Catholic Profile : Religious Group Nears 200th Anniversary in Valley

The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese is the nation’s most populous. Because of its size, it was divided into five pastoral regions in 1987 with Auxiliary Bishop Armando X. Ochoa named to head the San Fernando region. Ochoa is the only bishop of the original five auxiliaries who still heads a regional post. From his office at the region’s historic mission complex in Mission Hills, Ochoa has oversight over 48 parishes--mostly in the San Fernando Valley, but stretching north to the Kern County line, west to the Ventura County line and as far south as Echo Park and Highland Park.

Notable Valley parishes included the 1,200-seat St. John Baptist de la Salle in Granada Hills, the parish with the largest seating capacity in the region. The church serving the most parishioners (10,000 every weekend) is Santa Rosa in San Fernando. The newest parish, which opened in 1987, is Blessed Junipero Serra in Quartz Hill.

Catholic Population

The total Catholic population in the archdiocese, which includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, is put officially at 3.5 million, although some estimates run as high as 4.5 million due to the influx of undocumented immigrants.

The San Fernando region has 48 parishes, or 17% of the archdiocesan parish total. But the 22,953 students at 58 parochial and private schools in the San Fernando region represent 23% of the students at Catholic-run elementary and secondary schools in the archdiocese.

Catholic School Ethnicity

White: 49%

Latino: 30%

Asian: 19%

African Americans: 1%

American Indian: 1%

What Catholics Say

Forty percent of adults in the San Fernando Valley surveyed by the Times poll in December, 1991, said they were raised Catholic. But only 28% said they are now Catholic. Nevertheless, Catholics represent the largest single denomination in the Valley.

They are more frequent churchgoers than Protestants--48% of Catholics surveyed said they attended a religious service in the previous week; 42% of Protestant residents said they had.

Catholic Upbringing % of Valley adults raised as Catholic: 40%

% who consider themselves Catholic now: 28% Mission History

For 200 years the historical focal point for San Fernando Valley-area Catholics has been the San Fernando Mission. Established in 1797, it was the 17th of the 21 founded by Franciscan priests in what would become the state of California. Its founder, Father Fermin Lasuen, dedicated the mission to San Fernando, king of Spain.

The first permanent church at the mission was completed in 1806, but it had to be completely rebuilt after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

A more familiar sight to motorists traveling by the mission complex at 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd., however, is the long convento building with its series of 20 arches close to the street. The building was completed in 1822.

The mission grounds also house the archdiocese’s high school seminary, where young men consider further study for the priesthood; the offices of Bishop Ochoa and, for an extended period, the temporary home of Alemany High School, whose buildings were seriously damaged in the recent Northridge earthquake.

Quake Damage Parishes

The Jan. 17 earthquake has forced nine of the region’s 48 parishes out of their regular worship halls and into parish halls or temporary structures for Masses. “There has been a silver lining to all this, “ the bishop said. “It really builds up a sense of community when people have the experience of attending Mass in makeshift quarters.”

At least four church towers in the Valley have had to be reduced during repairs to prevent damaged sections from falling, Ochoa said. Ochoa said that Cardinal Mahony’s half-humorous admonition on future church construction plans is “Don’t even think in terms of towers.”

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa Born in Oxnard in 1943, Ochoa attended Ventura Community College for a year before entering St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He was serving as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Los Angeles when he was named auxiliary bishop in 1987.

Sources: Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese; research by JOHN DART