The following comes from an Oct. 28 story in the Santa Monica Lookout News.
Saint Monica Catholic Church, one of the oldest Catholic churches west of the 405, will celebrate the end of a $28 million overhaul of its campus Sunday.
Archbishop José Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will attend a special Mass and dedication ceremony at the 87-year-old church to celebrate the opening of three new buildings and a parking garage, a project more than five years in the making.
“These buildings will become, I hope, a great source of refuge and support,” said St. Monica’s pastor, Monsignor Lloyd Torgerson about the project on St. Monica’s campus located between Lincoln Boulevard and Seventh Street in Santa Monica’s wealthy Wilmont Neighborhood.
“But it’s not just about the buildings. It’s about service,” he said.
Torgerson said that the new buildings — the Tina and Rick Caruso Community Center, Grand Pavilion and Grand Patio and the Carol G. Simon Child and Student Center — will make it easier to serve the 8,000 households in the St. Monica Catholic Community, which includes the Church, St. Monica Catholic High School and St. Monica Catholic Elementary School.
The project also includes a subterranean parking garage with 175 parking spaces, a vital resource in a neighborhood that has some of the tightest on-street parking restrictions in the city.
The project, Torgerson said, was made possible because of “a ton of fundraising” over many years and a good relationship with a city that understands the importance of service.
Though the Church is located in one of Santa Monica’s wealthiest neighborhoods, Torgerson said it serves the “extremely wealthy to the poorest of the poor.”
Among its flock, St. Monica boasts former California governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean Ann Holbrook, wife of City Councilmember Bob Holbrook….
To read the entire story, click here.
It always irritates me to see a Church described as a “campus”.
Question: Will St. Monica’s be cleansed of its sin of giving Holy Communion to pro-aborts such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and his radical pro-abortion wife Ms. Maria Shriver?
Well, Even Arnold Schwarzenegger and his radical pro-abortion wife Ms. Maria Shriver are in need of salvation. Though Mrs. Shriver has made fun in public of the all male Clergy.
Chinua, you missed the point. Schwarzenegger and Shriver are known to be absolutely pro-abortion, yet were allowed to receive Holy Communion. I do not judge their souls, but only their manifest support of grave sin. (Canon 915)
Some would say the entire Kennedy clan, some members of which have written books calling for the Catholic Church to become more hip and modern regarding topics such as homosexual and heterosexual sex outside of marriage, abortion, divorce, and the ordination of women priests, are in need of salvation as well.
St. Monica Catholic Church is a blessing for the community! With the church, and both a grade school and high school, the property and buildings seems like a campus to me. Since I can not read hearts, I reserve judgment on any parishioners, but I do rejoice when I see a thriving parish.
CGS, which “community” is St. Monica Catholic Church a blessing for?
Saint Monica herself must be in agony.
For those of you looking for a gay friendly parish—look no further.
You can join GLO at St Monica’s–https://www.stmonica.net/gay-and-lesbian
And of course, Msgr Torgerson would appreciate the city’s help. Santa Monica’s mayor and council are among the lost Lefist in California. The Santa Monica Daily says the city (council) has been a “leader on gay rights.”
Those of you who thought that Abp Gomez might bring change need a reality check.
Msgr. Torgerson did an amazing job raising the funds for this expansion. It is useful space, and not over the top, as some might have expected. I am a parishoner at St. Monica’s, and while the Monsignor is not my particular cup of tea, the buildings will outlive him, so in this instance, do cut the man some slack. BTW, St. Monica’s is home to both a high school and elementary school on the same property, so it is in fact, a campus in the traditional sense.
JanJan,
Since you are a parishoner, do those schools actually teach the fullness of the Faith?
What do they teach those innocent souls about the evils of homosexual activity?
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Kenneth, sorry to say that they do not. However, the new buildings will outlast the current administration and perhaps the next generation will learn the treasures of the faith within their walls!
Somehow, I don’t think this is what Our Lord had in mind when he spoke to St Francis from the crucifix in the chapel of San Damiano.
