LOCAL COMMUNITY, CIVIC AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO GATHER AT CATHEDRAL FOR INTERRELIGIOUS MEMORIAL FOR THE HOMELESS ON SATURDAY, LONGEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR
December 19, 2024  |  By:   |  Press Releases  |  

Archbishop José H. Gomez will lead the Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles this Saturday, December 21 at 6:30 p.m., joined by local community, civic and religious leaders including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla. On the first day of winter and longest night of the year, the memorial will acknowledge and honor the lives of our brothers and sisters who have died experiencing homelessness this past year in Los Angeles. 

“The Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial serves as an opportunity for the entire community of Los Angeles to gather in solidarity to commemorate and give honor to the lives of our brothers and sisters who died while experiencing homelessness,” said Michael P. Donaldson, Senior Director of the Office of Life, Justice & Peace of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “With this memorial we say their lives matter and we mourn their death.”

During the prayer service Archbishop Gomez and various religious leaders will reflect on the faithful call to accompany those experiencing homelessness and the importance of solidarity as communities come together to live out their call to works of mercy. Reflections will be shared by Bishop John Harvey Taylor of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; Debra Boudreaux of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation; Duncan Sachdeva of the Hollywood Sikh Temple, and Umar Hakin Dey of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

The 1,137 people who died this year while living on the streets of Los Angeles County will be honored with a candle inscribed with their name on display. Students from local Catholic schools – Cathedral, Chaminade, Crespi Carmelite, Mayfield and St. Francis high schools, and Incarnation parish school – will process into the Cathedral with the candles and place them along the sanctuary. The candles will be lit by Archbishop Gomez and the other religious leaders in honor of those who were not on the list of the deceased. People in attendance will be asked to take a candle as they leave the Cathedral and pray for the soul of that person.

Religious leaders in attendance will include: Ali Twini, Islamic Center of Southern California; Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Armenian Apostolic Church, Western Diocese; Attila Kahveci, Interfaith Dialogue Coordinator, Pacifica Institute (Turkish Muslims); Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Director, Social Action Committee, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Larry Eastland, Widtsoe Foundation (Latter-day Saints); Rev. E. Wayne Gaddis, President, California Missionary Baptist Convention; Rev. George Okusi, Episcopal Priest; and Swami Mayayogananda, President, Interreligious Council of Southern California. 

Since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless has sponsored National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, every year on December 21st, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year, to bring attention to this tragedy and to remember those who have died while living without a place to call home.

The memorial is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Life, Justice and Peace, Sofesa and St. Vincent de Paul of Los Angeles. For more information, please visit lifejusticeandpeace.lacatholics.org/homeless-persons-memorial or call (213) 637-7477.

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