Doing Hard Work That Deserves Some Recognition

There are two ways we journalists cover that vast stretch of Los Angeles known as the inner city.

One is the horror-story method--gangs, drugs, killings, race hate, hopeless unemployment.

The other is a softheaded, politically correct hymn to multiculturalism, usually emphasizing the social importance of small ethnic restaurants.

As is the case in many aspects of life, the true story is somewhere in the middle, and features unknown men and women whose undramatic, day-to-day efforts to improve their neighborhoods don’t have the angle, the edge that we in the media demand.

On Friday, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians, will provide the angle for the media spotlight to focus on the men, women and young people working to improve one of these L.A. neighborhoods.

As part of his 16-city tour of the United States, Bartholomew will visit Berendo Middle School, a few miles west of downtown Los Angeles, and, after he speaks, will lead a six-block procession along Pico Boulevard to St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Normandie Avenue. He will walk hand in hand with community leaders. As mariachis and Guatemalan dancers from the neighborhood blend with the pageantry of the church, it will be a photo op too grand for even the most cynical of us to ignore.

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Last week, I dropped by the cathedral during a planning luncheon for the event.

I had been there before, drawn by the efforts of Father John S. Bakas, dean of the cathedral, to involve his mostly suburban parishioners in the concerns of a poor and working-class neighborhood of American-born Latinos, and immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.

That’s been a main priority for Father Bakas, who spent several years in Central and South America before coming to St. Sophia two years ago. His wife is Chilean and he speaks Spanish fluently.

He has worked with community leaders to try to create a Byzantine-Latino Quarter on Pico Boulevard, with restaurants, galleries and stores reflecting the Greek and Latino cultures. Neighborhood people meet at the cathedral regularly for planning sessions.

At the luncheon, I sat next to Father Dennis P. O’Neil, pastor of nearby St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church.

The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in the 11th century over issues of doctrine and the power of the papacy. Since then, efforts for reconciliation have moved ahead slowly. But here things are going well.

The two churches work together. They share parking because their holidays usually fall on different days. A St. Sophia’s congregant paid for the recent painting of St. Thomas. Father O’Neil is part of the group promoting the Byzantine-Latino quarter. And finally, Patriarch Bartholomew’s procession will halt at St. Thomas and he will give gifts and offer a few words of greeting. “Here’s a chance for us at the grass-roots to reach out,” said Father O’Neil.

The most important event will be at the outset, when Patriarch Bartholomew gives a speech in English and Spanish at Berendo Middle School, six blocks from the cathedral.

I drove over to Berendo just as school was letting out. Mothers waited outside for the youngest students to walk them home. The sidewalks were crowded with kids wearing navy blue uniforms. St. Sophia Cathedral donated $10,000 to the school for uniforms for those whose families couldn’t afford them.

I sensed order and discipline outside and in the clean hallways. Juan Flecha, the assistant principal, told me that Patriarch Bartholomew will talk about the immigrant experience--the experience that unites the suburbanites with the residents of Pico-Normandie. After his speech the procession will begin.

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There are some, of course, who may dismiss this as more of the politically correct, multicultural softheadedness that I scorned at the beginning of this column.

They have a point. An ecumenical procession does not put food on the table, give jobs to the unemployed or bring peace to a city. And columns about them are certainly not as interesting as stories about corruption or wrongheadedness on the part of public officials.

Too bad. I think that the folks at St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and Berendo Middle School are doing a lot for L.A. and the entire Southland, laboring night and day in their neighborhood without much help or recognition.

I wanted to give them a plug. I’m glad Patriarch Bartholomew does too.