The Hennacy House of Hospitality (and LACW other stuff)
The other location for the Los Angeles Catholic Worker is the Hennacy House of Hospitality a couple miles away from the Hippie Kitchen. It’s here that the full time Catholic Workers live along with a number of folks who had been living on the streets.
They actually have 3 buildings on the property:
-the “front house”, a big victorian mansion with 13 bedrooms. This is where most of the action happens; meals, liturgy, meetings, accepting donations, office work, the communal tv.
-the “back house” a much more modest building with 5 bedrooms on the main floor (every room is a bedroom save the small kitchen and bathroom) and another 2 in the basement. For many years before going more digital their newspaper The Catholic Agitator was put together in the backhouse basement, it still carries the moniker “the Agitator room.”
-the “apartment” or “garage” depending on how you refer to this building will probably depend on preference or context. The lower lever is storage for bulk items for the kitchen; cups, sporks, jugs of oil, trash bags, all of that stuff! The upper floor is a 2 bedroom apartment used for hosting visitors or traveling activist groups or other things as needed.
Currently the LACWs are in the midst of doing hospice care for two of their guests, one of whom needs 24/7 attention. Hospice at the LACW goes back to the AIDs epidemic and has been a practice there off and on since. There is a small “memorial garden” where the cremains of folks who have passed in the house are buried.
Each Wedensday the house hosts a liturgy, sometimes Catholic, sometimes led by another faith leader, or sometimes just presided over by a community member. It's open to the public and afterwards is a potluck dinner.
The house will also host other events from time to time when they have capacity to do so. Sometimes that's a Super Bowl party where they bring folks who eat at the kitchen over to watch the game and eat all kinds of tasty foods. Sometimes they just host a “hospitality day” where folks can come over and get a shower and a good meal and relax and play cards. Sometimes the community hosts public speakers or fundraisers too.
There are plenty of other side projects of the LA Catholic Worker too. They host a social justice stations of the cross each year, protest nuclear weapons, support other organizations advocating for affordable housing, host summer picnics where they take folks from the street out to the park. All kinds of stuff!
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