One year later, parishes hit by LA fires look to rebuild community
It’s a picture-perfect December afternoon in Pacific Palisades, and the sounds of a neighborhood coming back to life are in the air: the steady drone of jackhammers, the hum of emergency generators, the squeals of contractor pickup trucks loaded with building materials. Nearly a year since the Palisades Fire, the first rebuilt homes are almost done.
The campus of Corpus Christi Church, which burned to the ground the night of Jan. 7, 2025, is fenced off, the mass of tangled debris now cleaned up. The Christmas lights that hung on the trees at the church’s entrance that night are still there, fused to the charred branches.
Corpus Christi will be rebuilt someday, promises the church’s pastor, Msgr. Liam Kidney. But permits, funding, and architectural designs will need to be figured out first.