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1. Bishop Jaime Soto (Sacramento)

Helpful sources:
--Bishop Soto's page at the Diocese of Sacramento's website
--Catholic-Hierarchy.org
--Wikepedia
--Rocco Palmo, "It's Official: It's Jamietime," Whispers in the Loggia (Blog), October 11, 2007 (Accessed: January 27, 2010) [among other things, this informative post reproduces excerpts from an article which ran in the Sacramento Bee which is no longer available on-line on the paper's website].

Technically speaking Bishop Soto was originally a native of the Diocese of Los Angeles, having been born in Inglewood. However, in 1976 he went over to the newly formed Diocese of Orange County as a seminarian. In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Soto said that he had wanted to be a priest since the second grade. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Orange in California in 1982. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Orange in 2000. In 2007 he was installed as the coadjutor of the Diocese of Sacramento and became the Bishop in 2008. He attended Columbia University where he received in Master's in Social Work. He became the Director of Immigration and Citizenship Services at Catholic Charities in 1986; he has been deeply involved with immigration issues. At the USCCB he serves as the head of the Board of Directors: Catholic Legal Immigration Network, INC.

In 2005 he was selected to give one of the Catechetical addresses at World Youth Day in Cologne, raising his profile. In 2006 his brother bishops voted to make him the chair of the Committee for Youth and Young Adults at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Notably, Bishop Soto beat out the highly popular bishop of Boston, Most Rev. Sean O'Malley, the other candidate for the post, which raised a few heads.

Yet, simply providing biographical data doesn't really help you get a feel for who Bishop Soto is. For a flavor of some of his style, read the following report from a talk he gave in December of last year at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas, where he spoke to some 25,000 young people:

In his homily to all gathered at the conference, Sacramento, Calif., Bishop Jaime Soto spoke of the countless text messaging, facebooking, and twittering teens perform daily as a way to communicate with friends. As well, Jesus desires a relationship with every person, he said.
“He wants to text the truth of God’s mercy on your soul. Jesus is the Word, the ultimate Facebook of God…. Jesus does not twitter. Rather he humbled himself so that he could meet you, connect with you… He is the IP address of the way, the truth and the life.”
Bishop Soto also spoke of the misuse of the word “freedom” in today’s society, saying that “both truth and relationship are corrupted when the culture disconnects them to serve a distorted sense of freedom.
“Life has become a multiple choice question for which there are no wrong answers and the only criteria for choosing are one’s own impressions, preferences, desires, and fears… (which) become the self created avatars to which one clings while we are all adrift in a sea of mass information that threatens us, confuses us, and challenges us.”
Calling for the restoration of “a climate of freedom and an environment of hope,” Bishop Soto noted that we only need to look at the cross, to understand how much Jesus desires us. “The cross is both the medium and the message that Jesus sends us. When we respond to that call… we begin a dialogue that will connect you to the truth that will set you free.”

There is also a story about Bishop Soto that I should probably add here--though I am hesitant to do so. In 2008 Bishop Soto was invited to speak at the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference. As usual, Bishop Soto was loving and compassionate in his talk. Yet, he apparently made waves by affirming official Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are disordered in nature and are sinful. He also urged everyone to vote for Proposition 8 in California, the measure which eventually passed in California by a comfortable margin. As I said, I am hesitant to mention the story. After all, I don't see why it made headlines. The Bishop simply taught what the Church and the Bible teaches.

In fact, Bishop Soto has performed notable compassionate and generous service throughout his life in many areas, touching a countless number of people. Among other things he has served on Orange County HIV Advisory committee, the Orange County Legal Aid Society, the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, the Orange County Congregation of Community Organizations, and the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was known for celebrating Mass monthly at Orange County's Prison and counseling AIDS patients.

His distinguished service to the community has been recognized over and over again, earningg him a number of awards. For example, in 2001 he was named Cypress College's Man of the Year. The school's website lists some of the honors he has received from other organizations, including, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Estrellas Award; the National Conference for Community and Justice’s Humanitarian Award; the Ohtli Recognition; the Orange County Community Congregation Organization Leadership in Action Award; and the Hispanic Development Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I'd love to see more news stories about the various ways.

I might also add that Bishop Soto has a strong record of supporting the rights of the unborn. In 1991, before he was appointed bishop, he resigned his position on an advisory committee to the Santa Ana Unified School District to publicly disassociate himself from a decision it made to provide contraception and abortion related services at an elementary school clinic. He has been known to lead rosary processions to abortion clinics, and has recently declared a day of reparation for abortion in a letter written to his diocese.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of video available on-line of Bishop Soto speaking in English. Here he is with a rather hostile interviewer. I think he was the victim of an ambush here so keep that in mind. In short, this is not the best place to understand Bishop Soto's views on immigration. For a lengthy podcast interview go here. Nonetheless, because this is really the only video in English I can find of him:

There's also this video available of him speaking to a group in Spanish:

Videos available at The Sacred Place

2. Archbishop José Goméz (San Antonio)

Helpful sources:
--Archbishop Goméz's page at the Diocese of San Antonio's website.
--Catholic-Hierarchy.org
--Wikipedia
Archbishop Goméz was born in Mexico. He is one of five children--the only boy. He earned a degree in business and philosophy in 1975 at the National University in Mexico. He went on to the University of Navarre in Rome and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Theology. That same year he was ordained as a priest in the Prelature of Opus Dei. He eventually earned a doctorate in Theology in Spain at the University of Navarre.

