At 7:30 on a recent chilly night, Father Arnold N. Abelardo tends to 200 homeless people lined up for food outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church in the historic Olvera Street district in downtown Los Angeles.
He asks Dolly about street life and John about job prospects. He whisks a family into the church basement, where he gives them milk, blankets and toys.
Another day, the Roman Catholic priest lures his largely Latino congregants to his side after Mass with mariachi music, stands on a chair and exhorts them to register to vote. "If we want to achieve change, we have to actively participate in politics, and the best way to do that is register to vote!" he booms.
Abelardo is part of a new pastoral team aiming to renew the historic mission of the oldest church in Los Angeles: to serve as a champion of the poor and a voice for the immigrant.
"We are trying to transform it into a church that is more prophetic, liberating and attentive to the poorest of the poor, especially immigrants," said Father Roland Lozano, provincial superior of the Claretian Missionaries of the Western United States, which staffs the church.
Every Sunday, the old church, affectionately known as La Placita or Little Plaza, draws 10,000 people from around the region to its 11 Masses. Its icons of Latino popular religiosity include the black Christ of Guatemala, the Christ of Miracles of Peru and the infant Jesus known as Santo Nino de Atocha, whose shrine is festooned with baby pictures, locks of hair and written pleas for miracles.
Other days, busloads of tourists alight in front of the church to view the spot at Main Street and New High Avenue where, by the order of King Carlos III of Spain, the pueblo that eventually became Los Angeles was established in 1781.
On weekends, the area draws large crowds for concerts in the plaza, shopping and dining -- or, some merchants say, it used to. Olvera Street shop owners complain that the new activism is drawing hordes of homeless to the area, threatening the tourism they rely on.
"Help the homeless, but help them where it doesn't hurt business," said Bernarbe Velarde, owner of a nearby fast-food restaurant.
But Lozano and his team hear a clear call to minister to the homeless, undocumented immigrants and people with AIDS.
"Regardless of the political climate or whether [these actions] would be supported by a majority of people in L.A.," Lozano said, "it's the right thing to do."
