St. Peter Church in Los Angeles will celebrate its centennial Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. with Cardinal Roger Mahony as main celebrant. An outdoor reception will follow.

St. Peter Church has served the Italian-American community for decades. The Sunday 11 a.m. Mass is celebrated in Italian and numerous popular religious Italian holidays and feast days are observed throughout the year.

"We have a sense of pride for the faith, culture and traditions," said Scalabrini Father Giovanni Bizzotto, pastor. Casa Italiana, the parish social hall, is a point of identification for the community and a gathering place for myriad clubs and associations.

"People move away but they always come back," said Father Bizzotto. Today the parish neighborhood includes many Filipino and Chinese families, observed the pastor. Parish outreach programs serve food to the homeless and to recent immigrants and provide other social services, he added.

The Scalabrinis have been ministering the church since 1961. Recently the rectory, which serves as a house of discernment for the Scalabrini community, hosted eight seminarians attending school and participating in parish activities. The church has previously been served by Salesian, Claretian and diocesan priests.

St. Peter Church is located at 1039 N. Broadway.