A glimpse of the diversity in heaven at the LA Congress
The Los Angeles Religious Education Congress welcomed Catholics from across the U.S. and Canada, as well as Australia, Africa and Latin America for worship, prayer, learning and sharing in February. The event is a vivid display of the peek into heaven offered us in Revelation 7:9, “a great multitude, that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”
This year’s theme was “Called to Compassion,” and the opening ceremony highlighted compassion in action. Speakers from Corpus Christi Parish in Pacific Palisades spoke of the heartbreak of losing both their community and their church to the January wildfires, but also of the outpouring of support from the region and the nation.
Sr. Rosalia Meza of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity noted in her welcome address the words of Pope Francis, who defines compassion as “the language of God.” Recalling the witnesses of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Sr. Thea Bowman, the four martyrs of El Salvador and Cesar Chavez, Meza showed how each of them recognized and engaged in the suffering of others.