Divine Silence

The Catholic Church would consider opposing the San Fernando Valley’s secession from Los Angeles if it represents an attempt by the middle class to shake off the urban poor, but otherwise is unlikely to take sides in the secular political issue, said the Encino priest who was ordained Wednesday as bishop of the Valley region.

“We would take a position only if in some way it affected human dignity for the worse,” said the Most Rev. Gerald Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, 58, was given his bishop’s miter, staff and ring by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in English- and Spanish-language rites attended by 23 bishops and scores of priests.

He was named in November as an auxiliary bishop for the San Fernando Pastoral Region, an area with an estimated 765,000 Catholics that would be the second largest diocese in California if it were split from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

The region, with its headquarters in Mission Hills, covers the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, and reaches as far south and east as Eagle Rock and Highland Park.

In an interview, Wilkerson said that if a secession drive were to become an “isolationist movement” of residents saying, “Let’s protect ourselves and not give so much money to those who are needy,” it would pose a moral problem in the church’s view.

“Then, we would have to talk about that, because it is a human dignity issue.”

Otherwise, “It’s up to the people to choose how they want to govern themselves, and how large they want their city to be,” said Wilkerson, who was ordained at Our Lady of Grace Church on Ventura Boulevard, a 2,400-family parish he served for 13 years as senior pastor.

A group called Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment plans to start a drive in April to gather enough signatures on a petition that would require a state commission to study the financial ramifications of secession.

If that study by the Local Agency Formation Commission shows that secession would not impose a financial burden on either the Valley or the rest of the city, the issue could be put to a citywide vote in the year 2000.

With Catholics constituting 28% of the Valley population, according to a 1991 Times Poll, the responses to any secession drive by Wilkerson and Mahony might be significant, observers say. But Father Gregory Coiro, Mahony’s press spokesman, said Wednesday that the issue has not yet been studied by the archdiocese.

Wilkerson, addressing the crowd of about 1,000 onlookers at the end of the two-hour ordination and Mass, said that the sheer responsibility of spiritual and administrative oversight of three-quarters of a million Catholics was enough to give him “cold feet” after he learned that the pope had chosen him for the position.

“I went to my spiritual advisor and told him, ‘It’s all a mistake; you’ve got the wrong man’--and he agreed with me!” said Wilkerson, eliciting laughter. “But he said, ‘It’s not what you do for God, but what God does through you.’ ”

Wilkerson said he was also assured about the same time by Mahony, who wrote from Rome where he was co-presiding over a bishops meeting, that he was the right man for the job.

Indeed, Wilkerson, a Long Beach native, had been functioning since mid-1996 as episcopal vicar, or acting bishop, for the region after Auxiliary Bishop Armando X. Ochoa was assigned by Rome to head the El Paso diocese.

The authority of a regional bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese--which has five regions in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties--is limited. “The ultimate buck stops at the cardinal’s desk, although his idea is to have as much regionalization as possible so that we can truly become closer to the people,” Wilkerson said.

Asked what his plans are for the region, Wilkerson said he won’t have any until he can consult with the laity, clergy and nuns in his region. “My style, even in the parish, has been to get people involved to come up with a plan together,” he said.

Wilkerson said he was not aware of any lack of rapport with the many Spanish-speaking Catholics in the Valley area, despite following the Mexican-born Ochoa in the regional office.

“I’ve found that wherever I have gone, that people are very warm and they accept you for who you are,” he said. “I think it certainly helps to be bilingual; in fact, almost a necessity in this part of the country.”

Wilkerson said he can speak Spanish reasonably well when he works from written material. The new bishop spoke in both languages at the service Wednesday.

Watching from the front pews were Wilkerson’s parents, Bette and Max Wilkerson of Long Beach, and the bishop’s three brothers and two sisters with their spouses.