Tabernacle saved in Palisades Fire makes a surprise LA appearance

At the June 22 concluding Mass for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, one object stood apart as a vivid reminder of the Eucharist as an answer to human suffering: the tabernacle famously salvaged from the church that burned in the Palisades Fire earlier this year. That church’s name? Corpus Christi. 

“If you were writing a novel, you would hope you’d create something like this,” said Msgr. Liam Kidney, pastor of Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades.

Kidney was among the more than 3,000 people at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on the feast of Corpus Christi that day, along with some survivors of the Palisades and Eaton Fires. He told Angelus that seeing the cathedral fill with so many people “who love their faith” — including pilgrims who came to pray at the site of Corpus Christi the day before — made him emotional. 

“These are the good people, these are the cream of the crop,” said Kidney. “Celebrating the gift of the Eucharist, and remembering this little unique thing that happened, this tabernacle making it through this hurricane of fire and still being there … you couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Since being pulled from the rubble by firefighters in January, the 300-pound tabernacle has been kept at St. Monica Church in Santa Monica. But this month, it will move to St. Joseph’s Chapel on the campus of Mount St. Mary’s University in Brentwood, where around 250 Corpus Christi parishioners — most of whom lost their homes in the Palisades Fire — gather for Mass with Kidney every Sunday morning. 

“That’s very good, considering that none of our parishioners are living in the Palisades at the moment,” said Kidney of the weekly attendance numbers. He said that Manhattan Beach, Brentwood, Newport Beach, and Santa Barbara seem to have become the most popular destinations for resettled parishioners. 

While Corpus Christi School is set to reopen in fall 2026, plans for a rebuilt church are moving slowly. As debris and hazardous materials cleanup efforts continue at the site, Kidney said the parish has been looking at possible architects to design a new church, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of LA’s construction and insurance departments.