ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ CELEBRATED ON VOTIVE MASS AND LED GRAND MARIAN PROCESSION TO COMMEMORATE CITY’S PATRONESS AND 237TH BIRTHDAY
August 27, 2018  |  By:   |  Press Releases, The Latest  |  

— Hundreds united for a multicultural procession on Saturday, Aug. 25th, from the Cathedral to La Placita in downtown L.A.— 

Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated a votive Mass to honor the Patroness of the City of Los Angeles on Saturday, August 25, 2018 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (555 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012). Following the Mass, hundreds representing the city’s multicultural communities joined the Archbishop to celebrate the 237th birthday of the City of Los Angeles with a procession to La Placita Church and fiesta in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Angels, for whom the City is named.

“This is an important Mass for me every year. We pray for our great city and celebrate our founding in the name of the Blessed Mother, the Queen of the Holy Angels,” said Archbishop Gomez. “Especially in this moment in our country’s history, when we feel so much division and racial tension, this celebration is a good reminder that our city and our nation were founded as a Christian idea of the beautiful equality and dignity of every person as a child of God. The first families of Los Angeles included Africans, Indians, Europeans and Asians from the Pacific Islands. And today the Church in Los Angeles speaks more than 40 languages. So we are celebrating Los Angeles and also the beautiful dream of America.” ​

The celebration, organized by The Queen of Angels Foundations, honors the Blessed Mother and recalls the City’s Christian roots. When the City of Los Angeles was founded in 1781, civic and religious leaders prayed every year, for the first 100 years, for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady Queen of Angels, to protect the fledgling pueblo, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciúncula. 

After the votive Mass at Cathedral, a procession with banners, flags, color guards and bagpipers made its way through the streets of Los Angeles, ending at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church (La Placita).

“It’s wonderful to see the beautiful diversity of our city coming together as one family to honor our Blessed Mother,” said Mark Anchor Albert, organizer and chairman of the Queen of Angels Foundation, host of the event.

“We’ve restored an ancient Los Angeles tradition to unite our multicultural communities in love,” said Letty Ibarra, board member of the Queen of Angels Foundation.

For more information, visit: http://www.thequeenofangels.com/; http://archla.org/qoa; www.facebook.com/queenofangelsfoundation.

NOTE: PLEASE SEE HOMILY BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ ATTACHED.

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