Amid national unrest, violence over immigration enforcement, hundreds pray for peace at L.A. Cathedral

With tensions still high in the region’s immigrant community over mass deportation actions, crowds flocked downtown to spend an hour in prayer at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday, Feb. 4, a day designated as a Day of Prayer for Peace in the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the nation.

Archbishop Jose Gomez celebrated Mass on Wednesday, following the call six days before from Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for a Holy Hour of Peace to pray “for reconciliation where there is division, for justice where there are violations of fundamental rights, and for consolation for all who feel overwhelmed by fear or loss.”

“Today, we especially pray for our government leaders, for the law enforcement officers, and for those protesting and defending the immigrant families caught up in this struggle,” Gomez said. “Here in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and in so many other cities, we ask the Holy Spirit to take away the spirit of confrontation … and awaken again the conscience of America.”

Gomez repeated his call for immigration reform, finding a path to citizenship for undocumented people already in the country who have not committed any crimes. The leader of more than 5 million Catholics from 32 ethnic backgrounds said many of the people deported since June, when the Trump administration ramped up its immigration crackdown, leave behind families and jobs in their communities.

Gomez said immigrants should be treated with dignity in their ordinary lives, and prayed that every person, from the undocumented to those in government, realize they are all children of God and treat each other with respect.

There is strength in coming together to pray, Gomez said.

“When we are together praying to God and listening to God, that also helps everybody else to see that this is an important moment in our society and in the United States, that we are together praying for the solution to the problem. Prayer is a very powerful weapon.”

“We are in a tense moment, a time of division and even violence. But our country has faced hard times before and overcome them,” the archbishop said as he closed Wednesday’s homily. “We can do that again, with prayer and moral seriousness, with the spirit of nonviolence, and with a commitment to America’s founding principles.”

Wednesday’s events at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels followed the arrests of over four dozen anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday, the second night of a nationwide movement to end funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokeswoman, said police made 51 arrests Saturday evening, with 47 adults and three juveniles cited and released for failure to disperse. One person was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, she added. Saturday’s protests came after violence broke out Friday night, when multiple protesters were arrested for throwing objects at federal agents at downtown’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

There were additional protests in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, and police declared an unlawful assembly near City Hall. More demonstrators were also reported near Temple and Alameda streets by the federal building, where a dispersal order was issued.

The Catholic leaders commended anyone who continues to work for peace and justice, including those who peacefully assemble, and are caring for their immigrant neighbors. The shooting deaths in Minneapolis by immigration agents of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, spurred pastors nationwide to speak out.

“The recent killing of two people by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis and that of a detained man in Texas, are just a few of the tragic examples of the violence that represent failures in our society to respect the dignity of every human life,” Coakley said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ criticism of Trump policies on mass deportation and foreign aid, include a call from 300 Catholic leaders to the Senate asking it to reject ICE funding if it doesn’t include protections for immigrants.

On Sunday, Feb. 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News that the president “is never going to waver in the commitment that he made to the nearly 80 million Americans who voted for him to deport illegal alien criminals, who broke our nation’s laws to get here, and then have committed further crimes of violence against American citizens.”

Trump administration officials have vowed to continue the government’s massive dragnet and mass deportations, though the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis have prompted the pullout of 700 immigration officers from the area, according the White House.

On Saturday, Jan. 31, three days after Coakley’s message, 154 bishops of the Episcopal Church signed a letter addressed to the American people, encouraging people to use their community power, financial power, political power and knowledge to show up for each other and their neighbors.

The Rev. Susan Russell, canon at Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, as well as part-time clergy staff at All Saints Church in Pasadena, said the message was posted as an opinion piece on Fox News by Washington Bishop Mariann Budde, who angered President Trump and his supporters when she asked him to “have mercy” on immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community during a prayer service for his 2025 inauguration.

“It offers a powerful message of hope and a prophetic antidote to the toxic rhetoric of Christian Nationalism — and in my 71 years I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder to be an Episcopalian,” Russell wrote online.

“The bishops called for the immediate suspension of ICE and Border Patrol operations in Minnesota and in any community where militarized enforcement “has endangered residents or destroyed public trust.”

“What happened a week ago in Minnesota and is happening across the country runs counter to God’s vision of justice and peace,” said Rev. Carrie Schofield-Broadbent of Maryland.

The Rev. Betsey Monnot of Iowa said the crisis, including the shooting deaths of Good and Pretti in Minnesota, is about more than one city or state, “it’s about who we are as a nation,” Monnot said. “The question before us is simple and urgent. Whose dignity matters?”

The crowd at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels included nuns from several orders, and students from Cathedral High School and Bishop Conaty High School, both in Los Angeles.

Bartolome Carino, 78, and his partner, Eleanor Pineda, celebrate Mass at the cathedral every Wednesday. The retired caregiver from Los Angeles said he believes prayer will help bring peace to a country that sorely needs it.

“You have to have faith in God,” he said in Tagalog. “Remember when two or three are gathered in his name, there God will be, so how much more with this many people praying for peace? Yes, I’m worried, especially for the Filipinos here, but I also believe everything happens at the time God wills.”

City News Service contributed to this report.