St Patrick's Catholic Church is a noted place of worship in Los Angeles, CA. It is located just east of downtown L.A. and is one of the oldest parishes in Los Angeles, having been established in 1903. The parish has served a plethora of communities over its more than hundred years. 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 founding church structure was damaged and rebuilt after a 1933 earthquake destroyed the famous towers. A second earthquake in 1971 completely destroyed the church. The parishioners, unable to afford the cost of reconstructing, had been attending service in the converted parish hall for the last thirty-five years. With an typical attendance of more than 600 but a maximum capacity of only 400, many worshipers were forced to wait outside the door to the parish hall to attend Mass.
Through the inspiration of Bishop Stephen Blaire and others, the idea was hatched of building a church for the parish with the assistance of all the nearby parishes and donors within Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region. Under the leadership of Bishop Edward William Clark, the construction of the church commenced in April 2005 and was completed in December 2006. Dedication of the new church was held March 17.
It had quite some time since the St. Patrick Parish had a permanent church. Over one thousand worshipers are now able to celebrate Mass in the new St. Patrick's. This more than doubles the previous capacity of the worship space in the parish hall. The unique funding campaign to build the new church involved contributions from the seventy-seven parishes within the Our Lady of the Angels regions, in addition to contributions from individual donors and foundations.
According to parish statistics, the number of known households is about 1,500, with regularly-attending parishioners: at more than 5,000. Annually, over 450 baptisms are performed in the church. The number of students in weekly religious education classes is more than 700.
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