Kathleen Domingo is helping to build a new generation of California Catholics, committed collectively to a consistent ethic of life.

Leading a Respect-Life Revolution — in L.A. 

by PETER JESSERER SMITH

How do you build a real culture of life? Not an abstraction or a theory — but a real, living, breathing culture of life?

Well, meet Kathleen Domingo, the Archdiocese of Los Angelesʼ new coordinator for life — a woman on fire to make the gospel of life a lived, concrete experience using the methods of the New Evangelization.

“I want people to understand what is actually meant by a culture of life,” Domingo said.

Domingoʼs position represents a major change in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under Archbishop Jose Gomezʼs leadership. After more than a decade of no respect-life leadership, due to budget cuts in the archdiocese, Archbishop Gomez brought it back in the new Office of Life, Justice and Peace. The name of the office itself suggests a message that the previous separation between pro-life advocacy and social-justice advocacy is over.

Thatʼs where Domingo comes in as the coordinator for life. With the full support of Archbishop Gomez, the married mother of two has dived into her role with creativity and passion to create a new generation of Catholics for whom a consistent ethic of life is second nature.

If a silver lining can be found in the archdiocese’s decade-long absence of life-related leadership, it is the grassroots Catholic pro-life activists’ decision “not going to sit around and wait” for marching orders, said Domingo. Their initiative is an advantage to Domingo, who now is tasked with helping to coordinate and support those grassroots energies, which she keeps discovering through town-hall meetings throughout the archdiocese.

“I love hearing what people are doing,” Domingo says. “We have people starting activities in the parishes and doing a lot of wonderful things.” She points to initiatives for adopting foster kids, fighting human trafficking and starting Project Rachel in parishes.

Domingo has a passion to make this energy come alive throughout the archdiocese, the inspiration of which she received from her own family: She prayed with her mother in front of abortion businesses as a child. Then later, attending a public high school, she saw the choices her classmates around her were making, and she took a public stand in defense of life when Planned Parenthood’s representatives came to talk to students.

“That’s really the first time I spoke up on my own without an adult,” she said.

Building a consistent ethic of life, she said, begins with youth — and Domingo is determined to use the methods of the New Evangelization to create this generation's respect-life Catholics.

“It requires us to put out the beauty and power of the truth that is attractive to people,” she said.

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