The memorial occurred just weeks after the Los Angeles County Crematorium Cemetery in Boyle Heights laid to rest the cremated remains of more than 1,600 people in a mass grave — bodies unclaimed since 2019. Many among them were presumably homeless with no known family members to claim them.
Every year, over a thousand individuals die on the streets of Los Angeles while experiencing homelessness. Archbishop José H. Gomez and religious leaders from across Los Angeles presided at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Life, Justice and Peace’s Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
More than 7,500 people descended on downtown Los Angeles Jan. 21 for the event, organized by the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice and Peace. They traveled by car, bus, and even train to support the dignity of life from conception to natural death at an important moment in the history of their cause: the first OneLife LA event since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last June.
As they waited in the shade next to the Pico House, watching the crowd swell in size in anticipation of the sixth annual OneLife LA Walk for Life outside La Placita in downtown Los Angeles, Monica and John Meier did their best to make their daughter, Veronica, as comfortable as possible.