It’s pretty safe to say that in the 20-year history of the Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast, rappers Ice Cube and Eminem have never been quoted before.
But the breakfast has not really hosted a personality quite like Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Espaillat, the energetic, Dominican, Yankees-hat-wearing, proud hip-hop culture-spouting prelate from New York.
“I just want to say you’re welcome,” Espaillat said shortly after being introduced, invoking last year’s Yankees-Dodgers World Series. “Being a New York Yankees fan, we let you win last year. You’re welcome.”
Espaillat was the keynote speaker at the LA Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Sept. 16, the 20th edition of the event that gathers religious leaders, parishioners, and students for a day of celebrating their faith. Some 1,600 showed up at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for the event, which began with an early-morning rosary, Mass, and then breakfast in the cathedral’s outdoor plaza with remarks from Espaillat.
The bishop is the pastor at St. Anthony of Padua Church in the Bronx, the director of Hispanic Charismatic Renewal for the Archdiocese of New York, and its spiritual director of youth ministry. He was the youngest Catholic bishop in the world when he was appointed by Pope Francis in 2022.
Espaillat is also a popular speaker nationwide and co-hosts a podcast, “Sainthood in the City,” which combines Church teachings and history with modern culture, especially dealing with young people and hip-hop, such as tattoos, code switching, and “Jesus music.”
At the breakfast, between citing Bible verses, papal encyclicals, and selections from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, he managed to sneak in some wisdom from “philosophers,” a.k.a. the great rappers of times past.
“As the great philosopher Ice Cube said: ‘You need to check yourself before you wreck yourself, because it’s bad for your health, right?’
Or: “Another great other philosopher, Eminem, once said, “The world, feed it beans, it’s gassed up.”
This kind of approach has made him a favorite, especially with young people and the high school students in the crowd, many of whom lined up to take pictures with the bishop afterward.
While there were plenty of lighthearted moments, Espaillat said he wasn’t trying to be “cute” or “funny,” and acknowledged a lot of the problems happening in the world, especially in Los Angeles, where wildfires, ICE raids, and immigration fears have gripped the area.
He challenged attendees to change the world, rather than sit around hoping someone else does it for them.
“I don’t want to get into politics, because it’s not about that,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s Fox News. I don’t care if it’s CNN. We need to listen to the good news of Jesus Christ.
“Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person. Why are we waiting for somebody else to do what Jesus Christ has already commissioned us? If you are baptized, you have been commissioned, and we are called to bring the Gospel to each and every single person.”
Espaillat quoted liberally from Romans 5 — “hope does not disappoint” — and in a Jubilee Year of Hope, he told people they needed to increase their faith. But faith, he said, does not come from belief alone, but with two other imperatives: Accept and respond.
“Real, genuine faith is accepting: accepting God, accepting his word, accepting the sacraments,” he said. “And then you just can’t stay there, like many Catholics do on a Sunday. What’s your response? More than ever, my sisters and my brothers in Christ, we need to respond. Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace and an obligation which flows from the first commandment of God.
“You cannot have peace without charity, and you can’t have charity without hope, and you can’t have hope without faith.”
Espaillat spoke several times to the young people in the crowd, imploring them to live their Catholic faith authentically, even when there’s pressure to act differently.
“When you’re fake, they smell it,” Espaillat said of the youth. “And by the way, to all of my young people, let me tell y’all this: If you don’t like fake, don’t be fake because that’s the problem. You call yourselves Catholic? Live it. Don’t just talk about it. Be about it. Don’t talk the talk. Walk the walk. And that’s not easy.”
Naming some of the common traumas afflicting today’s youth — depression, anxiety, suicide, opioid addiction — Espaillat said they’re a consequence of having nothing tangible to believe in anymore.
“When you don’t believe in anything, despair sets in, and that’s why the world is in a downward spiral right now, and the devil is kicking our butt,” Espaillat said. “Because we’re saying, ‘Oh, well, you know what? You can believe whatever you want.’
“When you don’t believe in anything, it will lead to nothingness, and nothingness will lead to destruction.”
More than anything, Espaillat urged the crowd to stop being afraid to speak the truth, to help others in need, and to spread the Gospel. He invoked Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope. Be patient in suffering. Persevere in prayer.”
“Faith will not be given to the world if we don’t come out and give it to them,” he said. “It’s our job. It’s our duty.
“You see as Catholics, many times we’re silent. God gave you a mouth, use it.”
