As Lenten season approaches, U.S. Catholics straddle faith, advocacy, politics
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, Southern California Catholics, and Christians of other denominations, will wait in line to get a smudge of ashes on their foreheads and be reminded that they are sinners, yes, who can redeem themselves if they, as Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said in a recent homily, become “people who heal, make peace and bear witness to his love.”
But for the millions of faithful in the archdiocese and at parishes and houses of worship from Orange County and Riverside all the way to Gomez’s downtown L.A. cathedral, the first day of Lent finds many in crisis: those undocumented in fear of or already in detention; those working to support them and their families; and Catholics who continue to support the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.
Still some Christians will enter this liturgical season grappling with deeply held beliefs they say run counter to the government’s massive effort under the Donald Trump administration to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.