Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

LOCAL
■ Thousand Oaks girls
school to close
La Reina High School and Middle
School, an all-girls Catholic school in
Thousand Oaks, announced on Jan. 24
that it will close at the end of the school
year.
Due to “significant under-enrollment,”
La Reina President Tony
Guevara said in an email to parents that
the school was no longer “responsibly
sustainable.”
“We trust you will understand that this
decision is not an easy one,” Guevara
said. “It was made after careful discernment
and after multiple continued
efforts to improve La Reina’s sustainability
over many years.”
Many parents and alumni were upset
with the decision and have attempted
to try to stop the closure, first by speaking
at a community meeting on Jan.
25 and by spreading the word online,
including “Save La Reina” social media
accounts.
The school, sponsored by the Sisters of
Notre Dame, was founded in 1964.
■ Latest archdiocese healing garden opens
at St. Bernadette
A fourth Garden of
Healing was unveiled by
the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles’ Victims Assistance
Ministry at St. Bernadette
Church in Baldwin Hills
with a blessing from
Auxiliary Bishop Matthew
Elshoff on Jan. 17.
With plans to have
a garden dedicated to
victim-survivors of sexual
abuse in each of the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’
Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff blesses the water feature at
five regions, St. Bernadette the latest healing garden completed at St. Bernadette Church. | PABLO KAY
joins St. Camillus Center
in Los Angeles, Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura, and St. Francis
de Sales Church in San Fernando. The next garden will be built in the San Pedro
Region.
Along with greenery and benches for reflection, there’s a water feature in each
garden meant to evoke the sorrow of the abuse, but also the promise of renewal.
“I pray St. Bernadette’s garden — and all the healing gardens — will be received as
a sacred space to hold and acknowledge the pain of those impacted by sexual abuse
in the Church, their families, or communities, while renewing their spirits and fostering
healing,” said Victims Assistance Ministry Coordinator Heather Banis, Ph.D.
Y
A new LA Catholic for the Chargers — Jim Harbaugh, shown here with Pope Francis in 2017, was recently
hired as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh, who most recently coached the University
of Michigan’s football team, is a well-known Catholic and spoke at last month’s March for Life event in Washington,
D.C. | CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO
■ Mass to mark one-year
anniversary of Bishop
Dave’s death
To mark the one-year anniversary
of his passing, there will be a memorial
Mass for Auxiliary Bishop David
O’Connell at Mission San Gabriel
Arcángel on Feb. 24.
The 10 a.m. Mass will be presided
over by Archbishop José H. Gomez
and will feature the blessing of a memorial
exhibit afterward.
A new Native garden and fountain
were installed at Mission San Gabriel
Arcángel in November, and since it
had been sponsored by O’Connell, a
monument was placed there in memory
of him.
O’Connell, who was the episcopal
vicar of the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles’ San Gabriel Region, was
killed in his Hacienda Heights home
on Feb. 18, 2023. Carlos Medina, the
man suspected of killing O’Connell,
remains in jail and is awaiting trial.
6 • ANGELUS • February 9, 2024