LA community organizers meet with 'old friend' Pope Francis

Pope Francis is hardly a stranger to One LA-IAF, a local nonprofit affiliated with the national Industrial Areas Foundation.

In fact, at least one LA-based community building organizer has been in the room with the pope in each of the last three audiences he’s held with national members.

The most recent meeting took place Aug. 28 as part of an ongoing dialogue about its “Recognizing the Stranger” leadership program, which seeks to build up relationships with immigrants in local communities. 

Judging by the length and tone of those meetings, attendees say, the pope seems particularly interested in what they have to say. Or rather, very interested.

“By this point, it feels like we are meeting an old friend,” said Robert Hoo, executive director of One LA-IAF. Hoo was one of 18 people representing IAF’s West/Southwest branch in the room with the pope this summer.

“He seems very interested in having these meetings to hear what people back home are doing at their parish. It has become so familiar that at our last meeting, when the pope begins to tell a story, he asks: ‘Have I told you this before?’ ”

Much of Hoo’s work in recent years has involved networking with groups around the country also working to bring diverse religious and nonprofit institutions together to better understand social issues. More than once, it was suggested that they reach out to the Vatican to see if Francis might be open to a meeting.

“In a way, we took a chance and we were true to who we are,” said Hoo, who has 12 years of leadership roles with One LA-IAF. “We are all about interpersonal relationships and sharing stories. We have no agenda. It is all relational.”

“We were very surprised to get a handwritten note within a couple of months of asking that said: ‘Come and visit me’.”

Sheila Thomas of Holy Name of Jesus Church in LA greets Pope Francis during an audience with IAF members in October 2022. (Rabbi John Linder)

Hoo, who attends La Placita Church near downtown LA, was also part of the IAF group that first met with Francis in October 2022. Sheila Thomas from Holy Name of Jesus Church in the Jefferson Park area of LA was also there.

In between, an IAF group who met the pope in August 2023 included Mary Jackson, a parishioner at St. Brigid Church in South LA.

For Thomas, the greatest takeaway from the meeting was how Francis listened to her concerns about human trafficking, and how it felt the Church perhaps “turns our backs on the most poor and vulnerable at times. Church is a renewal of our social justice issue of being Catholic, but it’s important to work outside the walls of the church.”

Thomas said she felt Francis is “a pope of agitation. And when we talk about leadership of One LA, that’s a good thing. We follow up with relationships and stories. Even though it has been two years ago since we met, it will always resonate with me.”

Jackson’s encounter with Francis in 2023 was an “unbelievable life experience” that came seven months after the death of LA Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell. Jackson said she told the pope how important O’Connell had been to their immigration training and what a tragic loss it was to the community.

“I was mesmerized by how much Pope Francis knew about One LA and the work we were doing,” said Jackson. “He called our work ‘atomic’ — we were patiently taking steps, piece by piece, atom by atom, to penetrate our entire community. It said it was like how water seeps into everything.

“As an English speaker with very little Spanish, I still felt a connection through the translator and there any language barrier disappeared. It was an eye-to-eye conversation where you could feel his spirit and hope. It was really awesome to come back to our community and tell everyone.”

After the most recent visit, Francis gave the group copies of seven encyclicals and written works he had done and encouraged them to write back. Hoo said another visit could be arranged as soon as 2025, as a chance for One LA officers to continue a dialogue that included a two-hour meeting last March with Archbishop José H. Gomez and Auxiliary Bishop Matt Elshoff to help establish a teaching program about immigration. 

“I think this has inspired all of us to do better work at One LA,” said Hoo.

One LA members meet with Archbishop José H. Gomez in June 2023 for a teaching session. From left: Robert Hoo, Rabbi Tamara Eskenazi, Mary Jackson, Sheila Thomas, Archbishop Gomez, Talia Inbar, Ortencia Ramirez, Marta Gonzalez, and Jorge Montiel. (Courtesy One LA)

Ortencia Ramirez, a parishioner from San Gabriel Mission, echoed that her involvement with One LA has “given me more motivation to continue. Sometimes, you may feel run-down, but this is all energy to renew. You see the difference you can make in a community. That’s big for me.”

Marta Gonzalez, a One LA member connected to St. Catherine of Siena Church in Reseda, is organizing a follow-up “House Meeting” meeting with Elshoff set for Oct. 23 at Holy Name of Jesus. She said the group’s listening and sharing sessions with clergy feels validated by hearing the stories of the papal visits.

“Living in an institutional life can be countercultural, but the energy that we receive from Pope Francis and Archbishop Gomez and our parishioners keeps us going,” Gonzalez said. “Pope Francis has told us: Keep doing your work because it’s valuable and it changes people’s lives, and there’s evidence of that.”