LIKE SO MANY OF HIS parishioners, Msgr. Liam Kidney called the Pacific Palisades home. As the pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church since 1999, the Ireland native built a faith community that genuinely cares about building the Body of Christ by reaching out to support one another in times of joy and in times of sorrow.
MSGR. LIAM KIDNEY PREPARES FOR MASS AT ST. MONICA CATHOLIC CHURCH AFTER HIS PARISH, CORPUS CHRISTI CATHOLIC CHURCH, WAS BURNED DOWN IN THE PALISADES FIRE. PHOTO BY MIKE VULPO
In January, Msgr. Kidney’s life quickly changed when the Palisades Fire burned down his church and hundreds of homes in the surrounding neighborhood.
Without missing a beat, the longtime pastor began sharing a message of hope with his friends and parishioners as they worked to heal alongside their living God.
“My message is the Church is the people, not the building,” Msgr. Kidney said. “We have been trained to think of the building as the Church. We’re going to untrain ourselves now and begin to see the people as the Church. The building is just an empty building. You bring the people in there, and it becomes the Church.”
In the weeks following the devastating fires, St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica opened their hearts — and doors — to Corpus Christi parishioners.
St. Monica Preparatory School hosted multiple relief events with groceries and essential items available at no charge for displaced residents. St. Monica Catholic Church immediately began offering spiritual support thanks to its Stephen ministry, which provides one-to-one counseling. Group it support is also available.
“We want to help them in every way possible,” St. Monica Catholic Church pastor Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson shared. “We want to do more, and we will do
more. We want to do whatever it takes. What our community is all about is taking the ordinary things and turning them into acts of love. That’s a miracle. That’s the miracle that’s changing water into wine.”
Although St. Monica Catholic Church only received an evacuation warning during the Palisades Fire, Msgr. Torgerson knows many parishioners who lost everything after a windstorm sparked one of the biggest fires in California history.
The longtime pastor has also been through his own challenging times, including the 1994 Northridge earthquake that damaged parts of St. Monica.
While he admits to not having all the answers when parishioners come to him seeking comfort and answers, he hopes they know they are never alone.
“I can’t explain it,” he shared. “I can’t give them any really insightful words. I don’t know all their suffering. To lose a home, that’s a sacred place for families. Everything is done there. Life is there. Children are raised there. They cry there. They laugh there. When you lose that, you’ve lost so much and all I try to do is just walk with those people and care for them as best I can.”
It’s a message Msgr. Torgerson hopes will resonate with Catholics all around the world. No matter what struggles one’s neighbor is going through, it’s important to “walk with them” regardless of where they find themselves in the human condition.
“We can share the pain that they’re suffering, and we can do our very best to make sure that we’re in support of them from St Monica,” he said. “We went through a terrible thing when we had our earthquake. I know what it is to be in darkness and to be lost. I felt it and I swore that if it was going to happen to anybody else, I was going to do everything I could to support them so that at least they would get a little lift.”
As wildfire victims slowly try to rebuild their lives, Msgr. Kidney can’t help but applaud his parish community for continuing to stand together.
In the weeks following the Palisades Fire, hundreds of Corpus Christi parishioners continued to gather for special services at St. Monica, where they were treated to Mass and lunch from Habit Burger & Grill and Our Family Taco Catering thanks to the Cesnado family.
“They take care of themselves,” Msgr. Kidney said about his parishioners. “They take care of each other, and they’ve always done that. The
dimension of our Catholic community was that we got together often for prayer and Mass, and we got together for good parties. When people stood on the patio of the church, they knew each other. When you bumped into each other in the aisles of Ralphs or Gelsons, it was Corpus Christi. There was a special bond and connection.”
Msgr. Lloyd praised the “amazing community of Pacific Palisades who will continue to care for and support each other as they begin a new chapter.
“They’re going everywhere to find a home, to find a place to live, just to find a school and to find a place to worship,” he said. “I think it’s a great loss because the community was so strong, and they all knew each other.”
Msgr. Lloyd added: “If you know people who are struggling or find life difficult, reach out to them. Do not be afraid to say, ‘I want to help you’ and then to be with them in prayer. God works. He doesn’t do it necessarily on our time, but he does it.”
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