The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual Mass in honor of Cesar Chavez will not take place this year, amid new revelations of alleged sexual abuse by the late civil rights icon.
The Mass was cancelled by the Chavez family days before a March 18 New York Times report published evidence that the labor leader had groomed and sexually abused underage girls during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, when Chavez helped lead the farm worker rights movement in California.
“We agreed with the family’s decision,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “The recent news reports of the allegations are disturbing.”
Celebrated each year at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels around March 31, which since 2014 has been celebrated as a federal holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez, the Mass typically draws hundreds of farmworkers and labor activists to commemorate Chavez’s legacy.
The New York Times story reported that Chavez had sexually abused multiple girls under the age of 18, and had sexually assaulted UFW co-founder and longtime ally Dolores Huerta.
Public reaction to the revelations has been swift. Within 48 hours, murals and statues honoring the Chicano hero across California had been removed or covered, while state lawmakers had stripped Chavez’s name from the March 31 holiday, redesignating “Farmworkers Day.”
The city of Los Angeles said it would rename its annual holiday on the last Monday of March to “Farm Workers Day” and would begin a process to rename signs, parks, and city property currently named after Chavez.
From Angelus News
The annual Mass should never have been celebrated in the first place. Chavez was not canonized, so why was a Mass celebrated in “his honor” as if he were a saint in the liturgical calendar?
This is symptomatic of the post-conciliar church: leftist and sociological priorities supplant the true Catholic faith. Chavez was celebrated with a Mass because he was a leftist role model, and Mass was co-opted in the service of promoting leftist policies and sympathies.
Corrupt practices abound. It’s the same flawed mindset that thinks RECongress Masses that celebrate Mexican culture, black culture, Vietnamese culture, Filipino culture, and gay culture are appropriate. In such instances, people aren’t celebrating Mass as the liturgy of Catholic faith; they are celebrating a leftist value and using Mass to elevate it. Mass is secondary in all such instances: Catholicism is secondary to leftism.
O settle down. Why do you have to paint the whole Church with the localized incidents. Stop blaming the “Conciliar Church”. Jesus Himself said there would always be weeds among the wheat, so put a plug in it.
If Chavez did what’s alleged, every honoring of him should stop immediately. Yet, other than the testimony of these three women, some now in their 90’s, recalling things that happened 60 or more years ago, is there evidence of his wrong-doing? Chavez died more than 30 years ago. Why didn’t they come forward earlier? Obviously, we can’t hear from Chavez. Ms. Huerta “lived with” Chavez’s brother Richard and had four children with him. Seems odd doesn’t it? Ms. Huerta never told her common law husband about his brother abusing her?
Cesar Chavez may have been a sexual predator, but the timing is interesting. It didn’t take that long after JFK and Martin Luther King’s deaths that those who had been sexual victims of theirs came out with their stories. Are JFK and MLK streets and buildings going to be renamed? Harvey Milk admitted sexually abusing at least one minor for years. And, he still has a terminal at an international airport named in his honor. Abusers, whether politicians, clergy, teachers, law enforcement, entertainers, all persons should be punished to the full extent of the law and not honored. Yet, something about this doesn’t seem objective or consistent. Is there a double-standard?
She could have told him and they *both* agreed that protecting their comrade was more important than stopping a criminal. He was not charged or convicted in a court of law and no one knows if he sincerely repeated (if guilty) or not. But there are plenty of people more fit to be honored as faithful Catholics. His acclaims were always for purely political reasons than because of any actual examination of his holiness.
Lynn, I’m not for his canonization, but why do JFK and MLK and Harvey Milk get a pass on their abuse of women and children?
From what I have read and heard in victims’ interviews– many people don’t understand, that sexusl assault is a deeply troubling crime and sin, deeply personal, and very frightening. The sexual predator may threaten the victim that he will kill them if they tell the truth. Victims suffer for many years, often unable to tell anyone what happened. They also might feel a sense of shame and guilt– and be manipulated wrongly to think that they “must have done something” to cause the crime. Sexual assault is so unusual, dirty, filthy, sinful and taboo– that poor victims can hardly deal with it. Worse– if the criminal is an important public figure– or clergyman– the poor victims ‘s mind has trouble dealing with the hypocrisy and betrayal — how can a “good man, highly respected”— do such a terrible thing? Was there a “good reason” for this? Poor victims!
I once talked to a lovely lady, with a music degree and a fine Soprano voice. She was married with children. She confided that she had grown up in one of the churches in the Diocese of Stockton, CA, in which the evil clerical sex abuser, Oliver O’Grady, had raped at least 25 children. She was one of the few that were never touched by this monster. She had no idea that this priest was a terrible clerical sex abuser, until later, after she grew up. The whole thing horrified her and others, who were never touched– and many of them– now married with families– feared raising their children in the Catholic Church. Some reported having “survivors’ guilt” to deal with.
This lady that I spoke with, told me that she grew up in the same church, with all the kids (now grown up) —including Anne Jyono– one of the tragic, main victims, in that film, “Deliver Us From Evil.” I had just seen that film– and it was deeply disturbing. What was even worse– the film showed video documentation of the kids who were sexually abused, traveling to the Vatican with their parents– and it showed them all being turned away from hoped-for meetings with both Pope John Paul II and then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Prefect, then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Made me want to throw rotten eggs at them– and at evil Cardinal Roger Mahony, who also appeared in that film– who cruelly and criminally covered-up the sins of the filthy, evil clerical monster.
