Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, officially known as the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, is a Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, located on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood, California. The church serves an urban, multiethnic community and is known for, among other things, its gay and lesbian ministry and its many outreach programs, including programs to assist the poor.
Founded in 1904, the parish was the home parish for many actors during the classic Hollywood era of the 1920s through the 1950s, including Bing Crosby, John Ford, Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, Ricardo Montalbán and Ann Blyth. The Italian Renaissance church, built in 1928 but not completed until 1954, received a historic preservation grant in 2000 from the J. Paul Getty Trust.
History
Early years Blessed Sacrament Church was formed in 1904, and the first church, which accommodated 250 people, was built on Hollywood Boulevard (then called Prospect Ave). As the movie business developed in the 1910s, the population of Hollywood increased dramatically. By 1919, the old church was "literally bursting at the seams every Sunday." Enrollment at the parish school also jumped from 17 students in 1915 to 140 in 1919.
Move to Sunset Boulevard In 1921, the parish paid $75,000 for the land on Sunset Boulevard that is the current home of the church. Benefiting from a Hollywood real estate boom, the church later sold its existing property on Hollywood Boulevard for $300,000.
The new church and school on Sunset Boulevard were designed by Thomas Franklin Power. Power designed the Blessed Sacrament School, which opened in 1923, in an Italian Renaissance style. When the new school opened, its enrollment was 370 students. Power next turned his attention to the new church, which he adapted from the Basilican style of the Italian Renaissance style. The roof, however, was made of tile instead of the flat roof typical of Roman churches. Power designed the interior with flanking arches to be reminiscent of the San Paolo and St. Clement Basilicas in Rome. The new church was dedicated in June 1928. With its 223-foot chimes tower, ornate exterior and seating for 1,400 people, Blessed Sacrament quickly became a Hollywood landmark.
Completion of the church interior Though the structure was completed in 1928, completion of the interior decoration and ornamentation was delayed when the Great Depression began in 1929. One interior element that did move forward during the Depression was the Stations of the Cross. Noted Italian artist Carlo Wostry had been hired to paint murals at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Pasadena, and was also hired to paint the Stations of the Cross at Blessed Sacrament. Wostry began working on the Stations in Italy in 1930 and finished them in 1932. It was not until 1951 that architect J. Earl Trudeau was hired to complete the interior design. Trudeau said he "chose a rather simpler treatment, featuring economy of means both in the artistic and economic senses." The interior work was finally completed in early 1954.
F McCoy: pastor from 1932 to 1957 The parish's longest-serving pastor was Fr Cornelius McCoy, who was pastor for 25 years from 1932 to 1957. He took over the parish in the middle of the Great Depression and oversaw the completion of the church. When he stepped down as pastor in 1957, the parish had 6,000 members. During McCoy's tenure the new archbishop, Cardinal James F. McIntyre, offered to purchase the church from the Jesuit order. McIntyre wanted to replace the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles with an existing church more centrally located in the sprawling archdiocese to serve as the new cathedral. The order refused to sell the property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the matter of finding a new cathedral remained unsettled.
In 1946, the Christmas Mass was broadcast by television station KTLA, which McCoy stated was the world's first televised mass.
In 1955, organist Richard Key Biggs received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice decoration in recognition of 27 years of service.
Fr Falvey Priest abuse scandal Fr. Mark Falvey, who was an assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament from 1959 until his death in 1975, was accused of sexually molesting four girls and five boys between 1959 and 1975 at Blessed Sacrament. Falvey was never charged with a crime. In May 2007, the Jesuit order agreed to pay $16 million to settle these claims. A Jesuit representative said he agreed with the plaintiffs' lawyer that "Falvey was not handled correctly by the Jesuit order," and that he "should have been removed from ministry" after the first victim. Since then the church has instituted the VIRTUS program to prevent such a tragedy in the future.
Elanjimannil Chacko Sebastian (also known as E. C. Sebastian) is an Indian Jesuit priest, academic and professional services consultant. He is a member of the Society of Jesus and is associated with the Patna Province.
In the United States, Father Sebastian was associated with Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where he served in a pastoral capacity. In 2018, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles published a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse, on which Father Sebastian’s name appeared in connection with his time in Los Angeles.
Father Sebastian subsequently worked in Afghanistan, where he served as a professor at the National Institute of Management (NIMA). He also worked as a consultant on Afghanistan projects connected with the World Bank, including assignments as Senior Faculty for Accounting. He was associated with E.C. Sebastian & Co., an Afghanistan-based professional services firm offering audit, tax, financial advisory, consulting and outsourcing services. The firm’s published client list included Al Jazeera Network, Afghan International Bank (AIB), the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), Da Qanoon Ghustoonky (DQG), Afghanistan Information Management Service (AIMS) and OFARIN, as well as numerous Afghan companies.
