Sergio Lopez is a husband, father, educator, and Catholic organizer from Southern California. He serves as the National Director for Mission and Leadership Formation for Catholics in Communion, where he accompanies Catholic leaders, parishes, and organizations working to build a more just, compassionate, and faithful church. He previously served in leadership formation with Catholic Relief Services, helping Catholics deepen their commitment to global solidarity and social justice. Sergio also teaches pastoral leadership at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As a Latino Catholic leader, he is passionate about forming communities of faith that respond to the struggles of our time with hope, courage, and a deep commitment to human dignity.
In this episode, we speak with Sergio about his awakening to faith as a son of Mexican immigrants, his transition from seminary to the vocation of parish ministry and community organizing, and how recent cuts to US foreign aid impacted the mission of Catholic Relief Services and other international development organizations. Sergio shares how Catholics in Communion arose in response to a “pastoral emergency of hope,” especially around issues of anti-immigrant violence, and gives us an overview of their Season of Faithful Witness initiative and ways that people can get involved—“Catholics being Catholic in the public space,” as he explains, “coordinating love, organizing hope.”
Our conversation also touches on the opportunity to “speak as one church” in the era of Pope Leo XIV by reinvigorating social teaching and developing a “shared language around what it means to be Catholic.” Listeners are encouraged to read the accompanying article, “A Season of Faithful Witness: Catholics Are Learning to Walk Together Again,” published in tandem with this episode in Tomorrow’s American Catholic.
