San Antonio, Texas, Feb 15, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Last night at the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas, Archbishop Jose Gomez was installed as the first Mexican-born Archbishop in U.S. history.
The 53-year old Monterey, Mexico native first made headlines four years ago when he was installed in the Archdiocese of Denver as the U.S.’s first Mexican-born bishop.
Of his time in Colorado, Archbishop Charles Chaput was reported as saying, “I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the impact he had on all of us.”
Apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo installed Gomez on behalf of Pope John Paul II before a full house which included 30 bishops, 2 cardinals, and over 200 priests. Cardinal James Francis Stafford, major penitentiary of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary was among those in attendance, as was Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima, Peru.