LA’s Archbishop José Gomez speaks a language we are unaccustomed to hearing from that cathedra. I don’t mean Spanish. Note the italics.
Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 13, 2011 / 06:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Hispanic Catholic theology and ministry should work to recover the “sense of wonder and mystery” that the first missionaries to America experienced, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said Oct. 11.
“We need to see our country and all the Americas today through their eyes, to remember that these lands were once seen as the ‘ends of the earth,’ the final frontier of the Church’s universal saving mission. And we need to have our hearts inflamed with their same sense of personal duty for the salvation of souls and the coming of God’s Kingdom.”
…
He noted the example of the Franciscan priest Fr. Antonio Margil, who left his homeland of Spain forever in 1683 because millions of souls lacked priests to “dispel the darkness of unbelief.” The priest would walk barefoot for 40 or 50 miles a day to evangelize all over the Americas.
[Read more about Venerable Fray Antonio Margil here.]
Archbishop Gomez also pointed out that the first colonial “patents” granted to New World explorers all speak of Jesus Christ. Florida explorer Vásquez de Ayllón, for example, received permission from the Spanish government to explore so that their inhabitants may be brought to understand the Catholic faith and to “become Christians and be saved.” [!]
