The 2026 LA Religious Education Congress kicked off Friday morning with an emphasis on the healing power of mercy and self-forgiveness — and a special message from Pope Leo XIV — as the annual gathering marked its 70th year.
This year’s theme, “Wrapped in Mercy, Hope Renewed!” was the inspiration for the liturgy, song, worship dance, and reflection inside the Anaheim Convention Center Arena on Feb. 20.
In his welcome remarks, Archbishop José Gomez surprised participants with a message sent by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of Leo.
“By deepening your relationship with Jesus, who is the Truth, and continuing to be faithful and joyful disciples in your daily lives,” read the message, “your authenticity as educators and catechetical leaders will enable you to transmit the Gospel in such a way that it leads to a true encounter with the Lord and contributes to building up a lasting and life-giving culture….”
One of the most striking moments of the Friday morning ceremony was a video witness presented on the large video screen from Yolanda Chavez, a volunteer for the LA Archdiocese’s Office of Religious Education, which coordinates the Congress.
Chavez explained in Spanish how she had been living and working in Los Angeles for the last 30 years, but suddenly faced a deportation notice. Rather than subject her family to further harm, as she felt she was considered a threat, she relocated to Mexico.
“The first night, I cried a lot,” Chavez said. “God was in my tears, weeping with me. … I love the God who crossed the border with me. Today, I know God. His name is mercy.”
Sister Rosalia Meza, VDMF, senior director of the Office of Religious Education, explained after the video that “as Yolanda shows us, God is always present in our suffering. Mercy is the essence of God’s heart. It wraps us with tender love like a mother kissing her new-born baby for the first time. Mercy is God offering himself to us to lift us from our woundedness.”
Among those in the arena on Friday was Virginia Medellin, a parishioner at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima. As the badge she was wearing indicated, Medellin first started attending RECongress in 1964 when she was a CCD teacher. In those days, she explained, she marched for the rights of migrant workers with Cesar Chavez.
Today’s aggressive federal deportation policy would lead her to protest on the streets, she said, but growing older, she can “do more with prayer.”
“My heart goes out to [Chavez],” she told Angelus “This is why it is important for me to attend. Things are crushing down all around us, but there is a light in the end. We have to remember how God suffered for us and took His cross. Once we follow Him, we have to take our own crosses….”
From Angelus News
MAGA baby. Deport every illegal alien. If I were at the RECongress I would have proudly worn my MAGA hat.
Gay was also a theme at the congress, but they won’t write about that. Gay tapestries were in the arena on Saturday and draped the altar and ambo for Mass. Fr. James Martin spoke about gay all day long in his workshops. The only thing more honored than an illegal immigrant was a gay illegal immigrant.
I see the deported volunteer is still alive and well.
And she can help people in her home country. Maybe with their faith and not in coming to the U.S.? And remember, Cesar Chavez was strongly against illegal immigration. He thought it depressed the wages of legal farm workers.
Look at that pic: it’s all old women attending the Congress. That’s the demographic right there. It’s not the future of the church. It’s the present liberal Democrat Party church. It will die out. Give it 20 years at most left. Then we pick up the pieces and rebuild.
The above comments are spot on. Homosexuals do not produce children. The Church will be left without children to keep parishes open.
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