A Parish With Tangled Roots

Ground-blessing ceremonies for a new $9.3-million Catholic parish--the first in Southern California to be given a Vietnamese name--will take place today in a stretch of Santa Ana that’s home to California Girls Nightclub, El Fracaso (The Failure) bar and Spanky’s Adult Video store.

The church’s name, however, has been a tough sell to the Latino congregants whose roots in the parish go back to the 1920s.

Our Lady of La Vang--scheduled for completion in 2003--will replace the tiny and overcrowded Our Lady of Lourdes two miles away.

Our Lady of La Vang is also the first church that was given both land--4.5 acres--and cash for building by the Diocese of Orange. In addition, St. Bonaventure, an affluent parish in Huntington Beach, has promised Our Lady of La Vang $500,000 for a parish hall.

“Part of the Great Jubilee Year 2000 [initiated by Pope John Paul II] was for churches to look for opportunities to do extraordinary works of charity,” said Father Bruce Patterson, pastor of St. Bonaventure. “We’re one of the wealthiest parishes, and Our Lady of Lourdes has some needs. We’re just getting a lot of extraordinary donations.”

Until now, Catholic parishes have raised their own money for facilities. But the new church, rooted in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Orange County, wouldn’t have been able to raise enough money.

As for the name, “the Vietnamese Catholic community is the second largest ethnic community [behind Latinos] in the Diocese of Orange,” Bishop Tod D. Brown said. “Yet they were the only ones who didn’t have the privilege of having a parish named after their patron--or in this case, patroness.”

The new name--suggested by Brown--has been praised by Vietnamese Catholics in Orange County, but has stirred controversy within Our Lady of Lourdes’ mostly Latino congregation.

“I was in shock and feeling really depressed,” said Oselia Maldonado, who has attended Our Lady of Lourdes with her family for 20 years. “But then I started thinking that the name was about the same person [Mary], and it doesn’t matter. Still, it’s going to be sad.”

Other longtime congregants remain upset about the name change--and leery of the parish’s new direction.

“When they introduced the new name, I thought [Pastor William D. Barman] was leaving the tradition of the Hispanic community behind,” said Maribel de Santiago, a 21-year-old Westminster resident. She has attended the church with her parents and five brothers her entire life. “We worried that [the diocese is] trying to get more of that [Vietnamese] community into the church and leaving behind the people who’ve worked hard to build up this church.”

Our Lady of La Vang refers to the site in Vietnam where persecuted Catholics--some later martyred--believe they saw Mary, mother of Jesus, appear in 1798. For Vietnamese Catholics, Our Lady of La Vang is held in the same reverence as Our Lady of Guadalupe is for Latinos.

The new parish name “has real meaning for us,” said Father Quang Vinh Chu of St. Columban Church in Garden Grove. “We realize that we don’t have to miss our country as much, because we know that Mary is with us and here to protect us. We are so happy and surprised.”

Orange County has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. In 2000, an average of 23,500 parishioners celebrated Vietnamese Masses.

The one thing everyone agrees on is that the old church needs to be replaced. Our Lady of Lourdes seats 200, but serves 1,400 people during four Sunday Masses, with standing-room-only crowds that spill outside the church. For major holidays, such as last week’s Ash Wednesday, a single outdoor service in the church parking lot draws more than 1,200. Our Lady of La Vang will seat 1,150.

For its architecture alone, the parish will stand out among the low-slung businesses on Harbor Boulevard, just south of 1st Street. The church will be built on top of a ground-level parking garage, and its dome will rise 57 feet.

“Nothing will compare to this on Harbor Boulevard short of the Matterhorn in Anaheim,” said Father Barman, the church’s pastor. “This parish will have a high profile in God’s vineyard on this street.”

Sharing the vineyard with Our Lady of La Vang is a string of adult-oriented clubs and bars.

“Jesus would love it,” Barman said. “What better place to evangelize? This neighborhood is just begging for this kind of parish.”

A major challenge for the parish will be bringing together three diverse communities that make up the surrounding neighborhood: Latino, Vietnamese and white. Barman projects initial attendance will include 6,000 Latinos, 2,500 Vietnamese and 1,000 whites, instantly making it one of the largest parishes in the diocese. Separate Masses will be said in three languages.

Melding Into One Church

Blending diverse communities into one church is made more difficult by the Latino congregation’s 80-year history in the community.

Our Lady of Lourdes has shrines to its French namesake, as well as to Our Lady of Guadalupe and La Vang. But in the new church, placement of the shrines of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of La Vang is symbolic of the tension the parish faces.

Because of the parish’s Vietnamese name, Barman envisions a shrine to Our Lady of La Vang at the entrance of the church, with another to Our Lady of Guadalupe inside in a special chapel.

“I told my congregation that Latinos shouldn’t have a problem with it,” Barman said.

The parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes expect that coming together in one church will be a slow process.

“I think it’s going to take time,” Maldonado said.