Earlier this week, I celebrated the 33rd anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.
My priesthood has been the profound joy and privilege of my life. I give thanks to God every day for this gift he has given me — to be a priest! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

I am grateful for all of your prayers for me. And I thank our Lord Jesus Christ every day for the privilege of being able to serve you.

I hope you had a great summer. I certainly did. It was a very busy summer — but at the same time refreshing, renewing and inspiring.

My summer started, as you all know, with our…

Our political debate about immigration in America frustrates me. Often I think we are just talking around the edges of the real issues.

Both sides of this argument are inspired by a beautiful, patriotic idea of America’s history and values. But lately I’ve been starting to wonder: What America are we really talking about?

America is changing and it has been changing for a long time. The forces of globalization are changing our economy and forcing us to rethink the scope and purpose of our government. Threats from outside enemies are changing our sense of national sovereignty.
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But all of us in our Christian lives are entrusted with a mission to serve our brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ. Each of us is called to take Jesus as our model and to imitate him by serving the Church and all mankind.

However, those who are to be ordained to the permanent diaconate are called by God and set apart to a divinely instituted ministry of service in his Church.

In ordination, Jesus welcomes these men to sacramental ministry in his Church — not as servants, but as friends.

My prayer is that every man ordained to the permanent diaconate will enter…

The universal Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene on July 22. I love her story. It is a beautiful story of how God’s love can change lives.

We don’t know much about Mary Magdalene — just a few lines in the Bible. But that tells us everything we need to know.

She was one of the women who followed Jesus Christ and helped him in his ministry. These women went from town to town with him. They saw Jesus heal the sick and work miracles. They heard his preaching and teaching.

St. Mary Magdalene believed in Jesus’ promises. That no matter what sins we have in our…

The euthanasia movement in our country is gaining strength and momentum. The reasons for this are complicated.

But at its root, this movement is driven by fears that many of us share. The fear of pain, suffering and death. The fear that one day we might lose our mental capacity or bodily functions. The fear of becoming a burden on others. Or of being left alone to die in some institution, hooked up to expensive machines.

With our American population getting older and people living longer, we are already starting to see economic pressures to ration health care among the elderly and the…

I am praying for you this week from the Eternal City of Rome!

On the Solemnity of St. Peter and Paul, I received my Metropolitan Archbishop’s pallium from our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

I’m in Rome with some 300 pilgrims from our Archdiocese. In our visits to the holy sites, I’ve been praying about our Christian mission in the great metropolis of Los Angeles.

I’ve been reflecting about how we are all heirs of America’s first evangelization.

The Christian faith was brought to this land by Spanish missionaries centuries before the American Revolution. And I have…

There was a time not too long ago, when American society encouraged family values and tried to strengthen the bonds of parents and children. Recent events in our state and nation remind us that’s not always the case anymore.

The family is God’s first beautiful gift to us. Because each one of us came into this world as the fruit of a mother and a father’s love.

This married love is the heart of every true family. In this love, we see the heart of God who is Love.

The Spanish missionaries who brought the faith to this country made paintings depicting the Holy Family of Jesus,…

I’m just returning from Seattle and the annual mid-year meeting of the United States Catholic bishops. It was a prayerful and very productive gathering.

Right now I’m getting ready to go to Rome. There I will receive my Metropolitan Archbishop’s pallium from the hands of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in a ceremony to be held at St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul Apostles.

This is a moment of special grace for me.

I am traveling to Rome with nearly 300 pilgrims from our Archdiocese, as well as with my sisters and other family…

As I write, Gov. Jerry Brown and California lawmakers are up against a constitutional deadline to pass a state budget.

But our state faces fiscal problems that go far beyond this latest crisis. That’s one reason my brother bishops and I have issued a new statement of moral principles, “In Search of the Common Good,” to help guide state leaders and our fellow citizens.

A budget is more than a spending plan.
As we say in this new statement, the budget raises “profound moral questions about who we are as a society, how we view our future and whether … we can look beyond our…

Are you on Facebook? I am now.

Not long after I put up my “public figure” page on Facebook, more than 800 people have “liked” it — from all over the world.

Some are old friends, others are new friends. It is exciting to meet so many people who want to share their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for his Church. Already I have new people to pray for and new people to pray for me and our great Archdiocese.

This new world of social media, mobile devices, and digital technologies, is very interesting to me.

I started my Facebook page, and my new Twitter account,…