At noon, parishioners gathered on the front steps of a school that no longer exists as they once knew it.
The address remains — 880 Toyopa Drive — but nearly everything else is gone.
Standing before them, Monsignor Liam Kidney, now 81 years old, offers prayers to commemorate the devastating Palisades fire and the loss of Corpus Christi Church, its school, and the community they anchored for generations. In the evening, he was set to serve as celebrant at a Mass of Remembrance and Reflection at St. Monica Parish, welcoming parishioners who have been living without a home church for a year.
He, like so many of his parishioners, are still processing the catastrophe of exactlty one year ago.
“It still feels unreal,” Father Kidney said. “Even though it happened, there’s an out-of-body quality to it. You drive through the neighborhood and lose your orientation.”
For 27 years, he knew every corner of Pacific Palisades – every street, every home, every familiar marker that quietly told him where he was. Now, when he drives through the burn zone, those reference points are gone.
“Everything that told you where you were is gone,” he said. “And that loss of orientation isn’t just geographic. It’s mental. It’s emotional. People are searching for an anchor.”
Corpus Christi Church and School were that anchor. When the fire erased them, it left behind more than physical destruction. It left a community grappling with displacement, identity, and the uncertainty of return.
In the immediate aftermath, certainty carried many forward.
“Most people were convinced they would rebuild,” Father Kidney recalled. “Then reality set in – insurance, city processes, finances. People started asking whether rebuilding was the right decision for their families in the long run.”
Nearly everyone wanted to come back, but wanting and being able to were not the same.
The most painful moments, he says, involved the elderly – parishioners who had spent 50, 60, even 70 years rooted in the Palisades.
“They were the ones with the deepest roots,” he said. “And many realized they weren’t going to rebuild. Their future suddenly became very bleak.”
At 81, Father Kidney could have stepped back. Instead, he chose to stay.
Without walls or pews, he focused on the one thing he could still rebuild immediately: connection. Every phone call returned. Every email answered. Every effort made to ensure people knew they were not alone.
“You try not to let tragedy become routine,” he said. “This wasn’t something you acknowledge and move on from. People were hurting, and they still are.”
Parishioners gathered on the steps of Corpus Christi Catholic Church for a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Parishioners gathered on the steps of Corpus Christi Catholic Church for a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Rev. Msgr. Liam Kidney of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church delivers a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Parishioners gathered at the church steps for a noon service. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Rev. Msgr. Liam Kidney of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church delivers a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Parishioners gathered at the church steps for a noon service. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Parishioners gathered on the steps of Corpus Christi Catholic Church for a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 5Parishioners gathered on the steps of Corpus Christi Catholic Church for a message of hope on the anniversary of the Palisades fire on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. The church has been closed since it was damaged in the fire. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) ExpandToday, the Corpus Christi community gathers every Sunday at the Carondelet Center convent chapel above Bundy Drive, a borrowed space that has become sacred ground.
“That chapel has been a blessing,” Father Kidney said. “Those sisters have been our salvation. Our people are loyal. We had a beautiful Christmas there. The numbers show up. That’s grace.”
Worshipping without a permanent home has reshaped the community’s understanding of faith itself. Without walls, the parish has learned that church is not a place people go, but something they carry into borrowed chapels, onto school steps, and through the long uncertainty of rebuilding.
As the months passed, Father Kidney found his own prayers evolving.
“At first, I asked God for patience,” he said. “Then I realized patience wasn’t enough. I needed perseverance, and so do our people.”
Full live coverage, 1-year anniversary hereHis message to parishioners has remained steady and unsentimental.
“The struggle isn’t going to disappear,” he tells them. “The only thing that will change is that the struggle will get tougher. So don’t give up.”
Hope, for Father Kidney, is not about pretending things will be easy. It is about continuing anyway.
Corpus Christi is now in the master-planning phase of rebuilding, working with Albert C. Martin to reimagine the parish campus. The vision looks forward, not backward.
“We’re rebuilding for a Palisades that doesn’t exist right now,” Father Kidney said. “But in 20 years, it will, and we have to be there for those people.”
The parish hopes to reopen Corpus Christi School in September 2026, a commitment Father Kidney speaks about carefully and honestly. The question he hears most often is not when the school will reopen, but who will be there to fill its classrooms.
“That’s the great uncertainty,” he said. “So many families are still displaced. Some don’t know if they’ll ever return. You can’t ignore that reality.”
Still, the commitment remains.
Reopening the school, Father Kidney explains, is not about guaranteed enrollment. It is about making a promise that when families are ready to come back, the school will be there waiting for them.
“If we don’t plan for the future,” he said, “then we’ve already surrendered it.”
A formal financial campaign has not yet launched, but Father Kidney is clear in his invitation.
“If anyone wants to participate in rebuilding Corpus Christi, we would welcome that,” he said.
He credits community leaders, including Rick Caruso, for offering both emotional and practical support throughout the past year.
“He truly believes the Palisades will come back,” Father Kidney says. “That belief matters.”
As noon approaches, parishioners will gather on the steps of their lost parish – not to reopen a building, but to face what was taken together. The gathering is not passive remembrance, but a collective act of courage.
At 81, Father Kidney is still showing up – still standing with a community without walls, still choosing service over retreat.
“When people lose their bearings,” he said, “they look for something that tells them where they are.”
One year after the fire, Corpus Christi remains without walls, but not without faith, not without perseverance, and not without a future.
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