A 3,000-mile pilgrimage makes its way to LA-area burn zones

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez celebrated Mass for Altadena families affected by the Eaton fire at Sacred Heart Catholic Church Friday evening, as part of the last leg of the 3,300 mile National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.

“It is very emotional to be back in Altadena,” Gomez said in his homily, a religious reflection on how so many can suffer at the hands such a mammoth disaster. “God sometimes allows the people he loves to suffer.”

That disaster, which broke out on Jan. 7, destroyed more than 9,000 structures in Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre, and left 18 dead.

The pilgrimage itself began in Indianapolis and will end in Los Angeles with a Corpus Christi Celebration at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Downtown Los Angeles.

However, because of the recent ICE raids and the subsequent immigration-related protests in the area, organizers have scaled back the Downtown LA procession to take place within the Cathedral Plaza.

The Los Angeles leg of the pilgrimage includes visits to wildfire-affected Altadena and Pacific Palisades parishes, Mission San Gabriel, and other parishes in Ventura.

The process on Saturday was set for a morning prayer at Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades, which was burned during the Palisades fire.

Nearly 100 Sacred Heart parish households were lost in the Eaton fire.

After the Mass ended,  Gomez, Cardinal Christophe Pierre and Bishop Andrew Cozzens led the hundreds of churchgoers in a mile-long procession down Lincoln Avenue, Ventura Street, Glen Avenue, and Mariposa Street.

Families weeped as they walked through the burn zones and empty lots, singing church hymns, such as “Christ Be Our Light.”

On the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Mariposa Street in Altadena, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church site, many surrounding homes and buildings were burnt down.

As the Eaton fire ravaged its way through Altadena into the morning of Jan. 8, Deacon José Luis Diaz rushed to his parish from the Pasadena Convention Center, where he evacuated to, in an attempt to save Sacred Heart from going up in flames.

With the help of fellow parishioners, a garden hose, and an iron pipe, Diaz was able to beat the encroaching flames from reaching his parish, leaders said.