Welcome to the St. Augustine Parish Website.  I am Fr. Chris Fagan, the Pastor of St. Augustine Church.  We are a multicultural, multilingual, vibrant and growing Roman Catholic community of faith, located in Culver City, CA.  We have been serving the community of Culver City since our founding as a mission church in 1888; and our primary focus is to follow Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, who brings us to the Father through the working of the Holy Spirit.  We are committed to living the Gospel, celebrating the sacraments and sharing the Good News with others and transforming our world through our commitment to social justice.  No matter who you are, where you are from and where you are on your faith journey, you are welcome here, especially during these challenging times.

     Our doors have been closed for the past few months, but we are planning to re-open soon.  You have probably already heard that our Archbishop, the Very Reverend José H. Gomez, has permitted churches to re-open if they develop a detailed plan as to how they will limit the number of attendees to 100 per Mass (including the priest and other ministers), maintain social distancing & the wearing of face coverings, disinfect the church after every liturgical event (Masses, Adoration, Liturgies of the Word, other devotions), provide contact tracing (so that we can warn people who attended a service if someone else, who attended the same service, contracts the virus), recruit and train the volunteers we will need to guide people through the re-opening protocols, procure sufficient cleaning and disinfectant supplies, etc.

     Our parish Liturgy Committee has been working hard to develop a useable, effective, and practical plan so that St. Augustine Parish can open as quickly as possible, i.e., as soon as we can do so safely. As Archbishop Gomez has said, your safety must be our primary concern.  After the Liturgy Committee completes the plan, which we hope to do so Monday, June 15, we must submit that plan to our regional bishop, Bishop Clark, for his review and approval. Once Bishop Clark approves our plan, we can re-open the church for both private prayer and the public celebration of the Mass. If all goes well, we expect to re-open the church and celebrate our first Masses on Sunday, June 28.

To ensure sufficient time to disinfect the church between Masses, we are temporarily revising our Mass schedule. The revised Sunday Mass schedule will be: Saturday Evening Vigil Mass at 5:00 p.m. (English); Sunday English Masses at 7:00 a.m.; 10:00 a.m.; and 5:00 p.m.; Sunday Spanish Mass at 1:00 p.m.  Since we can only have a maximum of 100 persons on our campus at any one time, we are still revising the weekday Mass schedule to take into account, among other things, the increased number of persons making use of SAVES on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Upon re-opening for the public celebration of the Mass, we will need some time to evaluate how the new protocols are working and to revise them, if necessary, before we begin the celebration of the other sacraments.

Once the new protocols are working smoothly, we will start celebrating the sacraments of Baptism, First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Reconciliation, and Matrimony. There are many COVID-19 restrictions that we must follow when we celebrate these sacraments. For example, we have 170 children who wish to make their First Holy Communion; 120 candidates for Confirmation; and about 20 Elect for all the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, First Holy Communion and Confirmation). Since we can only have a maximum of 100 persons present at any one celebration, we must determine how we will accommodate not only those who will actually receive the sacraments, but also their families, friends, godparents, and sponsors. Undoubtedly, we will have to schedule a larger number of these sacramental celebrations than we had planned originally pre-COVID-19.

Please remember to check our website regularly for COVID-19 updates, news about the celebration of the sacraments, the revised weekday and Sunday Mass schedules, and other important information about our parish life.

Thank you for your continuing patience and understanding in these challenging times. Let us pray that working together, we will get through the current difficulties and become an even more faith-filled

May the blessings of Ordinary Time fill you with health, joy, and peace of mind.

Fr. Chris

En Español