Commentary: Why Catholics must take the lead to rebuke MAGA in the midterms

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred Though I don’t regularly attend Mass, I fondly remember the two years in high school when I prepared for the sacrament of Communion.In the basement of St.Boniface Church in Anaheim on weekday afternoons and weekend mornings in the mid-1990s, my sister, about 20 other teenagers and I learned about the tenets of our faith.We were inculcated with the importance of charity, love toward all, good works and humility, and urged to carry those virtues into adulthood.

I didn’t agree with everything our lay teachers espoused — why abortion should be outlawed, why necking was bad, why only men could become priests — but I learned enough important moral lessons that I still proudly call myself Catholic.Her brown face, green mantle and forgiving gaze is a mainstay of Southern California: In front yards.Confirmation is meant to bring recipients closer to God and “imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark,” according to the Vatican’s official guide to its doctrine.

What especially stayed with my classmates and me was, well, us.We were white, Filipino, Vietnamese and Latino, children of working-class parents and equals in the eyes of God.Church fairs were as likely to serve pancit and spring rolls as hamburgers and tacos.

When we finally received confirmation at a special Mass at St.Boniface attended by then-Bishop Norman McFarland, we exemplified not just the future of the church but also the promise of a better tomorrow for the United States.Our parish lived and practiced American Catholicism’s long tradition of welcoming the stranger, the outcast, the refugee — following the example and words of the Gospel we read every Sunday.

But even as we committed ourselves to the path of Christ, politicians in California waged a war against illegal immigrants and anything that suggested diversity — a...