Forlorn Mission

Is the San Gabriel Mission a mission impossible?

Ever since the October, 1987, earthquake, the historic church, like its weakened walls and pilasters, has teetered on the edge of ruin, yet no one seems able to help.

Large cracks run horizontally along its long south wall, fissures left from when the entire brick and stone structure listed hard toward the north--leaning like an off-balance layer cake--before settling back in place. The floor is littered with fallen plaster, the baptistery laced with gaping cracks. The famous asymmetrical bell tower that serves as the symbol of the city of San Gabriel--as well as the inspiration for the Taco Bell logo--will slide off the church roof during the next significant quake.

The parish itself has rallied nobly, collecting more than $175,000 for repairs from its less-than-affluent parishioners. These funds are able to pay for little more than the emergency shoring up of the walls and a study of the mission’s structure. The price tag for restoration and seismic stabilization is somewhere between $2 million and $4.5 million.

But 20 months after it started looking, the parish has still not found sufficient interest or funding for the restoration. The problem, it seems, is that in addition to being one of the oldest historic sites in the region--settlers from San Gabriel founded the Old Plaza Church that grew into the city of Los Angeles--San Gabriel is still a church. Until the earthquake, it was actively used for services, baptisms, weddings and funerals. It belongs to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Consequently, even though it has been designated a state historic landmark, the constitutional requirement to separate church and state makes the mission ineligible for government funds, a line that cannot be crossed. The state has donated $350,000 for the restoration of the museum adjacent to the mission, also severely damaged by the quake, supposedly freeing other monies for use on the church.

The restoration of the mission itself must rely on private foundations, or other citizens moved to contribute, and the Archdiocese. The parish has made more than 75 applications to foundations, but sadly, says Father Arnold Gonzalez, “the vast majority have turned us down. A few haven’t even answered our letters.” It seems that the church-state issue makes them nervous as well.

The Archdiocese says it is concerned about the mission, but admits that so far the mission’s troubles have taken second place to more immediate concerns; for one thing, the parish doesn’t need the mission to hold regular services since a newer, larger church was built on the site in the 1950s. The old mission church is valuable for its history, not its function, and the Archdiocese’s priority is to serve the faithful, not preserve the region’s history.

So the mission hunkers behind the chain-link fence as the plaster falls and the earth prepares to shake.