Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Los Angeles is celebrating 100 years of ministry with a bang.
The celebrations began on Friday with an anniversary Mass and alumni mixer for the parish school (which dates to 1924), followed by a family day today and a special Sunday Mass and reception tomorrow, September 12th.
Established in 1921 by the Sisters of Loretto and Black Catholics from Louisiana, the parish has been administered since 2014 by the Josephites—like several of the remaining Black Catholic parishes in LA.
HNJ’s centennial was featured in the latest issue of the Josephite Harvest, released on Thursday.
“One hundred years. That's a big accomplishment,” said Cathy Brown, HNJ’s director of religious education, in that story.
“I’m happy we’re able to continue to keep worshiping.”
For tomorrow’s Mass, HNJ pastor Kenneth Ugwu, SSJ will be joined by the Josephites’ superior general, the retired Bishop John Ricard, SSJ, who arrived in town this morning.
The service will begin at 10am PT, and the guest homilist will be former HNJ pastor Fr Greg Chisholm, SJ, who recently completed an assignment at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in New York City.
Chisholm, who is still in residence at SBC, was announced this week as the 2021 recipient of the Archdiocese of New York’s Pierre Toussaint Medallion—awarded each year since 1978 to “outstanding” models of Catholic teaching in the vein of Toussaint himself.
Meanwhile, HNJ has been sharing uplifting messages this week on social media from members of their community, including from a former pastor, from Fr Ugwu, and from fellow Angeleno Josephite Fr Anthony Bozeman, SSJ, pastor of the Church of the Transfiguration in Leimert Park.
Tomorrow’s Mass will be livestreamed on the HNJ Facebook page.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger, a seminarian with the Josephites, and a ThM student with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA).
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