Name of Church St. Mary Magdalen Chapel
Address 2532 Ventura Blvd., Camarillo CA
Phone number (805) 484-0532
Website www.mmcam.org
Mass Schedule Sundays, 10 a.m. (Latin Tridentine) and 3 p.m. (Vietnamese). Monday – Friday, 6:30 a.m., 5:15 p.m. Saturday, 8:30 a.m.
Confessions Wednesday, 4-5 p.m.
Names of priests Father Preston Passos, administrator. Msgr. John Hughes, pastor emeritus. Father Mario Arellano, associate pastor. Father Roy Persich and Father Richard MacDonough, auxiliaries.
Special activities and groups Altar Society, Respect Life, Knights of Columbus, Prayer Chain, Sewing Circle (members make items for babies in need), Scouting, St. Vincent de Paul Society, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on First Fridays, rosary after the First Saturday Mass, adoration on 4th Mondays
Fellow parishioners English, Spanish and Vietnamese-speaking parishioners, as well as the traditional Latin Mass community.
School Yes.
Parking Park alongside or behind the chapel.
Additional observations St. Mary Magdalene Chapel is a historic parish of the archdiocese of Los Angeles, located just a block away from the 101 freeway. The parish is celebrating its 100th anniversary, having been founded in 1913. It was built as a family chapel for the Camarillo brothers, Juan and Adolfo; its grounds contain the remains of many of the Camarillo family members. Its interior features a white marble altar, colorful stained windows and traditional statues. There is a quaint courtyard alongside the chapel. The chapel was given to the archdiocese as a parish church in 1940, as were the lands nearby on which the archdiocese would build its seminary. The parish has a second, larger church about five minutes away, which opened in 1975. In 2013, the chapel became the new home of the local Tridentine Mass community, which had previously celebrated the Mass at Mission San Buenaventura.
When this magnificent Chapel was built in 1913 the Camarillo brothers commissioned a magnificent set of stained glass windows from Bavaria, Germany. Once World War I started hopes of ever getting them were lost. When the War ended in 1918 all the windows were found, miraculously intact, in storage in Munich. They are most beautiful examples of Catholic art and you can view them here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/UnaVoceVentura/SaintMaryMagdalenChapelWindows2009#
The Camarillos must have been wonderful Catholics who gave our Archdiocese of Los Angeles a long-lasting gift.
I visited the crypt located right beneath the altar where many family members are resting. There is an altar there, let us hope masses could be offered there again for the benefit of these generous souls. There are many Camarillos buried in this Chapel but surprisingly one of the ladies buried in the 1920s bears the last name Mahony. Just an interesting tidbit.
Nice to have a “chapel” where a TLM is regularly scheduled for Sunday. However, why not have the chapel only for sacraments in the extraordinary form? And, why not use the main church for such TLMs, and put the masses for other languages in the chapel? Perhaps it would interfere with the “Vietnamese” Mass — how about the “Tagalog” Mass or the “Gujarathi” Mass? Surely these folks “suffer” not having the Mass said in their native tongue? As the Church literally burns down, while clueless bishops and the Vatican crow about how wonderful things are going in the Catholic Church these days, we have such temporizing and skimpy application of the Traditional sacraments (the very ones that the saints relied on for centuries, until the cry of “be more like the Protestants” circulated throughout the powers that be within Vatican II). It likely moot, anyway, as the upcoming Synod on the Family will likely be a slaughter in favor of rolling back any Tradition left in the Church (attacks on the New Missal are already being made, if you can imagine that), and eliminating “sexual” sins and prohibitions (particularly on divorced/remarried Catholics receiving communion, and homosexual unions/marriage). The German bishops are certainly sure of themselves and are already setting up the right of Catholics in such circumstances to be treated “normally.” Too bad there is so little Faith in the Vatican; what is needed is for a Pope to stand up, declare the laws of the Church; and invite the disaffected to leave — immediately. But, this will not happen. The rumor is apparently true that German and Austrian bishops threatened to leave the Church if Bl. John Paul II said the TLM publicly. Yet, schism is already here, in any event. Of course, this can be cured by simply changing the moral law of the Church. I guess what Michael Voris asked the other day must be answered “yes;” was Henry VIII right all along? (And, what is that Third Secret of Fatima, anyway — it couldn’t have forecast what is happening now, could it?)
Having a bad day, Christopher?
Well, perhaps they have the TLM in the chapel because the congregation is smaller, or because the chapel is better suite to the celebration of the Tridentine Mass — altar rail, etc.
Your contempt for Mass in Vietnamese, or in Tagalog, is just another racist rant from you — as a wise old bishop from India once said during a summit at the Vatican, “one does not need to become a European to become a Catholic.”
The Saint Thomas Christians in India were celebrating the liturgy (not in LATIN) long before the French, Germans, and English had even heard of Jesus — they were still worshipping trees, being Druids, and God knows what.
Thanks to Archbishop José Gomez and Fr. Preston Passos a sung Extraordinary Form Mass is offered in this beautiful Chapel at 10 am every Sunday. For photos of Palm Sunday mass 2013 see:
https://picasaweb.google.com/UnaVoceVentura/PalmSundayAtStMaryMagdalenChapel2013#5859765944620798866
St. Mary Magdalen Chapel in Camarillo is one of the treasures of Catholicism with which we have been blessed in wonderful Ventura County, California.
To worship there is a gift of peace, joy and transcendence.
To sing Christmas carols there is to connect with God and the Holy Family in ways that transcend time and help a simple soul find respite and a peaceable awareness of what is important to attend to in our short time on earth and what is best to let go and let God attend to.
To hear the words of the Latin Mass offered up again to the Lord in this simple, lovely chapel is to convince this Catholic that all is right with the world, or soon enough will be, in God’s own time.
The final celebration of the centennial of St. Mary Magdalen Chapel will be held on the 4th of July, 2014. Archbishop José Gomez will celebrate a mass there. I do hope the good Archbishop will be able to descend to the crypt under the altar and bless the resting place of so many Camarillo benefactors. That would be a well-deserved homage.