For twelve years (1987-1999) he served as a priest at a parish in San Antonio. During these years Archbishop Goméz emerged as a highly regarded national leader among Hispanic priests in the US. He has served as regional representative, president and executive director of the Association of Hispanic Priests.

After serving as a priest in San Antonio, Archbishop Goméz worked in the Diocese of Denver. He was made an auxiliary bishop of Archbishop Chaput in 2001. There he helped to establish Denver’s Centro San Juan Diego for Family and Pastoral Care, which provides care to immigrants in the community as well as formation for lay leaders. While in Denver he also served as Rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception as well as Moderator of the Curia and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Denver.

In 2004, the then Bishop Goméz was appointed head of the archdiocese of San Antonio. In fact, his ties to the archdiocese long pre-date his earlier ministry there. His mother was apparently raised there and his maternal grandparents were married in the city.

Like Bishop Soto, Archbishop Goméz's work has been widely celebrated and he is recognized as one of the rising stars of the Hispanic hierarchy. In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious "El Buen Pastor" award. In 2005 he appeared on Time Magazine’s list of the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States. The article about him stated:

. . . Gomez is a natural conciliator admired for uniting rich and poor and Anglo and Hispanic Catholics behind Denver's Centro Juan Diego, a hybrid Latino religious-instruction and social-services center hailed as a national model.

In 2007 he was also featured on CNN’s list of “Notable Hispanics” in a web special celebrating “Hispanic Heritage Month”.

He has also served on the board of directors of the National Catholic Council of Hispanic Ministry as well as on the steering committee for Encuentro 2000, which commemorated the Jubilee Year of 2000. The event took place in Los Angeles and was sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Goméz has also been very much involved in priestly formation and in building community among priests. He has written a book on the spiritual formation of priests, entitled, Men of Brave Heart: The Virtue of Courage in the Priestly Life (Our Sunday Visitor, 2009). He was instrumental in the founding of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Mexico in 2000, a seminary which trains priests who serve in the United States. He has served on the United States Council of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) committees for priestly formation and priestly affairs. In fact, Archbishop Goméz serves on a number of distinguished committees. His own site lists the following:

• Chair: Ad Hoc Committee on the Spanish Language Bible for the Church in America (USCCB), 2003 ‐
• Chair: Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church (USCCB), 2008 ‐
• Member: Committee on Doctrine (USCCB), 2003‐
• Member: Committee on Catechesis (USCCB), 2005 ‐
• Member: Subcommittee on Hispanics and the Liturgy (USCCB), 2005 ‐
• Board Member: Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
• Board Member: Mexican American Cultural Center
• Board Member: ENDOW – Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women
• Board of Trustees: The Catholic University of America
• Board of Trustees: San Fernando Cathedral Historical Centre Foundation
• Director: The John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation
• Episcopal Moderator: National Association of Hispanic Priests
• Episcopal Moderator: National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana
• Spiritual Advisor: Catholic Life Insurance
• Founding Member: Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (C.A.L.L.)

Note that at the top of the list is his role as Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Spanish Language Bible for the Church in America. This is an especially important post. Archbishop Goméz is deeply committed to helping Spanish speaking Catholics read the Bible. In fact, he reads the Spanish reflections on the Sunday Readings produced the St. Paul Center each week. For more, go here. These are excellent.

This sort of thing is not unusual for the good prelate. Last year he also headed up the effort to bring a teaching segment to the local population on AM radio.

The Bishop made national headlines last year when he expressed disappointment over the fact that a Catholic college in his diocese, St. Mary's University invited Hilary Clinton to speak. Bishop Gomez insisted, "“Our Catholic institutions must promote the clear understanding of our deep moral convictions on an issue like abortion, an act that the Church calls ‘an unspeakable crime’ and a non-negotiable issue" (source). In addition, go here to see a TV news report, with excerpts from an interview with the bishop.

I might also mention that I personally met Archbishop Goméz last year at a conference I was invited to speak at in San Antonio (I have never met the other bishops I write about here). I was especially struck by his warmth. I thoroughly enjoyed a homily he gave at the conference as well as his keynote address at the Saturday night dinner. He's a great bishop and his flock loves him.

Here is a link to a video of the Archbishop (which I cannot embed here) speaking about the Sacraments as something more than merely a cultural expression. In addition, take a look at this video in which he speaks about immigration--though once again I must add that the video does not fully explain the Archbishop's views (i.e., he believes that illegal immigrants should face penalties, though he urges that since deporation breaks up families, those who break immigration laws should be punished in some other way).

I also like this short little clip of the beginning of a talk he gave to a Catholic women's conference:

The talk apparently went well--it led this woman to want to do Bible study:

Finally, there is this video he did on the special offering for the Church in Latin America as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America: