on her life — something stirs in our hearts. She makes us want to be better, she makes us want to be holy. When she tells us that we are all called to be saints — we believe we can do it and we want to!"

May 6, 2015: "When he is declared a saint later this year, Father Serra will be the latest in a line of “missionary saints” from the Americas that Pope Francis has elevated during his pontificate. It is clear that Pope Francis — the first pope from the New World — understands the Christian “roots” of the Americas and the continent’s importance for the Church’s mission in the 21st century."

January 23, 2015: "Pope Francis announced last week that he intends to canonize Blessed Junípero Serra, OFM, when he comes to the United States next September. This is great news and I am grateful to our Holy Father for this gift to California and the Americas."