Multitude of Masses

While many Angelenos spent Christmas Eve rushing to the store for last-minute presents or bustling around to finish their holiday preparations, some Catholics went to Mass on Sunday--twice.

Because Christmas Day falls on Monday this year, many Catholics attended church Sunday morning, for the regular weekly service, and then were back in the pews late Sunday to fulfill their Christmas obligation.

Catholic churches around Los Angeles held back-to-back Masses from dawn to midnight to accommodate the crush of people, and also scheduled Masses throughout the morning today. Parishioners can attend Mass on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day to meet their holy day requirement. That meant the clergy, the choirs and the ushers had long days on the holiday.

“It’s not that rigorous, because the spirit is very uplifting,” said Msgr. Clement Connolly, the pastor at Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, which held 10 Masses on Sunday. About 12,000 people were expected to attend services there during the two days.

Connolly was at church to lead the 6:30 a.m. service Sunday, and wouldn’t leave until after the midnight Mass.

“It’s a nice tiredness,” he said. “There’s a certain amount of satisfaction. I mean, my heavens, so many people are going to be showing up at church.”

The biggest challenge for parishioners at Holy Family, besides finding an open pew, was locating parking, said church administrator Karl Holtsnider. “It’s a bit of a headache, which leads to people being in not exactly the best Christmas mood,” he said.

But most churchgoers appeared in high spirits Sunday afternoon as they filed up the steps of the mission-style church dressed in red and green holiday finery. Dappled sunlight poured down through the trees--a sharp contrast to the wintry Christmas experienced in much of the country--and wild green parrots cawed their hellos from a perch above the entrance to the sanctuary.

“It’s such a beautiful service that you won’t get a seat unless you show up 45 minutes early,” said Pasadena resident Ann Fletcher, who attended the 4 p.m. Mass with her son and daughter.

But the Fletchers decided against two trips to church on Sunday. “Once is more than enough for us,” said Fletcher’s daughter Allison, 28, with a laugh.

John Conte did double duty, however. The 83-year-old Los Angeles resident had gone to nearby All Saints’ Catholic Church for the 7:30 a.m. Sunday service, and was heading into Holy Family with his wife, Rose, for the 4 p.m. Christmas Mass.

Why did he decide to do both?

“He’s just too religious,” his wife teased him.

“I’m a good Catholic,” Conte retorted.

Many Protestant churches held services all day as well, even though attendance isn’t an obligation, as it is for Catholics.

John Sauer, the sole pastor of the First Lutheran Church of Van Nuys, rose early Sunday and donned a white alb and stole to lead the 8:30 a.m. service.

Afterward, he changed into a business suit and put on his blue Christmas tie, decorated with stars and a Nativity scene, for the 11 a.m. service.

At 5 p.m., the minister was back in church for a candlelight Christmas Eve service, and he plans to officiate the 9 a.m. service today.

To prepare for what he knows will be a hectic time, the North Hollywood resident said he tries to take a vacation early in December, after arranging for a substitute pastor.

“You need to get away from the phone, the fax, the e-mail, the emergency calls,” Sauer said, “just to dedicate some time to thinking about the importance of this season.”

Robert Amaral, an usher at Our Lady Queen of Angels Roman Catholic Church in downtown Los Angeles, wasn’t fazed that he had to be at seven Masses Sunday and another seven today, including the midnight services.

That’s the way it is for those involved in the services at La Placita, as the church is commonly called because of its proximity to the old town Plaza and Olvera Street.

“I like talking to the people,” said Amaral, of Montebello, after the mariachi-flavored noon Mass ended.

Amaral’s first Mass on Sunday was at 6:30 a.m. His last would be at midnight. His first today was scheduled for 8 a.m.

“It’s OK with me,” said Amaral, who has been an usher at La Placita for five years. “I’ll get to sleep in a little.”

Some La Placita parishioners said they weren’t bothered by the prospect of coming back today after the overflow crowds on Sunday.

“If there was no place to sit, I’d still come,” one man in a white guayabera shirt said after attending the noon Mass. “It is Christmas, you know?”

Others also took the long hours on Sunday in stride.

Eric and Julie Becker, co-directors of the choir at St. Monica Roman Catholic Church in Santa Monica, were looking forward to performing at four Masses in two days.

“It’s not taxing at all,” said Julie Becker after the morning Mass on Sunday. “We enjoy it very much.”

Because of the demand, St. Monica stages simultaneous midnight services in the church, which seats 900, and the nearby St. Monica High School gym, which seats 500.

“We’ve had to do that for the past 12 years because we have such large turnouts,” said Msgr. Lloyd Torgeson, the church’s pastor. In a telling gesture of the holiday season, two pregnant women were called to the front of St. Monica during a mid-morning Mass on Sunday to receive a rose to signify the cycle of life.

“It was very touching,” said Genevieve Audet of Westwood, who is expecting her third child in about three weeks. “It made me cry.”

She was hesitant, however, when asked whether she would return to St. Monica to attend a Mass today. “Ordinarily, I would, but probably not,” she said, eyeing two of her preschool-aged youngsters.

Some Catholics probably opted to attend just one Mass on Sunday, acknowledged Holy Family’s Connolly.

But, he added, “I think the spirit of Christ and Thanksgiving and celebration and care for the needy is far more important than the spirit of legalism.”

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Times staff writer Patricia Ward Biederman contributed to this story.