4M
Saint Augustine was also in great need of salvation when his mother St. Monica prayerfully remained *steadfast in her loyalty* to Almighty God FIRST. I was a young student years ago when Father Torgerson came to our parish. Our teacher was a sister dressed in a full habit and one day in class she told us about the new priest coming to our parish. When the young class heard his name for some reason many classmates started to giggle out loud perhaps because they thought the last name sounded funny. Well, that did not go over very well with this good sister. It was the very first time that I saw a sister get that angry. Her face became red. We had never witnessed this demeanor in her before. She was an excellent teacher of the true faith. The class went silent. She said that we needed to show respect for our priests because they are the representatives of Christ. No one ever giggled at his name again. Sister meant business and she loved God. I know that this same sister would still want us to show respect but I also know that she WOULD be tearful at the thought of the profaning of the Blessed Sacrament when so disrespectfully disregarded and given to those who obstinately reject Jesus by rejecting the Magisterial teachings of his Catholic Church. Let us pray that Monsignor Torgerson shows Our Lord the same love and holy respect for God and for the fullness of Truth as loyally as that sister instilled in our class that day. This wonderful sister would always say, “No servant is greater than the Master.”
EVER ANCIENT, EVER NEW
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
From The Confessions of Saint Augustine
Catherine,
When we picketed St. Monica’s because of the Schwartzenegers, guess who else came out of that Church? Chris (I get chills up my spine) Mathews, that’s who!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Kenneth Fisher,
God bless you Kenneth for faithfully defending the rights of the unborn. You never know about Chris Matthews, you may have planted a seed and perhaps even brought a tingle to his conscience. Celebrities have been spiritually neglected. Truth is exchanged for compromises. (See the recent approved Messages of Our Lady of Akita, Japan) Today there is a greater fear of the loss of politically correct human respect more than the spiritually healthier fear of offending Almighty God who is ALL GOOD and deserving of ALL of our love.
Bishop Sheen called this form of self-destruction, “The Curse of Broadmindedness.”
“There are only two positions to take concerning truth, and both of them had their hearing centuries ago in the court-room of Solomon where two women claimed a babe. A babe is like truth; it is one; it is whole; it is organic and it cannot be divided. The real mother of ‘the babe would accept no compromise. She was intolerant about her claim. She must have the whole babe, or nothing-the intolerance of Motherhood. But the false mother was tolerant. She was willing to compromise. She was willing to divide the babe-and the babe would have met its death through broadmindedness.”
Catherine, let us follow the teachings of our Lord and Savior to love each other as he has loved us. Because someone is gay does not mean that they are evil. Before we refuse communion to gay people, let’s round up the heterosexuals who are living together prior to marriage, let’s round up all the women and men who are sleeping around while married. You can’t refuse communion to gay people because the cohabitate unless you refuse it to all other Catholics who don’t follow the magisterium.
Bob One, the Catholic Church was instituted by Jesus Christ to teach the fullness of the Truth. Not partial tidbits of truth. Loving each other as he loved us also means following Jesus’ own example of showing love when confronted with someone committing a serious PUBLIC sin.
Bob, I never once used the word “gay” or homosexual in my above post. The Church is named after St. Monica and St. Monica’s son was an obstinate public sinner who became a great saint because his mother truly followed Jesus and she loved her son enough to help him to repent. Bob One, I was referring to giving Holy Communion to the former Governor and Maria Shriver who both PUBLICLY reject Church teaching and have publicly caused enormous scandal when they helped to enact anti-Catholic legislation.
Bob, follow the example of Jesus Christ when he showed love to the woman publicly caught in adultery. You cannot selectively leave out the merciful loving and instructive part of Jesus’s words when he said, “Go and sin no more.”
The other circumstances that you mentioned are also circumstances where the individual should refrain from going to Holy Communion if they have not gone to confession first. The point is about PUBLICLY rejecting and publicly scandalizing and I have never seen an adulterer or someone who uses artificial contraception attend public parades wearing bright colored tee shirts that say “proud to be a cheater and still be given Holy Communion” or “proud to use artificial contraception and still receive Holy Communion.” If that was the case then the same applies. They should also be lovingly told to “Go to confession and go and sin no more.”
