Our Lady Queen Of Angels Catholic Church

Construction crews at Our Lady Queen of Angels are putting the finishing touches on a controversial new addition to the historic downtown Los Angeles church: living quarters in which to harbor an immigrant family facing deportation.

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.

The church near Olvera Street does not have five-ton cast bronze doors or a sticker price of close to $200 million, but its cultural significance is grand nonetheless. Less than a minute away from the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels that is set to open Sept. 2, is a piece of the city's cultural past, La Placita church, which is still inspiring awe and pride in its tens of thousands of visitors.

To create room for a long-awaited expansion, a Catholic parish in Newport Beach has agreed to spend $6.7 million for a neighboring Presbyterian church to move a few miles down the road. If the rare interdenominational deal goes through, Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church will pick up four acres of land adjacent to its property near Corona del Mar High School, land now occupied by the Presbyterian church. There, it would build a 1,200-seat church for its 4,800-family congregation.

In the most striking aspect of their proposed 1,200-seat church, Our Lady Queen of Angels officials plan to build a replica of the Portiuncula Chapel in central Italy, the favorite church of St. Francis of Assisi. A photographer will spend three days this month at Portiuncula to capture the stone chapel on digital film, which will be used to produce architectural plans. "We'll get every little nook and cranny," Father Vincent Gilmore said. "This will be museum quality.

In a gallery beneath the 13th century belfry tower that dominates the storybook streets here, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Friday presided over the unveiling of monumental tapestries designed by a California artist and produced by Belgian craftsmen for Los Angeles' new cathedral. Brugge is as Old World as Los Angeles is New World. A medieval gem with a population of about 110,000, it has canals instead of freeways and a cityscape that is a pedestrian's dream.

Most of the white crosses bear only a name and age. Some include a hometown. Jorge Alvarado Hernandez, age 35. Maria De Socorro, a 20-year-old from Guanajuato. Ulises Ortiz Cruz, 17, from Veracruz. Some say only "No Identificado." Identity unknown. They are the illegal migrants--most of them men, most from Mexico--who died scrambling for a chance at American prosperity. They are, activists say, the forgotten ones, the ones who never made it. Now, a movement is afoot to remember them.

Before the noon services began, a friend approached Manuela Estrada. Had she heard the news? Padre Luis Olivares was dead. "All during the Mass, I prayed to God that he would open the gates of his kingdom for el padre ," a distraught Estrada said Friday at the parish complex of historic Our Lady Queen of Angels Roman Catholic Church in downtown Los Angeles. "It makes us all sad. He helped so many people."

Most of the people coming to Our Lady Queen of Angels Church on Saturdays aren't looking only for spiritual guidance. Like Linda Hobson, many are jobless and need help finding work, writing a resume or learning how to use a computer. The Catholic church has been providing those services for more than a year, helping hundreds find jobs. Organizer Martin F. O'Toole said the center also provides something else: motivation.

In a move likely to draw the ire of Salvadoran activists, officials at Los Angeles' oldest church have decided to stop housing Central American refugees and other homeless people overnight--ending a key element of the controversial declaration of sanctuary at the downtown Roman Catholic parish.