civic and political life oppresses people. The tradition
continues. We belong to an organizing committee
called One LA, affiliated with the Industrial Areas
Foundation, the nation’s largest national organizing
and leadership development network in the United
States. Collaborating with them, we have responded
to the immigration crisis, because a large majority of
our parishioners are undocumented. We courageously
chose daily to stand on the edge and help our
parishioners get their documents, become citizens,
and register them to vote. We are gearing up again for
a workshop on voting in order to help our parishioners
understand that even in a national environment that
incites fear, their vote does count and they have the
right to exercise their vote.
Housing and homelessness are other justice
issues that are affecting our neighborhood and com-
munity. St. Agnes is located southwest of down-
town Los Angeles in the West Adams District. We
are in the same neighborhood as the University of
Southern California. Over the past seven years we
have experienced the promise and the ugliness of
gentrification. Because of a lack of affordable hous-
ing and rising rents on apartments, many of our
parishioners have lost their homes, been defrauded
of their rights as tenants, and have been forced to
move to areas outside their original neighborhoods.
As agents of reconciliation and renewal,
St. Agnes has stood in solidarity. Last year at a
delegates’ assembly, myself and another pastor stood
up and confronted Mr. Eric Garcetti, the mayor
of Los Angeles, about these issues. We asked to
work together with his office to find pragmatic and
alternative solutions to the housing and homeless-
ness crisis. In February of this year that dream came
true. We met with the mayor at St. Agnes for a civic
academy educating ourselves and hearing personal
stories of those affected by these issues. Even the
mayor was visibly moved to hear a professional
newly-married couple share their story of how they
could not afford to live in their own neighborhood
because they could not find affordable housing.
There’s a growing population of elderly who are
being expelled from their apartments. In response,
we held a workshop at St. Agnes on tenants’ rights.
The Los Angeles city council heard of our endeavors
and has approved a plan for a citywide “Know Your
Rights Workshop.”
We are dynamically living into the questions
of immigration, exercising citizenship, housing,
and homelessness. We experience stretching and
cringing, impatience and anger, and excitement when
something new occurs, because we created spaces
where voices could be heard.
St. Agnes is a place where we can allow the Spirit
of Gaspar to push us into a new creation. How about
forming an international mission house where
missionaries come and live in community to both
share their cultural experiences and share ours? Yes,
St. Agnes is predominantly Spanish speaking, but
we have Filipino, Belizean, Korean, and Anglo as
well. How about developing retreats and workshops
about cultural sensitivity, acculturation process, and
orienting foreign missionaries for ministering in the
United States? Have courage as we take the risk at a
New Creation. Now is the time when hope is born.
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October 2018 • The New Wine Press • 7