Bob One-
The sharing of quarters does not make one gay. Monks, soldiers and bachelor room-mates have been doing it for years and remained normal. It is the sin of sodomy that determines if a person is gay or not. Scripture has made it quite plain as to how serious the sin of sodomy is to our Lord. You said, “because a person is gay it does not mean they are evil”. Maybe so, maybe not, but the unique act that IDs a person as gay is downright evil and anyone who defends or endorses that evil lifestyle is evil as well. To tolerate evil is evil, my friend! Scripture backs me up on that quote. And it is obvious that no one taught you the variations of the term love when you were young.
Congratulations to the parish of St. Monica. I attended the Cathedral in the late 1940’s with my mom and dad. I was just a little nipper then. That was before my dad was sent to Korea and killed in a Korean prison camp. I remember my time in Santa Monica as a happy time. and I loved this beautiful cathedral. Remembering it gives me warm fuzzies. Thanks for the memories, St. Monica’s. May many more years be yours and many more people find happy memories within your sacred walls.
Judy, I never knew that St. Monica’s had received cathedral status. This is news to me.
As a teenager during the Great Depression, my dad was a parishioner at St. Monica’s, a summertime Santa Monica lifeguard, and also worked building sets for countless Hollywood films until Word War II broke out. As a result, he came to know a lot of famous entertainers on a friendly basis, a few of them in all three settings, including Bing Crosby and several other celebrities from that era. He became privy to lots of the secrets of celebrities that he kept for a lifetime.
He was not mum, however, in sharing his deep admiration for the tremendous support he saw for the great needs of St. Monica’s in serving a lovely community of both rich people and folks in desperate straights. Some of the contributions went to add to the beauty of the church, and you can still see evidence of that in the church and on the grounds today, but most went to keep hundreds of very needy people fed, clothed, and cared for when ill. So much good has been done at St. Monica’s over the years by not only the rich and famous, but by countless acts of Christian caring, that St. Monica’s is seen as hallowed ground by many still alive today who know of its significant assistance it has given to the truly needy over the years.
The gleaming artistry of the mosaics at St. Monica’s is as nothing compared to the beauty of the hearts of so many people who have worshipped and served the Lord in so many wonderful ways at this parish for so very, very long. All God’s Catholic churches are places of light, but the heavenly quality of light at St. Monica’s Catholic Church is something special indeed.
Not the goods of the world, but God. Not riches, but God. Not honors, but God. Not distinction, but God. Not dignities, but God. Not advancement, but God. God always and in everything. — St. Vincent Pallotti
Whatever you do, think not of yourself, but of God. — St. Vincent Ferrer
Christ said, “I am the Truth”; he did not say “I am the custom.” — St. Toribio
I’m happy for the people of St. Monica’s Church, but sad for the people here in San Francisco. The Porziuncola Nuova, a replica of the lovely chapel in Assisi that was built and paid for by generous people here in SF, is now closed because Monsignor James Tarantino and his close friend Bill McLaughlin, have thrown out the Knights of St. Francis and will not allow us to serve and pray in the chapel. They have even LOCKED the chapel to keep everyone out, even the innocenet tourists coming to visit!!!
I cannot understand why Monsignor Tarantino has the power to do this, when the Shrine of St. Francis was put under the control and direction of the Franciscans, not under HIS control. Pray for us that we will be allowed once again to continue our ministry of prayer and presence!!!
Have been to St. Monica’s it is a full blown” Novus Orodonarian” parish with hand holding, dancing girls, altar girls, female lectors, drums, Homosexual friendly, ripped out high altar, ripped out communion rail, in other words stay away and find a TLM in the area!!!
Janek, I went to St. Victor’s in West Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. 10:30 mass with the choir (in the choir loft), communion rail, adoration chapel, male alter servers, tabernacle is front and center, excellent homily from a priest who is completely wheel chair bound, amazing!! Yes, the location being where it is, there were some same sex couples, the sacred with the profane perhaps, but a mass with a true sense of reverence. I was completely and pleasantly surprised.