The people who visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to pray each day include some of those who are in downtown LA to protest immigration raids, said Msgr. Antonio Cacciapuoti, pastor of the cathedral.
“Jesus weeps when there is suffering and injustice,” he said. “It’s important for us not to feel discouraged but find hope and trust in him because he has already conquered all sin and eternal death.”
The downtown cathedral is at the eye of the moral and political storm over the arrests of immigrants accused of being undocumented, the resulting protests, and the federal mobilization of the National Guard and U.S. Marines in response.
Father Matthew Wheeler, administrator of Our Savior Church on the campus of USC, lives at the cathedral, where he captured one of the most dramatic confrontations late Sunday night from his rectory window. His video shows officers in riot gear taking positions along the Broadway and Hill Street bridges that span the 101 Freeway just east of the cathedral.
A few protesters threw fireworks toward the officers, sparking a brushfire that brought firefighters to the scene. Wheeler did not witness any law enforcement hostility or retaliation.
“This is America. How does this even happen?” Wheeler asked himself.
“It felt like a war zone.”
Since Mayor Karen Bass instituted a curfew in downtown late Tuesday, the protests have calmed, said Father Peter Saucedo, vocations director for the archdiocese, who also lives at the cathedral residence. News footage on Thursday showed women whirling in Mexican skirt dances and described a protester wrapped in American and Mexican flags who repeatedly shouted “Thank you for your service” at National Guardsmen. The protests were scattered.
“This is impacting a very, very, very small part of the City of Los Angeles,” Saucedo said. When he drives to other parts of the city, “you would never be able to tell that’s what’s happening in downtown is happening.”
Saucedo has seen some destructive — and counterproductive — behavior by protesters. He was particularly saddened that two outer walls of the cathedral were tagged with graffiti that he called “explicit.” The tagging didn’t appear directed at the Catholic Church and wasn’t even political, he said, calling it an act of vandalism rather than protest.
“I don’t think they even had a sense that they were writing on the walls of a cathedral,” he said.
Saucedo isn’t concerned about living at the cathedral. “There hasn’t been a point where I haven’t felt safe,” he said.
He believes the protests will continue as long as the immigration raids do.
“This is a city of immigrants. It’s a big city and people are passionate about this,” he said.
He shares their concern. Saucedo’s parents came to the United States from Mexico without documents, but later regularized their status. They taught him to love the United States and to be grateful for all the rights and opportunities this nation had made possible for him.
“I see my father, who is a hard worker, an honest man who simply tries to do what is right and came to this country to have better opportunities,” he said. “My parents taught us to have an appreciation for our culture but also a great appreciation for our country.”
He respects and empathizes with peaceful protests, praying that people channel their anger constructively.
Immigration raids “are a very sensitive topic,” Saucedo said. “People’s reaction is understandable when you see your father or your mother being stripped away from you and there is no justification or explanation of what is happening.”
He is equally concerned for the law enforcement officers, some of whom are also immigrants. He has contacted an immigrant couple he knows, both of whom are police officers, to say he was praying for them.
“They obviously feel conflicted,” he said. “They both come from immigrant backgrounds and you’re fighting against your own people. They are trying to make a living keeping our city safe, and then people are seeing them as if they are the enemies.”
Such internal conflict is common among immigrants who are terrified and heartbroken by immigration raids “but who are also in love with our country because it offers something that is missing in other places,” Saucedo said.
Cacciapuoti is overseeing the removal of the graffiti and is confident that the cathedral is secure. Nevertheless, while protests of all kinds are common in downtown LA, he has never seen this kind of police and military response.
“It’s not easy to imagine something like this,” said Msgr. Cacciapuoti, an immigrant from Italy.
“I think the most important thing is to be calm and not to be afraid. As discouraging as it is to see so many families torn apart, we have to encourage people to trust in the Lord.”
It’s crucial to “let people know that Jesus suffers with us,” he said.
“Our job is to be present, to offer solace, to pray with the people, offer them hope and tell them that Jesus is with them in every situation. As the mother church of Los Angeles, we open our arms to everyone to comfort and protect them in any way we can. That is what we are called to do.”
Editor-in-chief Pablo Kay also contributed to this story.
