Nearly 2,000 celebrate multilingual Pentecost Mass at St. Lorenzo Ruiz

Nearly 2,000 people, many wearing red or native attire, filled the tented plaza at St. Lorenzo Ruiz Catholic Church in Walnut today for the parish’s first multilingual Pentecost Mass.

The Mass, celebrated by Bishop Oscar Solis, recalled the story of the Church’s birth at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus and inspired them to preach in the languages of everyone listening.

During today’s Mass, the first reading was proclaimed in a dozen of the following languages at the same time: Chinese, French, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, Greek, English, Bantu, Indonesian and Italian.

The Mass, organized by Father Tony Astudillo, pastor of the St. Lorenzo Ruiz, was followed by an international food festival and entertainment including Mexican mariachis, Chinese sword dancers and Ballet Folklorico dancers.