Cardinal Mahony

Mahony’s comments regarding Luis Olivares’ tenure at La Placita are dismaying. His response to the public’s disappointment over the end of the church’s sanctuary program was that behind the church walls “drug-dealing, homosexual activity, crime, murders” were “going on . . . it looked like downtown Kuwait city.” Such characterizations of deeds, which included feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and sheltering the homeless, is offensive to Olivares and his parishioners. Father Louie was merely adhering to the principles of Catholicism.

In addressing the needs of the growing Latino population in Los Angeles, Mahony’s own position is equivocal. He has supported various important programs, but appears to do so within politically safe perimeters. La Placita is a case in point. As archbishop, he did not prevent La Placita from functioning as a sanctuary, but neither did he help. The church’s ill-equipped and deteriorating facilities were not intersected by Mahony’s financial, moral, and/or political support.

In truth, the new cardinal’s record on behalf of Latinos has been both positive and negative.

Gestures of honor from the Pope cannot erase the fact that in the last year, since Father Luis’ departure from the parish, the most vulnerable sector of the Latino community has been forcibly scattered into the winds of anonymity and onto the mean city streets of the angels.

MARTA LOPEZ-GARZA, Los Angeles