Parishioners, Students Prepare Time Capsule

Parishioners, clergy and students of Mary Immaculate Church and Education Center are readying prayers, mission statements and proclamations to be buried in a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years.

“People want their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to experience what they are experiencing now,” said the Catholic school’s principal, Kathleen Damisch. “[Parishioners] were thinking we won’t be here, and maybe our children won’t be here, but it would be a nice thing to pass on to our families.”

The capsule will be buried Jan. 6, marking the start of construction of a new school facility. The original was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake.

To help commemorate the rebuilding, mission statements of the parish and school will be buried in the capsule along with a copy of the Catholic Church’s “Proclamation in Preparation for the Millennium,” written by U.S. bishops.

Added to those will be sentiments from parishioners and schoolchildren, written on heart-shaped paper, about the new building. Family photos will also be included.

“The capsule was intended to be everybody’s prayers that the building is going to be a good place for all of us,” Damisch said. “Our good thoughts will be there.”

Before the quake, the school housed kindergartners through eighth-graders in one building on the church’s grounds. But afterward, students were moved to temporary buildings nearby.

With the groundbreaking, school officials say they hope students and teachers will finally have a sense of permanence again.

“The children are marking their lives by [the quake],” Damisch said. “It is almost like there is a point in their lives where everything stopped for a minute. For some of them, with the start of the construction, this will be a way to move forward a little.”

The groundbreaking is scheduled to coincide with the Feast of the Epiphany, the Catholic celebration of the three wise men’s visit to the newborn Jesus.