Mahony Calls Riots a Warning to Nation : Unrest: Cardinal tells church hierarchy that violence that ripped L.A. can hit any city. He calls on leaders to stem urban decay.

In a moving appeal for urban peace and justice, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony warned nearly 240 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church here Friday that the civil strife that rocked Los Angeles could strike any American city.

“I believe these events in our city are a warning to the nation. Los Angeles is not alone--not alone in its problems or its potential for violence,” said Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles. He said the time had come to heal “our broken city and this wounded nation.”

It was the first time the American Roman Catholic hierarchy had received a firsthand account of the nation’s worst civil unrest in this century. Mahony said he had been asked by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which concludes its three-day meeting at the University of Notre Dame today, to report on the upheaval.

“They realize the same issues that we are dealing with are issues for all our cities,” Mahony told The Times. “We happened to blow sky high, but the same issues are there for everyone.”

The violence was clearly on the minds of the bishops, who earlier had sent a $200,000 economic development grant to the Los Angeles archdiocese.

During a session on evangelism Friday, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., told the conference, “When people burn and loot, murder and rob their neighbors, they’ve forgotten the common good; and when situations which degrade the personal dignity of any of God’s children perdure, we all must rethink the way we live as neighbors.”

Mahony, standing before a large varnished wooden cross in the Notre Dame athletic center, gave an eyewitness account of the first night of the riots. He said he stood on the roof of his apartment at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles and watched the fires and disorder spread.

“We came face to face with the consequences of racism and violence, crime and lawlessness, the neglect of our cities and the decline of family and community life,” Mahony said.

Turning his attention beyond Los Angeles, Mahony added, “American society has come to accept the unacceptable: widespread poverty among our children, continuing hunger and homelessness in our midst, widespread drug and gang violence in our neighborhoods and many young people who have no hope and little opportunity.”

As the assembled bishops, archbishops and cardinals of the American church listened intently, Mahony said the church must reject violence and affirm justice to keep such large-scale unrest from erupting again. But he said Catholics do not always live up to the church’s vision.

“Racism and injustice still diminish our own community. But our faith calls us, especially today, to change our hearts, lift our voices, confront injustice and build community,” said Mahony, who was recently named to the Rebuild L.A. committee headed by Peter V. Ueberroth.