World Bank procurement records list E. C. Sebastian as a contracted Senior Faculty for Accounting under the Afghanistan Second Skills Development Project. Audits of the project identified unsupported and questioned expenditures and weaknesses in financial controls and accountability. The project and the wider Afghan skills-development sector were also subject to scrutiny by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
Father Sebastian has also been named in records concerning an Indian adoption case dating from 1985. According to Jyoti Weststrate, she was found at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bettiah, Bihar, where she states that she was handed over to Father Sebastian by seven men. She states that Father Sebastian later described her as having been given to him as a “gift”. She was subsequently transferred to an orphanage and never reunited with her biological family.
In 2015, Jyoti states that she experienced sexual misconduct by Father Sebastian. She formally reported the alleged misconduct to the Society of Jesus in 2025. Following a safeguarding process, the Society of Jesus recognized her account as credible and issued an official apology to her in 2025.
Father Sebastian remains a member of the Society of Jesus and is associated with the Patna Province.
Economic decline and violence In recent decades, the Hollywood area has experienced an economic decline, with large numbers of homeless and poor people living in the area. A low point for the parish came in October 1987, when a gunman opened fire into a crowd of hundreds attending the church's carnival, spraying the area with bullets. Two adults and two children (a 15-year-old and a 9-year-old) were wounded in gunfire.
Repentant lingerie looter In 1992, the church drew national media attention after a repentant man who had looted the "Frederick's of Hollywood" lingerie museum during the Los Angeles riots delivered a bag of pilfered celebrity lingerie, including Ava Gardner's "bloomers" and a push-up bra once worn by TV actress Katey Sagal, to the church's pastor, Fr. Bob Fambrini. An Austin newspaper noted that Fambrini "may be the only priest in America to ever comfort a man who felt guilty about stealing celebrity bloomers." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that such an "uplifting story could only happen in Hollywood."
Social Services at Blessed Sacrament By the 1980s, what had once been a large convent housing the sisters of the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, had become part of a sanctuary effort to protect undocumented individuals from Central America fleeing the violence in the region. They were assisted by members of the Jesuit order. In late April 1999, Sr. Peg Dolan of Loyola Marymount University headed a group of "Alumni for Others" in the restoration of the former convent on Selma Avenue in Hollywood. Alumni from Jesuit Universities at LMU, University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University helped transform the vacated building into a fully functional Social Service Center, which opened its doors just one month later. With the majority of furniture and fixtures donated by parishioners and Hollywood residents, the center began on its path of offering quality services almost entirely by donation of goods, funds, and time.
Getty preservation grant In July 2000, Blessed Sacrament was one of 20 Los Angeles landmarks to receive a "Preserve L.A." grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust for the preservation of historic buildings and sites throughout Los Angeles County.
100th anniversary
In 2004, Cardinal Roger Mahony presided at the parish's 100th anniversary Mass, which was celebrated in three languages (English, Spanish and Tagalog). Mahony noted the parish's long tradition of outreach to the Hollywood community, especially the poor and homeless. He praised those efforts: "I am proud of you because you have done this well. It helps us identify with what Jesus is calling us to in today's Gospel." Mahony also thanked the Society of Jesus for their long history of service to the parish, and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, whose religious community staffed the school for many decades.
The Center at Blessed Sacrament In 2006, the Social Services Center embarked on a renewed mission to continue assisting those in need. In order to raise awareness and maximize funding opportunities, the Center became an independent agency and obtained its separate federal and state tax-exempt status. While continuing to be an integral part of the Blessed Sacrament social services mission, the center is now governed by an independent Board of Directors composed of civic leaders, volunteers and local residents. The Center provides services to all who are in need without regard to religious affiliation. From 2015 until current day, The Center experienced significant growth under the leadership of executive director, Nathan Sheets. Currently, as of March 2021, The Center has more than 50 staff across eight programs, focusing on community engagement, outreach, housing services, food distribution, and long-term housing retention.
Jesuits Depart In January 2024, Jesuit Provincial Sean Carroll announced that after 100 years, the Jesuits would be departing Blessed Sacrament.
Connections with the movie business Early ties to Hollywood Located in the heart of Hollywood, Blessed Sacrament has had close ties to the movie industry in its early years. As early as June 1916, the "popular stars of filmdom" were giving their time and talents gratis for a three-act burlesque on the "old-time melodrama" and novel specialty numbers.