Rebirth from the Ashes: Parishioners show determination to rebuild on Easter Sunday
Dozens of people gathered for early morning mass on Easter Sunday at St. Joseph’s Chapel in Brentwood, Los Angeles. The pews were full, but most in attendance were not members of the congregation. They were parishioners from the Corpus Christi Catholic Church, which burned down during the Palisades Fire in 2025.
Monsignor Liam Kidney, Corpus Christi’s main priest for 27 years, led Mass inside the borrowed chapel where the displaced congregation has gathered for the last year. Kidney said he’s had difficulty adjusting to living without the parish. “You’re in a whole new world that is very unusual, and you’re trying to pretend that it’s normal,” Kidney said.
Although 80% to 90% of the parish now lives scattered throughout Southern California since the fire, many of its members still drive several hours every week to maintain their relationship with the parish, according to Kidney.
“For all those people to say, ‘I’m going to get up on a Sunday morning, and I’m not just going to go to church, but I’m going to go to church at Corpus Christi in Brentwood on the top of Bundy.’ You’ve got to be pretty committed,” Kidney said.
Before the church can rebuild, the city of Los Angeles must first approve the church’s master plan. The parish aims to be in the design process by the end of April, according to Kidney.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-4-25 in January 2025 to expedite the fire recovery and rebuilding process. This is done by temporarily lifting review requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act for qualifying projects, according to the executive order.
Tracking recovery data from the state’s “Rebuilding LA” website shows that the city of Los Angeles is currently averaging a 51-day turnaround time for permit approvals. Once permitted, Kidney estimates the construction process will total in the millions.
Besides the church, the fire also destroyed the parish’s records. “The sacramental history of everyone in the parish from 1950 through 2024. The records of baptisms, deaths, marriages, Holy communion, confirmations — all the records are gone,” said Lorraine Hartman, Corpus Christi Parish Office Manager and Santa Monica College alumna.
Hartman, who evacuated her office during the Palisades Fire, has worked for Corpus Christi for 35 years. She graduated from SMC in 1979 with an associate's degree in accounting shortly before the birth of her first daughter.
Despite losing her decades-long place of worship, Hartman says the fire has led her to find a renewed strength in her faith. “Sometimes prayer is hard at times like these, but I began to realize that God was truly walking with us through it all,” Hartman said.
As the front office contact for the church, Hartman recalled the outpouring of support that the church received in the wake of the fire. She said that she received calls from all over the country: a woman from New Jersey who took up a collection in her prayer group, a man in Maryland who offered a home to any family who needed shelter and a teacher in Long Island who sent the church children’s Bibles.
Hartman raised her three daughters in the Pacific Palisades, all of whom attended the Corpus Christi School from kindergarten through eighth grade. “It was a great place to raise kids,” she said.
The fires scorched the Corpus Christi school, next to the church, but didn’t fully destroy the building. According to Kidney, roughly one-third of the school is still usable, and over a quarter of the student body has relocated to the American Martyrs School in Malibu, Calif., according to Kidney. Still, he remains hopeful that the school can reopen in the fall, but is doubtful of that timeframe, as no one is living in the Palisades at the moment, he said.
The American Martyrs, when asked for comment, said they could not speak to the media without permission from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. As of publication, Archbishop José Gomez has not responded.
Kidney said that he and the associate priest both lost their homes to the fires when the rectory burned down alongside the church, and that insurance is paying for their leased home in Brentwood, alongside the salaries, benefits and retirement plans for all the affected school employees.
According to Kidney, the Palisades is going through more of a rebirth than a resurrection.
“Resurrection is different from rebirth,” Kidney said. “Resurrection is actually a victory over death, and rebirth is literally like rebirth; being reborn again, which all Christians are reborn again at baptism. Baptism is our rebirth, but Easter is resurrection.”