‘Families who have lost everything’: Los Angeles Archdiocese responds to deadly wildfires

CNA Staff, Jan 9, 2025 / 12:30 pm

Archdiocesan officials and local Church leaders in Los Angeles are working to shelter and assist victims of the ongoing wildfires there as the blaze consumes entire neighborhoods and lays waste to significant portions of the suburban area. 

The fires began on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and quickly spread via dry conditions and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds blowing in from the east. As of Thursday morning multiple fires were raging unchecked across thousands of acres as firefighters worked to get the blazes under control. 

One of the fires has destroyed Corpus Christi Catholic Church and has forced the closure of 65 Catholic schools, according to archdiocesan officials. Numerous other churches in the area have also been destroyed. 

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez in a social media post urged the faithful to “keep praying for all those suffering” in the wildfires. 

“My heart goes out to our neighbors who have lost their homes and livelihoods,” the prelate said. “Let’s pray for them and let’s pray for our firefighters and first responders. May God keep all of our brothers and sisters safe and bring [an] end to these fires!”

‘Dozens and dozens of parishioners and school families who have lost everything’

Church leaders and officials in the area were scrambling through the week to address the growing humanitarian crisis caused by the fires. 

Multiple local parishes “opened their doors to families evacuated from their homes,” Angelus News, the magazine of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reported on Wednesday.

St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica offered residents refreshments and charging stations for their phones late into the night on Tuesday, Angelus reported. 

Merrick Siebenaler, the director of parish life, told the news outlet the church was seeing “dozens and dozens of parishioners and school families who have lost everything.”

By Wednesday the parish was forced to close amid advancing wildfires. Sacred Heart Church in nearby Lincoln Heights, meanwhile, offered the city its auditorium as a resource center for evacuees. 

“We’re here to help out,” Father Tesfaldet Asghedom, the pastor at Sacred Heart, told Angelus. 

Dozens of Catholic schools in the region were closed on Thursday due to “proximity to fire, poor air quality and wind damage, staffing challenges, and nearby power outages.” 

One of the schools, Mayfield Senior in Pasadena, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Our hearts are broken at the damage and destruction caused by the fires currently raging in our area.” 

The school “has not been directly impacted by the fire,” but “the campus is strewn with debris and downed tree limbs and will need a major cleanup,” the post said.

(Story continues below)

The school “will respond to this crisis as a community of faith and compassion grounded in our Holy Child mission, helping one another during this difficult time.”

Another, La Salle College Preparatory also in Pasadena, said on its website that the school would be closed until Monday, at which point it would be open “for students who need to be dropped off due to parent/guardian work obligations.” Classes would not resume until Tuesday at the earliest, it said. 

“Please know that the safety and well-being of our entire school community is our top priority,” the school said. It invited community members to either share if they had been impacted by the fires or offer support to those who had been. 

On X, Colorado-based Father David Nix said in a post that he had spoken to a friend in Los Angeles whose neighborhood had suffered terrible devastation from the fires. 

“Many of the homes around him burned down, but his home had the purple scapular and they doused the home in holy water (and that family lives a very holy life),” the priest said. 

“Miraculously, their home is fine. Pray for all the others in the area (and them too),” he wrote. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the fires. On Wednesday he wrote on X that “more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are on the ground working with local and federal partners” to respond to the crisis.

“Southern California residents — please remain vigilant tonight,” the governor said.
“Listen to local officials and be ready to evacuate if you’re near impacted areas.”

In Pasadena, meanwhile, St. Andrew School Principal Jae Kim told Angelus: “Every hour, I’m getting a phone call from another family who’s lost everything.”

“You can hug them, pray with them, listen to them as best you can,” Kim told the outlet. “What else is there to do?”