St Patrick's Catholic Church is a noted place of worship in Los Angeles, CA. It is located just east of the downtown area and is one of the longest-existing parishes in Los Angeles, having been established in 1903. The parish has serviced a variety of communities over its existence. St.
Patrick's has always welcomed immigrants, starting with Irish and Germans in the 1900s, African-Americans in the 1920s and 1930s, Mexican-Americans in the 1950s and currently Central Americans since the 1980s. The original church building was damaged and reconstructed after a 1933 earthquake damaged the famous towers. A second earthquake in 1971 completely collapsed the church. The parish, not able to afford the cost of reconstructing, had been worshiping in the converted parish hall for the past 35 years.
With an typical attendance of over 600 but a full capacity of only 400, many parishioners were forced to stand outside the door to the parish hall to attend Mass. Through the inspiration of Bishop Stephen Blaire and others, the idea was born of building a church for St. Patrick's Parish with the assistance of all the nearby parishes and donors within Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region.
Under the direction of Bishop Edward William Clark, the construction of the church commenced in April 2005 and was completed in December 2006. Dedication of St. Patrick's Church was held March 17. It had been a long time since the St.
Patrick Parish had a permanent location. Over one thousand worshipers are now able to celebrate Mass in the new St. Patrick's. This is more than twice the previous capacity of the worship space in the parish hall.
The unique funding campaign to build the new church involved donations from the seventy-seven parishes within the Our Lady of the Angels regions, in addition to donations from outside donors and foundations. In the parish, the number of known households is about 1,500, with regularly-attending parishioners: at greater than 5,000. On an annual basis, over 450 baptisms are performed in the church. The number of students in weekly religious education classes is greater than 700.
Matt Paolini is a community writer for CityBook, the family-safe yellow pages online, which carries an extensive directory on Los Angeles community services.
