CNA Staff, Jun 1, 2020 / 10:35 am
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles condemned violence and racism on Sunday and called for peaceful protests. The leader of the country's largest Catholic diocese and the president of the U.S. bishops' conference addressed the weekend's violence and civil unrest, both in his Pentecost homily and in a statement released by the USCCB.
"When God looks at us, he sees beyond the color of our skin, or the countries where we come from, or the language that we speak. God sees only his children - beloved sons, beloved daughters," said Gomez in his homily, delivered on Sunday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Addressing a week of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, the archbishop said that there are "millions of our brothers and sisters who are still forced to suffer humiliation, indignity, and unequal opportunity just because of their race or the color of their skin," and that "it should not be this way in America."
Gomez added that "racism is a sin," and one that "denies what God wants for the human person."