Founded in 1943, Immaculate Conception is a close-knit community that is constantly transforming itself.
The parish of Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, was built by the pre- and post-war immigrants from the American East Coast and Mid-West. It is their proud achievement, with their founding pastor Fr. Michael Aidan Keane, to have built, not only a church, a school and hall and a rectory and a convent, but also a close-knit family of parishioners who enjoy seeing one another and counting one another as friends. Fr. Keane did a marvelous job of focusing the energy of the people on taking excellent care of their parish, which many still can claim to have been built by their own hands!
After Fr. Keane’s death, Frs. Robert Buchanan and Gustavo Benson took on the task of transitioning the parish to new leadership. Fr. Michael McNally shepherded the people for the next 16 years, keeping alive the fruits of the hard work of the people. The parish, however, has been undergoing a long transformation. The families who presently live and serve in the parish are a mix of new immigrants from the Los Angeles area and from Latin America and even Asia and Africa.
The school closed in 1971, but the classrooms are never empty of activity. After serving for many years as the office for both the Catholic Charities Corporation and the Charismatic Renewal, the convent once again houses a religious order, the Lovers of the Holy Cross from Vietnam. The parish is enjoying a second spring.