| St. Basil Catholic Church | |
| Location | 3611 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90005 |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | www.stbasilchurch-la.org |
| History | |
| Founded | Parish founded November 26, 1919 |
| Dedicated | Church building dedicated June 29, 1969 |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | A.C. Martin & Assoc. |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Archdiocese of Los Angeles |
| Division | Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region |
| Clergy | |
| Archbishop | Roger M. Mahony |
| Bishop(s) | Edward W. Clark |
| Assistant priest | Fr. Kijun Lawrence Pak |
| Honorary priest(s) | Msgr. Charles Hill (pastor emeritus) |
| Pastor(s) | Fr. Frank Hicks |
St. Basil Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church and parish in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region. The church is located at 3611 Wilshire Boulevard in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles, California. The church was built from 1967-1969 and dedicated in 1969. In 1969 and 1970, the church was the site of pickets and demonstrations by Chicano Movement protesters who objected to the archdiocese's expenditure of substantial funds on construction of the new church rather than on the poor and social justice programs.
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With the growth of Los Angeles to the west from downtown along Wilshire Boulevard, Bishop John Cantwell announced the creation of a new parish to be named after St. Basil. The parish was created on November 26, 1919. Father William McDermott Hughes (1880–1939) was named as the pastor of St. Basil.[1]
The first permanent church for the St. Basil parish was built at 7th and Catalina and was dedicated on November 21, 1920. In 1922, Father Edward Kirk (1884–1949) became St. Basil's second pastor; he remained the pastor for 27 years until his death in 1949.[1]
In June 1923, Bishop Cantwell divided the parish, creating the Precious Blood parish in the eastern section of the parish. With the shift in boundaries, the parish acquired a new site at Wilshire and Harvard, and the existing church was cut into three parts and moved to the new site.[1]
In October 1943, the church was badly damaged by a fire and subsequently rebuilt. In 1949, Monsignor Henry W. Gross (1891‐1973) became the third pastor of St. Basil. He remained pastor for 20 years until his retirement in 1969.[1]
In August 1965, Msgr. Gross announced preliminary plans to build a new 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) complex at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Kingsley Drive. The new structure was designed by the A.C. Martin architectural firm, which had also designed the original church structure in 1920. The church was built by the Pozzo Construction Company between 1967 and 1969.[1]
The new church was dedicated on June 29, 1969, in ceremony presided over by Cardinal James Francis McIntyre and Archbishop Timothy Manning.[2] On December 15, 1969, Monsignor Benjamin Hawkes (1919‐1985) was appointed as the fourth pastor of St. Basil. He served as the pastor for 16 years until his death in 1985.[1]
In 1985, Father M. Francis Meskill (1934‐1998) was appointed as the fifth pastor of St. Basil. He remained pastor for 13 years until his death in September 1998.[1]
In 1998, Monsignor Charles Hill was appointed as St. Basil's sixth pastor. He served as pastor for eight years until 2006 when he retired for medical reasons. He remains with the parish as pastor emeritus.
In July 2006, Father Frank Hicks was appointed as administrator of St. Basil. In 2008, he was appointed as the seventh pastor in the history of the St. Basil parish.[1]
The church became a focal point of protests by the Chicano Movement from the time of its dedication in June 1969 through 1970. Protesters complained over the extravagance of the archdiocese in spending nearly $3 million on land and improvements to erect the large concrete church.[3]
At the dedication ceremony on June 29, 1969, more than 30 picketers paraded in front of the church carrying placards. The picket signs included such phrases as, "$1,000,000 for glass and stone, but ? for the Poor," "A Monument to Opulence," "We Are Concerned About This Waste," and "Where is the concern for the poor?"[3]
The protests escalated at the church's Midnight Mass on December 25, 1969. Accounts differ on the events of that night. The Los Angeles Times portrayed the protesters as a mob under the headline, "Club-Swinging Mob Breaks Into Church at Christmas Mass."[4] According to the Times, the club-swinging mob of 200 demonstrators smashed the outer, heavy glass doors of the church. Parishioners and off-duty sheriff deputies hired to act as ushers tried to repulse the demonstrators, but members of the protesting group were already inside and opened the doors, allowing the demonstrators to pour into the church. A fight broke out between the demonstrators, on the one part, and parishioners and deputies, on the other part.[4]
The protests continued after Christmas led by individuals associated with the Chicano movement. A spokesman for La Raza told the Los Angeles Times that the protests had been directed against St. Basil Church because "its is a new $3 million structure that graphically illustrates the misapplication of funds which should be devoted to the poor and to social justice."[5]
Chicano leader Oscar Acosta described the event in his book, The Revolt of the Cockroach People. Acosta wrote:
"It is Christmas Eve in the year of Huitzilopochtli, 1969. Three hundred Chicanos have gathered in front of St. Basil's Roman Catholic Church. Three hundred brown-eyed children of the sun have come to drive the money-changers out of the richest temple in Los Angeles. [...] From the mansions of Beverly Hills, the Faithful have come in black shawls, in dead furs of beasts out of foreign jungles. Calling us savages, they have already gone into the church, pearls in hand, diamonds in their Colgate teeth. Now they and Cardinal James Francis McIntyre sit patiently on wooden benches inside, crossing themselves and waiting for the bell to strike twelve, while out in the night, three hundred greasers from across town march and sing tribal songs in an ancient language. St. Basil's is McIntyre's personal monstrosity. He recently built it for five million bucks: a harsh structure for puritanical worship, a simple solid excess of concrete, white marble, and black steel."[6]
