Angelus News | May 31, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 20

“I gave her the money and off
she went. But that’s the thing
people don’t see because you
don’t come down here unless
you have to, right? You don’t see
what’s really happening unless
you’re here. The filth that
caused a typhus outbreak and
other diseases. The gang members
pushing drugs. The pimps
who treat women terribly.
“The folks in City Hall are
looking down from 500 feet. I’m
looking down from 5 feet,” she
said.
“I’m watching people not live
on Skid Row; I’m watching
them die on Skid Row. So,
they’re either going to die slowly
by disease or they’re going to
die quickly from violence. But it’s not
going to end well.”
God’s hands and feet
Lopez is an extraordinary minister
of holy Communion at the Cathedral
A homeless couple moves possessions on Los Angeles’ Skid
Row. Its population ranges from 8,000 to 11,000 people on
any given day in the 4.31 square-mile area.
of Our Lady of the Angels downtown.
Her mother was one of its first parishioners
in 2002. “I’m crazy in love with
my faith and Pope Francis,” she said.
It’s her steadfast Catholic faith, she
believes, that keeps her at her day job.
Born in South Los Angeles, she grew
VICTOR ALEMÁN
up going to Holy Cross Church
and went to St. Brendan School
and St. Matthias High School.
“We are here to do God’s
work,” she said. “We are his
hands and his feet. People ask
me all the time, ‘It’s so horrible
down there, how can you do
what you do?’ And they’re right.
Street conditions have even
gotten worse since our ride. Encampments
are moving south
and east.
“The secular answer is ‘Well,
I have a seat to the history of
the City of Los Angeles. It’s a
very important — and tragic
— chapter of the city, and I’m
certainly in the position to be a
witness of it.’
“But then I say, ‘What is the job of a
witness if not to give testimony?’ So, I
see that as my job, too.”
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor
of Angelus.
May 31, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23