Parishioners of Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades and Sacred Heart Church in Altadena held special Masses to mark one year since wildfires upended their communities.
Both Jan. 7 liturgies gave survivors a chance to reflect on lessons learned and to pray for the healing still needed amid complicated rebuilding efforts.
Father Gilbert Guzmán, pastor at Sacred Heart, emphasized healing by offering the Anointing of the Sick to Catholics in attendance at the end of their bilingual Mass.
“You are not defined by your circumstances, and you are not victims of any circumstance,” Guzmán said during his homily. “We see that in the circumstances that we lived one year ago today, we today stand here as testaments to the fact that all love and all hope perseveres regardless of the circumstances.”
During the Mass at Sacred Heart, 19 candles were lit and placed on the altar, one for each person who died in the Eaton Fire.
Many, if not most, of those who attended the Masses were still displaced by the fires.
Parishioners of Corpus Christi, which was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, gathered at St. Monica Church in nearby Santa Monica for their memorial Mass.
“Yes, we’re celebrating Mass, yes, we’re remembering, and yes, we’re doing a little therapy,” pastor Msgr. Liam Kidney said. “Because obviously we all need to share, we need to talk, we need to trust each other, and we need to be there for each other.”
At the end of his homily, Kidney presented a framed apostolic blessing from Pope Leo XIV to St. Monica’s pastor Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson and his parishioners, an acknowledgement of all those who aided victims displaced by the Palisades Fire.
LA Fire Capt. Bryan Nassour, who rescued Corpus Christi’s tabernacle from the ashes of the destroyed church, was also recognized at the Mass. Kidney called Nassour to the altar and the fire captain received a standing ovation from the crowd.
“You’re young enough that when we rebuild Corpus Christi, we’re going to have you carry that tabernacle in yourself,” joked Kidney.
During the Mass, Kidney admitted that he often gets lost in the area around Corpus Christi because he couldn’t find any of his “familiar landmarks.”
But despite the confusion, he told the faithful that he was confident in God’s plan for the church and for all of them. Corpus Christi’s school is scheduled to reopen in September, he said, and town hall meetings in January and February will be held to get input on what’s needed for the rebuilt Corpus Christi.
“The Palisades will be rebuilt,” Kidney said. “We will know where we’re at. We will kind of discover that we’re not lost. We know where we’re going, and we know that there’s a journey and there’s an end to the journey.
“The only thing I know for sure is we’re into the first year of our journey. We’re into the first year of the new journey that God has given us.”