On the Sunday following the Christmas protest, Antulio Parrilla, a Roman Catholic bishop from Puerto Rico, joined the Chicano protesters outside St. Basil. According to the Los Angeles Times, the mass was preceded by a parade of more than 60 placard-carrying picketers from the Coalition of Concerned Catholics and was attended by "100 Chicano militants and sympathizers."[5] Bishop Parilla celebrated mass on a vacant lot across Wilshire Boulevard from St. Basil's. Bishop Parrilla was joined in the mass by Father Mark Day, chaplain to Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers, and Father William Davis, a Jesuit missionary from New York. The three, dressed in white surplices, "conducted mass on a rough wooden table which served as an altar."[5] In his homily, Bishop Parrilla spoke against the Vietnam War, referring to young men who were imprisoned as conscientious objectors as "political prisoners." He added, "I am totally in support of the Chicano cause."[5]
As Bishop Parrilla delivered his Mass outside, the regular Sunday Masses proceeded inside St. Basil's church. A spokesman from the archdiocese addressed the parishioners before the masses and referred to the protesters as an "articulate, professionally organized minority" and as "militant revolutionaries."[5]
In early January 1970, the protesters, described by the Los Angeles Times as "50 Chicanos and sympathizers," began a fast outside St. Basil's. Richard Cruz, one of the protest leaders, told the Times: "We, Catolicos por la Raza, have chosen to begin the year 1970 by a public fast at St. Basil's to demonstrate our convections to our people, the Chicano and to our Catholic brothers whose support we seek in our struggle with the hierarchy of the Church."[7] Cruz added that the protesters would "not allow the hierarchy or their army, under the guise of law enforcement officers, to disrupt our demonstrations of faith."[7] The fast ended after three days with 75 Chicanos and supporters attending a Mass, and being welcomed, at St. Basil's.[8]
In May 1970, 15 individuals involved in the Christmas protests were put on trial of various misdemeanor offenses. Eleven of the individuals were convicted.[9] In June 1970, Judge David Aisenson sentenced two of the protest leaders to jail sentences of 60 and 90 days. At the time of sentencing, the Judge told the defendants, "Government by blow horn and tantrum will not be tolerated."[10]
The protests at St. Basil's continued into the fall of 1970. In September 1970, a group of Chicano protesters gathered at St. Basil's for an outdoor religious service on the church steps in which the participants burned their baptism certificates. The act was intended as "an expression of frustration in dealing with church authorities in discussing Mexican-American problems."[11] On viewing the Sunday protest, one woman parishioner was heard saying, "Why doesn't someone push them (the demonstrators) down the steps!"[11] However, the protest was peaceful and without violence.[11]
St. Basil Church was designed by the architectural firm of A.C. Martin & Assoc.
The building is a combination of 12 angular, adjacent concrete towers, each 80 feet (24 m) high, separated by full-length, irregular shafts of stained glass.[12] The concrete towers are irregularly designed -- some thicker at the top than at the bottom, others tapering from the bottom up, and some perpendicular.[13][2] The church spire is 160 feet (49 m) high and the cross at the top rises another 20 feet (6.1 m) above the spire.[13]
Albert C. Martin told the Los Angeles Times in 1967 that "the fortress-like composition of towers was suggested by 3rd and 4th century Christian church design and features of early monastic buildings."[12] Martin's firm described the design concept as "a marriage of early Christian with contemporary to recall the time when the church often served as a place of refuge. It is devoid of external embellishments as early churches were, but it is not a carbon copy of early churches. It at one time retains the feeling of the past and present."[13]
Los Angeles Times religion editor Dan L. Thrapp described the concept in June 1969 as follows:
"The church is patterned after a third century Roman basilica with massive concrete towers in a seemingly random placement, but well organized so that the sanctuary, lighted through the shafts of three-dimensional colored glass windows, can seat 900 in stylish comfort."[3]
The construction of the church required more than 9,000 cubic yards of concrete, and the walls were "bush‐hammered to create a rough texture and expose the color of the aggregate."[13]
The interior of the church has seating for 900 persons. A 13th Century crucifix is suspended above the altar, and contemporary sculpture and artwork also adorns the interior.[2][3] Sculptor Claire Falkenstein created the stained glass windows as well as the doors and gates. This project is considered by many to be her finest work.[14][13]
Architect Richard Dorman defended the design against critics who attacked the extravagance of the structure. Dorman told the Los Angeles Times in November 1969 that the church has to make a positive statement with its architecture from time to time and praised St. Basil's as such a statement. Dorman noted, "You make a list of the 25 best buildings in Los Angeles, and St. Basil's would be on it -- in anyone's list."[15]
In February 1973, St. Basil received an Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects for "excellence in design and execution."[13]
Masses at St. Basil are offered in three languages -- English, Spanish and Korean. The regular mass schedule for English language masses is as follows: Saturdays at 5:00 p.m., Sundays at 7:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m., and weekdays at 6:25 a.m., 8:00 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. The regular mass schedule for Korean language masses is as follows: Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:00 a.m.[16] Mass is offered in Spanish on Sundays at 1:45 p.m.