Church Bell Will Remain With Its Home Parish

The Lincoln Heights bell that sat silent for about 20 years will have a chance to ring again--at its home at Sacred Heart Church rather than the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

In May, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony wrote a letter to the parishioners of Sacred Heart expressing an interest in the bell for the new downtown Los Angeles cathedral that will be inaugurated next year.

In a story about the bell Sunday in The Times, some Sacred Heart parishioners said they wanted the bell to stay in Lincoln Heights. They planned to raise money to restore their church’s steeple, which was damaged in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.

On Monday, Mahony wrote another letter to the Sacred Heart congregation.

“Since some parishioners have objected to having the inactive bell be used at the new cathedral, I must insist that the bell remain there with you,” Mahony wrote. “The farthest thing from my mind was to create any division among the parishioners over the inactive bell.”

Now, the burden falls on a committee of a dozen or so Sacred Heart parishioners and local architecture preservationists to raise the money for what could be an expensive project to reinstall the bell.

“Now that that chapter is closed, we have to unite--priest and parishioners and all the community of Lincoln Heights--to raise funds,” said Jose Garcia, 78, a member of the committee.

The Gothic-style Sacred Heart Church was finished in the mid-1890s. The bell installed was cast in 1895 in a Baltimore foundry. Sometime after the San Fernando earthquake, the damaged steeple and bell were taken down.

During his visits to Sacred Heart, Mahony had noticed the bell sitting under a shady tree.

The 4-foot-tall bell would have been one of four bells in the new cathedral’s main tower.

Father Gabriel Gonzales, Sacred Heart’s pastor, was torn between the honor of hearing the bell ring again prominently at the new cathedral and the renewed energy in his parish to restore its steeple.

In Monday’s letter, Mahony recognized that energy.

“One of the side benefits of your decision to retain the church bell,” Mahony wrote, “is a new awareness of the importance of your bell. . . . Very possibly you will be able to create a fitting place for the bell so that its tones can once again sweep across the fine neighborhoods of Lincoln Heights.”