New bishop eager to tackle social, spiritual issues
Bishop Oscar Cantú is known as an advocate for the poor, immigrants
SAN JOSE » It seems that Bishop Oscar Cantú was destined for this moment — and this place. Cantú, a social justice leader recently appointed by Pope Francis to oversee the Diocese of San Jose upon Bishop Patrick McGrath’s retirement, hopes to continue his advocacy work in Silicon Valley, home to America’s wealthiest innovators and to families crushed by their monthly rents.
“Having grown up in a working-class family in the large inner city, we didn’t always have a strong voice,” said Cantú. “So I see my role now as giving voice to those who don’t have one.”
At 51, Cantú, the son of Mexican immigrants, has gained a reputation as a fearless advocate for the poor, for immigrants, for “Dreamers” and for people living on the margins.
But he’s come at a tumultuous time for the San Jose Diocese as it struggles to regain the trust of its 600,000 parishioners.
In August, outrage erupted over McGrath’s decision to buy a $2.3 million, five-bedroom retirement home in the city’s upscale Willow Glen neighborhood on the diocese’s tab. Though the diocese bought the home with money from a fund for housing retired bishops and proceeds from selling his predecessor’s condo, McGrath admitted it was an error in judgment and has asked the diocese to sell the house.
In the next week, the San Jose Diocese is expected to release names of local priests accused of sexual misconduct involving children. Officials have already hired a consulting firm to investigate alleged abuse and how those allegations were handled. The decision followed the release in August of a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report, revealing more than 700 cases of clergy sex abuse dating back decades that were covered up by the church.
Cantú acknowledges that many parishioners have lost faith in the church.
“It’s going to take us a long time to get out of this,” said Cantú. “It’s going to be a long, painful process. We kind of have this cloud over us, not just for months but for years.”
A native of Houston, Texas, Cantú was born into a large, working-class Mexican-American family that “lived and breathed” the Catholic Church. They had priests over for dinner every week and nuns taught all eight siblings how to play the guitar. As a young boy, Cantú said he didn’t like going to Mass. Instead, he dreamed of being an athlete, an architect or a teacher. But as he entered his teens, he felt a calling from God. He confided in his girlfriend at the time but didn’t tell his family.
“I didn’t want them to feel like they needed to weigh in either for or against it,” Cantú said. “At the end of the day, it had to be my decision. I wanted to make it on my own.”
Cantú, who went into the seminary after graduating from high school, was ordained a priest in Houston in 1994 and a bishop in 2008. He was appointed auxiliary, or assistant, bishop of San Antonio at 41, the youngest bishop in the nation at the time.
Before coming to San Jose, he served as bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he celebrated Mass at detention centers and made frequent trips to the border. He washed the feet of Dreamers during Holy Week to highlight the struggles of undocumented immigrant youth and in July he marched with fellow bishops to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of undocumented immigrant parents from their children.
Yet being an activist isn’t in his nature, according to Cantú, who, serious and soft-spoken, describes his temperament as “hide in the back of the room.”
“But when I see something that is not right, then that bothers my conscience,” he said. “In particular when I’m in a position of leadership, I feel I have to speak up.”
Addressing the valley’s immense housing problem should be at the top of Cantú’s list, in addition to supporting immigrants and families, according to the Rev. Jon Pedigo, a local social justice leader for nearly 30 years.
“He’s found himself in the wealthiest county in California,” said Pedigo, director for advocacy and community engagement at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. “But it also has one of the highest poverty rates. People are living in substandard housing situations and conditions. We have tens of thousands of people living in tents, in cars, in garages.”
Cantú is no stranger to controversy. In 2010, he pulled the plug on a controversial “Mass for dignity” for San Antonio’s LGBT community that had existed for about two decades amid complaints from other parishioners that it conflicted with the Catholic Church’s traditional teachings.
“The Mass … continues to send conflicting messages about the Church’s official teaching concerning the proper celebration of the Eucharist and living an active homosexual lifestyle,” Cantú wrote in a letter to the church pastor at the time, according to the San Antonio ExpressNews. Still, he condemned prejudice toward the LGBT community.
Cantú said he sat down with LGBT Catholics for several hours after the cancellation to discuss their personal stories and struggles with finding acceptance in the church. He canceled the Mass, he said, to integrate the LGBT community into the local church.
“What I wanted for this community was not to be separate, but to be able to integrate into their parishes,” he said.
In July, Cantú was appointed as coadjutor bishop for San Jose, which means he’ll succeed McGrath, 73, though there is no timetable for McGrath’s retirement. In the meantime, Cantú, who is living in a spare room at St. Christopher Church in Willow Glen, will assist McGrath.
Like McGrath, he’s promised parishioners transparency and accountability on issues, including clergy sexual abuse. “Publicly publishing those names, I think that makes sense,” he said. “It helps to bring assurance and some healing to those who have been abused.”
Some are skeptical of the outcome.
“You always get hopeful when someone new comes in that something different is going to happen,” said Melanie Sakoda, a Bay Area leader and board member for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “But I think we’ve learned to be skeptical and wait and see what happens.”
Kevin O’Brien, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, said bishops are called to lead their communities in three ways: from ahead, guiding parishioners; from the middle, listening to parishioners; and from behind, allowing others to lead and helping those who feel left out by the church.
In Cantú’s case, listening will be most important, especially to victims of abuse, he said.
“He’s got to be very good at listening to the voices of people who feel left out or left behind, particularly the young, LGBTQ Catholics and the poor,” he continued. “They may not feel that they have a voice in a very wealthy area.”
In just a short time, Cantú has been struck by what he calls “the underbelly of that wealth,” including issues with affordable housing and the homeless, which he sees on every street corner. He says he’s eager to get to work and see “what can we do to help alleviate those situations.”