Commentary: The Lineage fire stunk up this Catholic church. Members are fighting back again

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Set us as preferred They lit candles, grasped rosaries and passed out poster boards and N-95 masks.The 50 or so people gathered in front of Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights on Wednesday evening were getting ready to pray and fight for the Eastside once again.For generations, the 103-year-old Catholic parish has been a beacon of solace and resistance for residents angry about the latest indignity to befall the historic heart of Latino Los Angeles.

The Lineage warehouse fire, which erupted a mile away nearly two months ago, still blankets the church every morning with the fetid stench of millions of pounds of rotting food that have yet to be trucked away.California From a proposed prison near Boyle Heights to lead contamination from an Exide battery plant, Monsignor John Moretta has fought against threats to his mostly Latino, low-income parishioners.“We pray because we have suffered for a century due to environmental racism,” said Sofia Quinones from the podium during the vigil.

Around her stood people in T-shirts with the same illustration featured on the church’s bulletin that week: a phoenix representing Boyle Heights rising from the flames of a hellish warehouse.Quinones paused for a few seconds as a loudspeaker crackling from an LAPD helicopter circling a few streets over ordered a shooting suspect to turn themselves in.“We ask that you open the hearts and mind of the powerful,” she continued.

“We ask you, Lord, to help us.”The faithful recited the Lord’s Prayer and a Hail Mary.Then, they marched from the Resurrection entrance to the school’s multipurpose room for a plática, or teach-in, on Lineage, singing in Spanish a song based on the 118th Psalm:This is the day that the Lord has madeFamily of happinessPueblo of happiness and joyLet’s walk to the meeting of the LordIt was a stirring sight —...