Every church has a story to tell. It tells the story of the people who built it. It reflects where they have come from, the times they are living in, their struggles and sacrifices, and what they are hoping for.

Every church tells a story of faith. Because people gather there as a family of faith. They gather as children of God, made brothers and sisters by their faith in Jesus Christ. And they gather in the presence of God. So every church is a house of God and also a household of faith.

It has always struck me that “Church” is the name that Christians give to the buildings we…

Earlier this month, I had the privilege to address an important symposium on crime and punishment in California, hosted by the California Catholic Conference at Loyola Marymount University.

More than 500 people came together to consider new approaches based on the idea of “restorative justice.”

I’ve been reflecting these past weeks on the complicated issues of how we can control crime and keep people safe — but also how we can offer those who break our laws a chance to redeem themselves and be restored to their families and society.

And that we need to acknowledge the pain,…

The Feast of the Assumption, which we celebrated this week, is one of my favorites in the Church’s liturgical year.

Since the Church’s early days, Christians have reflected on this beautiful mystery of how the Blessed Virgin Mary was “assumed” — taken up body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life.

And each of us today should remember this glorious mystery with great joy. Because where the Virgin Mary has gone, we can go, too.

In Mary’s Assumption, we celebrate the victory of the cross and resurrection. We celebrate the victory of life over death; of good…

I hope many of you will be able to join me this Sunday for the “Guadalupe Celebration” being held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The event is being co-sponsored by the Archdiocese and the Knights of Columbus. It will feature speeches and performances; the Rosary; and a procession with veneration of a relic from the miraculous tilma imprinted with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

For me, this celebration will be a good chance to thank God for Our Lady of Guadalupe’s maternal love — not only in my life but also in the destinies of the peoples of the Americas.

When…

The summer months are a time of holiday for many families. Going to the beach, picnics in the park, camping. We find many ways to refresh ourselves and renew our relationships with family and friends through our contact with the beauty of the natural world.

This is the way it should be. Because this is the way we are made. In God’s loving design, there is meant to be an intimate bond of communion that unites us to the world of creation.

In Pope Benedict XVI’s words, there is a divine “covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God…

There is no more important work in the Church today than calling and forming men for the priesthood.

And more and more I’m convinced that in our vocation and formation work we need to become better students of our dominant American culture.

Men today are trying to hear God’s call and follow it within this culture. And we’re forming them in order to send them out as apostles to this culture.

We all know the many negative tendencies in American culture today. Secularism and moral relativism. A highly sexualized and materialistic outlook. Radical individualism. Family…

I have a special devotion to the heroic bishop, St. Rafael Guízar Valencia.

He once said: “A bishop can do without the miter, the crosier and even without the cathedral. But he cannot do without the seminary, since the future of his diocese depends on it.”

I often quote these words and I’ve always taken his words seriously in my apostolic ministry. I consider it one of my first duties as your Archbishop to call and form men for the priesthood.

We are blessed in Los Angeles to have creative vocation programs and a good seminary. And every year, we are ordaining fine new…

Last week I had the blessing to be in Rome for the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. Every year on this feast, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI bestows the pallium on new archbishops from around the world.

Among the 44 new archbishops receiving their pallium were four of my brothers and friends from the United States — Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Byzantine Archbishop William C. Skurla of Pittsburgh.

It was a happy day and a beautiful celebration. I prayed specially for all of…

I’m writing this week in the midst of the “Fortnight for Freedom” declared by the U.S. Bishops as a time of prayer, study and penance for religious freedom.

From time to time in our democracy, as citizens we need to renew our dedication to the founding freedoms that have made America so exceptional.

If we don’t, we risk forgetting history’s lessons and we risk forgetting why these freedoms are so important.

As Christians, we also have a duty to be lovers of freedom and defenders of the freedoms we love. Church history teaches us that we have to struggle for these…

On June 21, the eve of the memorial of Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More, we begin a period of prayer, sacrifice and public witness for the cause of religious liberty. I join my brothers in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in calling for this “Fortnight for Freedom,” which will run until July 4, the memorial of our country’s independence.

Religious liberty is a precious freedom. Sadly, it’s also a rare freedom. Three out of four people worldwide live in a country where the government doesn’t protect their right to worship and serve the God they believe in.

Christians…