Founded: 1907
Location: 133 North Fifth Street, Burbank
San Fernando Region: Deanery 7
What could possibly be the connection between a 17th century Italian cardinal and a 20th century church built in Burbank? Strangely enough, a definite link exists between the two that uniquely distinguishes St. Robert Bellarmine Church.
The Italian cardinal was St. Robert Bellarmine, also known as Roberto Francis Romulus Bellarmino, the third of ten children in a family of impoverished nobles who became a Jesuit priest. As a pastor, he learned that "Charity is that with which no one is lost, and without which no one is saved."
By the time he died in 1621, Cardinal-Archbishop Bellarmine was already recognized as an outstanding scholar, preacher, writer and theologian. Through his exhaustive apologetic work against the prevailing heretics of the day, he established the democratic principle that authority originates with God, is vested in the people and who in turn entrust it to fit rulers. His intellect was so great, in fact, that his work was thought to be that of a team of scholars.
The saint was also the spiritual father of St. Aloysius Gonzaga and helped St. Francis de Sales obtain approval of the Visitation Order. A doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine is the patron of canon lawyers and catechists; his feast day is commemorated on September 17.
Among those most profoundly influenced by this saint's work was Thomas Jefferson, whose main criteria for the Declaration of Independence was based on St. Robert's dictum written in 1567: "All men are equal, not in wisdom or in grace, but in the essence and nature of mankind." Little wonder that, two centuries later, Jefferson reflected that ideal and the principle of authority in the legendary U.S. document.
So when Holy Trinity Parish in Burbank was renamed in 1939, it was more than fitting that the patriotic pastor, Msgr. Martin Cody Keating --- an Army chaplain in World War I --- honored both the Italian Jesuit saint and the American Episcopalian patriot by using colonial architecture for all its buildings: church, rectory, high school (named, of course, Bellarmine-Jefferson) and grammar school.
Interior and exterior features of the parish buildings were modeled on Jefferson's home in Monticello (the church façade) and Independence Hall in Philadelphia (the high school), as Father Keating sought to express both the policies of the founders of the republic and St. Robert's Christian political doctrine.
Few records remain of the parish's origins in 1907. Father Edward Wright was first of five pastors before the appointment of Connecticut-born Msgr. Keating in 1930, by which time the parish included all of Burbank, Sun Valley and areas in San Fernando Valley.
Msgr. Keating (who died in 1971 at age 88) served St. Robert Bellarmine for 37 of his 62 years of priesthood, all during which he was a champion of labor and war veterans, and well known for his loving charity. He had presided over the 50th anniversary marking the first Mass in the original chapel, celebrated by Father James O'Neil, then pastor of Holy Family, Glendale, and attended by Mother (later Saint) Frances Xavier Cabrini. Msgr. Keating referred to a plaque commemorating the attendance of Mother Cabrini and her comment: "I shall never forget this place. The mountains remind me of home."
From 1969 to 1986, Msgr. Paul Seday of Kansas, headed the parish. He was an alumnus of St. John's Seminary, ordained in 1945. Msgr. Seday had served as an associate pastor for four years before his appointment as pastor. He retired in 1986 and died in 1989 at age 70.
For 16 years Msgr. Patrick Reilly, a native of County Longford, Ireland, headed the Burbank parish and oversaw a seven-month remodeling process in 1990. The interior of the church was completely updated, confessionals were widened to allow wheelchair entry, and Father Donal Keohane designed six of the new windows for the church. Msgr. Reilly retired in 2002 as pastor emeritus and resides at the parish.
The current pastor is Father Lawrence Signey, born in County Durham, England, and ordained in 1987. This is his first pastorate. |