In the fight for immigrants, Cardinal Roger Mahony works out of the spotlight and his successor in L.A. steps up

Cardinal Roger Mahony arrives for ordination of Auxiliary Bishops at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles in 2015.

U.S. illegally an opportunity to become citizens, compared with 55 percent of white Catholics, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

“The angry things people today are saying about Mexicans are the same things that were said about earlier generations of Catholics coming to this country,” Gomez said.

The highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. Catholic Church, Gomez recently visited the border in Texas to meet with children separated from their families under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and has assembled an immigration task force that includes representatives from the Dioceses of Orange and San Bernardino.

He has reached out to fellow Latino Catholics, who comprise more than 70 percent of the archdiocese and 52 percent of Catholics under the age of 30 in the U.S., through a monthly Spanish-language radio and television show and popular gatherings such as

the annual procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Los Angeles.

“I have been working on this for 30 years,” Gomez, 66, said. “I want to be more vocal.”

For the archbishop, immigration is “the reality of my own family.” The head of the largest and perhaps most diverse archdiocese in the country is himself a naturalized U.S. citizen.

He regularly traveled across the border as a boy, moving between his home in Monterrey, Mexico, and his uncle’s house in San Antonio, Texas. He would go fishing with his father at South Padre Island, using his passport and la mica, a border-crossing card needed to make the journey at the time.

His family has lived in Texas since 1805, when the area was still under Spanish rule. His grandparents were married at the cathedral in San Antonio in 1917.

“I know the people in Mexico. I studied in Rome and in Spain too.

I have met all kinds of people, and I know that the American dream is possible,” Gomez said as he drove through Monterrey during a recent visit. “Integration, that has been the reality in my own life.”

In 2013, he released a book that voiced his support for a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country without legal status. His advocacy aligns with efforts by Pope Francis to raise awareness about the challenges immigrants face.

Although Gomez may not receive as much recognition as Mahony for taking up immigration issues outside the church, experts say he plays an indispensable role in the institution.

“Mahony was an early leader on this topic,” Reese said. “Whereas Gomez is working today, when everyone is talking about this. And he’s Mexicanamerican, and so people shrug and say of course he’s in support; that’s his people.”