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When information first trickled out that Chris Ponnet, the longtime pastor of the St. Camillus Heart for Religious Care in Lincoln Heights, had died, photographs and condolences popped up on-line.
There was {a photograph} of him being arrested in 2011 at a blockade in downtown Los Angeles over the conflict in Afghanistan. One other picture confirmed him at an anti-death-penalty rally holding a cross with the message “substitute the demise penalty” written throughout the middle.
The condolences included one from Sacred Coronary heart Excessive Faculty in Lincoln Heights, the place he was praised as a “beloved presider and homilist at our lots.”
Ponnet is being remembered as a person who typically served because the lone customer to a whole lot dying of COVID-19, who presided over an annual service honoring the unclaimed useless and who attended protests and was arrested dozens of instances within the course of.
For members of the family, although, he was “the one that cared most for us,” mentioned his brother Jim.
The household introduced Ponnet’s passing on Oct. 7 on the age of 68.
He’s survived by his sisters Elizabeth and Mary Alice and brother Jim. He was an uncle to greater than 20 nieces and nephews.
A viewing, rosary and vigil might be held at St. Luke’s in Temple Metropolis on Monday, starting at 5:30 p.m.
The formal celebration of life funeral Mass is scheduled for Tuesday at Cathedral of Our Girl of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles at 10 a.m.
Father Chris Ponnet is arrested after an Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace rally that blocked Los Angeles Avenue in downtown L.A.
(Los Angeles Instances)
Each the viewing and funeral are open to the general public, whereas the burial is non-public.
Ponnet spent the final 30 years as pastor of St. Camillus, which is throughout the road from USC’s well being sciences campus.
There he served as the positioning administrator for the City Interfaith Chaplaincy Program, the place he helped prepare the subsequent era of chaplains. He was additionally the director of the Los Angeles Basic Medical Heart’s Workplace of Religious Care.
It was within the latter place that Ponnet attended to remoted COVID-19 sufferers through the pandemic’s first yr.
Ponnet absolutely donned private protecting gear — a helmet, masks and robe — and prayed with COVID sufferers in isolation when few others have been allowed to enter, Connie Castro, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Basic Medical Heart, mentioned in an announcement.
“Father Chris’s legacy is one in every of love, service, and unwavering religion,” the assertion learn. “Beloved by workers, sufferers, and the broader group, he leaves a void that might be deeply felt. His reminiscence and the values he instilled will proceed to encourage all who knew him.”
The primary yr of COVID-19 deeply affected Ponnet.
“I’ve journeyed with 9 individuals on someday in demise,” Ponnet mentioned in March 2021. He added: “It’s a must to cope with that and put it into context as a result of the subsequent individual wants you.”
Ponnet additionally volunteered his time to preside over the annual ceremony and burial of the unclaimed useless in Boyle Heights, throughout which a whole lot of L.A. County residents are buried collectively.
“Chris Ponnet was, at the start, a person of God,” his sister-in-law Daybreak mentioned. “All the pieces he did was guided by the message of Jesus Christ — to like others, to look after them, and to be variety.”
Ponnet was born in 1957 at then Garfield Hospital in Monterey Park.
He was the youngest of eight youngsters for folks Mary and Frank J. Ponnet, who lived in Temple Metropolis.
His father fought in World Conflict II’s Battle of the Bulge and got here dwelling to function a mailman, earlier than dying of a coronary heart assault in 1961. Needing earnings, his mom served as a registered nurse for greater than twenty years at Alhambra Hospital.
“We grew up as a religious Catholic household that believed in going to Mass weekly, that believed in household first,” mentioned Elizabeth Ponnet, 78, one in every of Chris Ponnet’s 4 sisters. “We believed in serving to out and I believe Chris actually believed in that.”
Ponnet was as an altar server at St. Luke’s Church, the place he attended elementary and center faculty.
In eighth grade, Ponnet recited Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve a dream” speech for a category undertaking.
“That’s after I thought he can be concerned in service and serving to individuals for the remainder of his life,” his sister Elizabeth mentioned.
Ponnet adopted his brother, Frank A. Ponnet, into the now-defunct Our Girl Queen of Angels Minor Seminary in San Fernando and later into St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo.
The place Frank veered into a lifetime of instructing, Chris continued his path into the priesthood.
“He cherished God and I all the time thought he would change into a priest,” his brother Jim, 74, mentioned. “He all the time needed to assist.”
Ponnet was ordained as a priest on Dec. 3, 1983, and commenced his ministry at Our Girl of the Valley in Canoga Park and Our Girl of the Assumption in Claremont earlier than serving 30-plus years because the pastor of St. Camillus.
He championed a wide range of causes via a sturdy and politically lively life. In 1990, he pressured former GOP Rep. David Dreier of La Verne to chop army help to El Salvador throughout that nation’s civil conflict.
He known as the first Gulf Conflict “unjust” and, because the pacifist director of the Catholic Peace Coalition, led a quick towards the conflict’s glorification.
He additionally took stands on native points, such because the legalization of Pomona card rooms, whereas he led the archdiocese’s homosexual and lesbian ministry and AIDS ministry.
One in every of his many ardour tasks was the combat towards the demise penalty. He was a board member of Loss of life Penalty Watch, a company whose objective is to abolish the punishment.
“He was all the time organizing and all the time on the streets,” mentioned Mike Farrell, the previous actor and a Loss of life Penalty Watch advocate.
Ponnet’s advocacy led to his arrest at the least 30 instances, in line with the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
But, greater than the activism, it’s Ponnet’s humility that can persist with him, Farrell mentioned.
Loss of life Penalty Watch hosts an annual gala on the Skirball Cultural Heart throughout which it honors people who’ve fought to rescind the demise penalty.
At every of these occasions, Ponnet would typically discover himself helping others.
“He would pull out chairs, he would direct individuals to tables and do no matter was wanted,” Farrell mentioned. “There’s nobody like him.”
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