“Why do JFK and MLK and Harvey Milk get a pass on their abuse of women and children?” I think it is a matter of timing. It would be great if their misdeeds became better known and their praises are scaled down too. Their political lives are not spotless either, it is not just their sexual misconduct. It is especially odd to me that many Catholics are so keen on promoting MLK. There are African-American blesseds which you would think would be more appropriate to praise if one is seeking to praise African-Americans..
Cesar Chavez’s opposition to illegal immigration was getiting to be inconvenient for Democrats. Hence he is now canceled. Not for the sex abuse, though; that’s just a convenient reason.
I just watched an interview with Doloros Huerta, where she stated that she had “given away” her two babies by Chavez. She then went on to state her naivete about birth control and abortion at the time, but that she has since changed her mind (about those two subjects).
It made me wonder if her two now-adult children know about their birth mother and her newfound belief in retroactive abortion.
Despite the fact that they were humanitarians, trying to help the poor farmworkers— neither Cesar Chavez nor Dolores Huerta were truly Catholic. Their activist work was rooted in Catholic Social Teachings, and non-violence– and they involved Catholic ideals in their work. However, many of their true beliefs– and way of life (promiscuity, “shacking up,” sex predator, feminism and “women’s rights,” birth control and abortion, “gay rights” and gay “marriage,” etc.) — were directly opposed to Catholic teachings.
If he would have molested boys instead of girls, the Democratic Party would have honored him. They would consider that an additional reason to honor him. They would want to install a statue of him at the state Capital that shows him putting his arm around a boy. You can not trust the Democratic party.
Cesar Chavez was married to his wife, Helen, from 1948 until his death in 1993. She was very supportive of his activist work. They had eight children together. But Chavez also fathered two children illegitimately, with two daughters of two different union organizers– and later fathered two children with Dolores Huerta. He also may have fathered more illegitimate children– but that is all that is known, for now.
News reports state that Dolores Huerta had two children by her first husband, five children by her second husband, two illegitimate children by Cesar Chavez– and four illegitimate children by Richard Chavez, her long-term lover, and brother of Cesar Chavez. That totals 13 children– with 6 born out-of-wedlock. If you have illegitimate children by two men who are brothers– does that make those children “cousins?” Or “siblings?”
Richard Chavez married Sally Chavez in 1955, and they had five children together. They remained married until Richard’s death in 2011. So Richard’s poor wife and five kids put up with an adulterous husband and father, when he was committing adultery with Dolores Huerta.
I did not report sordid details in my comments about Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez and his brother, out of any personal prejudice, malice or pettiness. I reported these shocking details because these people all were shockingly immoral. Why? I recall hearing sermons by priests who even said that perhaps Cesar Chavez had heroic virtue– and might become a Saint someday. There are books in children’s libraries presenting Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta as great American heroes. And yes, they did much hard work for the poor and suffering farm workers. How do you tell, historically, the good work of these people– and deal with their flaws? The worst part is not adultery and illegitimate children– it is that Cesar Chavez was a sex predator of even underage girls. At that point— that’s the end, for me. Very sorry for his evil sexual assaults on poor Dolores Huerta.
FBI files on the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. indicate that he had sexual relationships with 45 women. He also had a long-term mistress, Dorothy Cotton. He earned a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College, in Boston, MA– and during that time, he met and married a talented young Soprano, Coretta Scott, who had won a scholarship to New,England Conservatory of Music, in Boston– where she studied Voice, and earned her degree. The two married in 1953.
What a horror poor Coretta Scott King must have endured– with all of her husband’s sinful womanizing. Next year, in 2027, all of the files– oncluding all documents, audio files and video files– on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King; Jr. — are scheduled to be publicly released. Wonder if there will be any significant findings– and new decisions on his legacy?
It does more and more appear that Chavez is guilty of crimes and sins. That said, my original question remains, why do JFK, MLK and Harvey Milk get excused and are still honored?
Might it have to do with the facts that Chavez was a Catholic, was anti-abortion, was not a socialist and was against illegal immigration/for a secure border? Discredit him to discredit more than him? (Obviously, he cannot be punished, as he should have been.) The timing and selectivity of this still raise questions. May God heal Chavez’s victims.
If Harvey Milk is a homo, then he has homo privilege. I hope that helps.
Hahaha so all the things Democrats pretend to abhor about Trump are things that their own left wing leaders are guilty of. hahaha
Keep the Mass in tact, Cardinal Mahony can offer it
I was a teacher at Archbishop Mitty High School decades ago. The Campus Ministry leaders led a program for seniors in which they divided up into small base liberation communities and were assigned a name of a role model. One group had the name Cesar Chavez. At one particular night I assisted at during my first year trying to be helpful, the groups had to create skits about how food items represented work for the Gospel. The Cesar Chavez group made a skit about Cesar Chavez salad. They also used toilet paper to created makeshift lingerie and swimsuits to wear over their regular frumpy clothing for the skit. Needless to say, I was appalled and never assisted again. That school, man. It wasn’t Catholic.