Our Partner Parish:
St. Brendan Church, Los Angeles
Fr. William Forde, the 2nd pastor of our church (1913 - 1914), became the first pastor of St. Brendan Church (1915-1932).
In 1915, a year after Fr. Forde implemented the mandate of the Archdiocese to transfer the pastoral management of Blessed Sacrament Church to the Jesuits, Fr. Forde was instructed by the Archdiocese to set up a new parish church and school at Western Avenue and 3rd Street to meet the sacramental needs of the growing Catholic population in Los Angeles. This parish was dedicated to St. Brendan, the Navigator, to serve the immigrant groups - initially Irish and Italian families - living in the area.
St. Brendan Church and School now serve a more diverse immigrant parish community including Filipinos, Koreans and Hispanics in addition to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the pioneering immigrants. St. Brendan Church has a large number of active and faithful members who have volunteered many hours and donated generously to many outreach and social justice programs of the parish.
It is interesting to note that out of the twenty-four (24) St. Brendan School alumni who were ordained priests, three of them became Jesuits namely: Fr. Francis Buckley, Fr. Paul Pollock and Fr. Gregory Boyle.
A few St. Brendan parishioners have volunteered at our Social Services Center since it was established in May 1999. With the formal Partner Parish relationship set up in 2002 between St. Brendan and our parish, there has been a marked increase in the number of volunteers from St. Brendan who have since shared their time, talent and treasure to help the poor, unemployed and marginalized families in our area.
One of our successful Partner Parish projects is the Annual Christmas Toy Drive. Generous parishioners at St .Brendan, young and old alike, donated and wrapped over 400 toys in 2002 and over 600 toys in 2003. The toys were delivered to our Social Services Center where together, we dstributed the wrapped toys to the children in the Hollywood area two weeks before Christmas.
Early this year, 2004, an Advisory Group composed of parishioners from Blessed Sacrament and St. Brendan was formed to assist our Social Services Center in planning and implementing programs for the poor and marginalized families and individuals in Hollywood.
Welcome our brothers and sisters from St. Brendan Church as we work together and live out the motto of our parish:
Many made one around the table of the Lord.
Muchos se hacen uno solo alrededor de la mesa del Señor.