Fr. Alejandro Oscar Baez,SJ will Celebrate Mass this weekend
Join us for the 9:30 a.m. or the Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus 11:00 a.m. Mass this weekend June 24
Scalabrinian life: 1998-2004
Fr. Oscar Alejandro Báez, S.J., was born in Jalisco, Mexico, where he was inspired by the joyfulness of priests and nuns at his local parish. After high school, he immigrated to Southern California and became active at St. Peter’s Italian Church, run by the Missionaries of St. Charles-Scalabrinians.
Inspired by the leadership, vocation and passion of ministry by different priests and nuns like Fr. Giovanni Bizzotto, C.S., Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., Tacho Rivera, S.J. and Allan Deck, Fr. Báez consider entering religious life. The Scalabrinians asked Fr. Báez to discern a vocation to their order, and he began studying at St. John’s College Seminary in Camarillo, California.
While studying at St. Johns’ seminary, Fr. Báez served as Director of Religious Education which he oversaw the program for the 1st Communion, Confirmation and Youth Group. Furthermore, he also served as director of Liturgy and Music while helping in the development of food distribution program for migrants and refugees.
Although Fr. Báez deeply identified with the Scalabrinians’ charism of helping immigrants, he felt that God was calling him elsewhere, and, after earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, he left the seminary and began to discern a vocation to the Jesuits.
Jesuit: 2004 to present
He entered the Jesuits in 2004. As a novice, he worked with Dolores Mission School in East Los Angeles, the Yup'ik people in Chefornak, Alaska, and the L’Arche community in Spokane, Washington.
Missioned to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, he studied theology for one year before earning a master’s degree in music education from New York University while student teaching at William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City, New York, and the United Nations International School in New York City. Fr. Báez taught in the music and theology departments. at Jesuit High Schools in Sacramento from 2011-2013 and Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles from 2013-2015. He was next missioned to the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree while serving as a deacon at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Dublin, California. He has sung professionally and with community choirs and has pursued musical training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School.
His Jesuit formation has included a summer immersion music program in Venezuela and a two-week walk retracing the steps of St. Ignatius of Loyola from Spain to Rome. After ordination, his first Masses were celebrated at St. Raymond in Dublin, CA and St. Peter’s Italian Church in Los Angeles, CA (USA West Province)
Congratulations Fr. Alejandro Báez, SJ Ordained to the Priesthood 9 June 2018.
Message from our Pastor, Fr. Louis Piran, c.s.
Dear Parishioners and friends,
The summer months are upon us. Some of us have been planning vacations and family gatherings. These will be beautiful opportunities to exercise the Christian mission that we have received on Pentecost day and to be active members of the Church.
Let us reflect: what is the “Church”?
Some people might immediately think of a physical building, (“St. Peter Church”) others the place where they were baptized or married, but he Acts of the Apostles describe better what the church was and must be today:
-A place to be formed and taught.
-A place that inspires and motivates us to go out into the world on a mission.
Like the early church, we gather every Sunday as a family to learn something new about what it means to be a catholic, to experience Christ in the Eucharist, to receive the Holy Spirit, and then, strengthened and nourished by this encounter, we are sent out into the world as His messengers: “Go in peace to love and to serve the Lord and one another”. To be Catholic means being helpful, loving, prayerful, selfless, faithful, obedient, respectful, and forgiving.
The world around us is full of hurting souls as it was in the time of Jesus. Just look around in the community where you live: there are people who are poor, neglected, addicted, with chronic illness, unemployed, old, or in jail. They are our parents, our friends, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, our children. They want to feel loved. They want to feel as if someone in this world actually cares if they live or die.
Summer time will offer us special opportunities to see and do something about these people that God has put on our path.
St. Mother Theresa said: “None of you can do what I am doing, but I can’t do what you can do. Start with the person who is right in front of you!”
Happy summer!
The Parish of St. Peter was founded in the year 1904 to care for the spiritual and social needs of Italian immigrants who came to America in search of religious, social, and economic freedom.
Today, through liturgical, educational and social programs, St. Peter’s Italian Church in Los Angeles continues the mandate given to the Missionaries of St. Charles by their founder Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini to care for all migrants as they journey toward the Kingdom of God. Find out more information on our history: