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From feast days to meeting space, Saint Raphael parishioners in the City of Angels address issues that still raise concerns, but no longer separate. By R. W. Dellinger, Staff Writer Reprinted with permission from The Tidings, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, May 8, 2009, issue.” From the front of Saint Raphael Church in Los Angeles, California, on West 70th Street, a half-block from seedy, divided Vermont Avenue, you hardly notice the opening in the stucco wall attached to the off-white church built in the 1920s. But inside, on the curvy, decorative walkway, you are hit with the soothing sounds of running water coming from both a three-tier grotto mini-waterfall and a fountain in the “unity” prayer garden of the urban multicultural parish. Our Lady of Guadalupe is up on a stone mound with Juan Diego beside her, his cloak open to reveal the imprint of roses he has dropped on the ground. Near the grotto stands a red, green and black trellis with four silver chains hanging down around Saint Martin de Porres, who attended to African slaves brought to Peru. Farther down the path is a stone block monument with a relief of the Immaculate Conception surrounded by little angels favored by Nicaraguans and another monument of the Sacred Heart for recent parishioners from Belize. For Guatemalans there is a stunning crucifix, El Cristo Negro de Esquipulas (the black Christ) for veneration. There are separate shrines to Our Lady of Notre Dame (Haiti) and El Salvador del Mundo (El Salvador). The “unity” prayer garden features shrines to the patron saints of more than half-a-dozen cultures. In the foreground is a tribute to Saint Martin de Porres. In the center of all this is a small plaza with a three-sided tile structure with scenes of Jesus, children from Saint Raphael School and parishioners praying the rosary. “The unity garden is my pride and joy,” says Father Tracy O’Sullivan during an impromptu tour. “It’s what the parish can leave for the next generation.” But even more important, according to the 73-year-old Carmelite priest, who has been the pastor of Saint Raphael for 15 years, the transformed alley is “an expression of the cultural make-up of the parish.”
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