Founded: 1904
Location: 1039 North Broadway, Los Angeles
Our Lady of the Angels Region: Deanery 14

Why was Broadway once called Eternity Street? Simple answer: It ended at the cemetery, the one on Fort Moore near the present Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

The first diocesan cemetery was also on Broadway, north of Eternity Street on Buenavista. Calvary Cemetery (north of Eternity) started around 1844 and a memorial chapel was built of red sandstone in 1890. This bit of nostalgic news from yesteryear also contributes to the history of St. Peter Italian Church, founded more than a century ago in what was once known as "Little Italy" north of downtown Los Angeles.

Bishop Thomas Conaty appointed Father Tito Piacentini administrator of St. Peter's in 1904 "to produce good Catholics according to Italian tradition." A small frame structure on North Spring (called "Calle Primavera") served the Italian community for 11 years. In 1915 St. Peter's moved to North Broadway (at the foot of the Elysian Hills) and the memorial chapel (from 1890) became their church as the new Calvary Cemetery was established on 150 acres at the eastern edge of the city.

During those early years, St. Peter's embraced not only the Italians of the area but virtually all of the nearby Catholic community. It was the Italians, though, who began to come from many outlying areas to find their familiar devotions and social and cultural life embodied at St. Peter's.

In its first 28 years, nine different priests administered the church, followed by the Claretian Fathers (1932-54). It was during that first half century that another interesting link to St. Peter's unique history happened.

Atop of a small hill on Effie Street in the Chavez Ravine area was a small mission chapel reached by walking up Bishops Road from Broadway. During the 1930s a Claretian priest from Germany, Father Thomas Matin, ministered to this isolated community. In 1939 he opened San Conrado Mission in the isolated Solano Avenue community by Elysian Park, and returned in 1959 to minister at San Conrado, where in 1967 he opened a new church building. Father Matin died in 1975 at age 75, but San Conrado Mission is still served from St. Peter's today.

St. Peter's, meanwhile, experienced many changes: attendance dwindled, families moved and the economy shifted. In 1944, the old church was gutted by fire as votive candles set on the altar ignited the cloth and the entire structure was quickly engulfed. The Italian community, without a church, held services in the old hall.

With financial and spiritual assistance from Archbishop John Cantwell, the hall was moved to a new location so a new church could be built during the pastorate of Claretian Father Michael Cecere. It was completed in 1947.

The first canonical pastor, Father William Salvatore Vita, served St. Peter's from 1954 to 1961 (he died in 1964). For the golden jubilee in 1955, a new public address system was installed and a 950-pound bronze bell for the church was donated by the Madonna Constantinopoli Society.

In 1961 the parish was offered to the Missionary Fathers of St. Charles (the Scalabrini Fathers) whose mission was to work with and serve Italian people who had immigrated. Pastors, beginning with Father Joseph Chiminello, accomplished many improvements. Father Luigi Donanzan reached out from the local community to embrace Italian-Americans in all of Southern California. The events and activities he inaugurated during his 17-year pastorate completely revitalized the parish, highlighted by the 1972 completion of Casa Italiana, the cultural and social center.

Subsequent pastors have included Father Adolph Nalin, for nine years (he died in 1988 at age 72); Father Rino Spada, from Venice, for six years (died in 2003); Father Giovanni Bizzotto, who served 1998-2006; and, since 2006, the current pastor, Father Raniero Alessandini from Rome.

For more than 100 years the church, founded on a rock just like St. Peter, has survived tumultuous changes and still strives to serve the Italian community as well as reaching out to all who cling to the faith as the did its patron apostle. The Bark of St. Peter, enshrined as the altar and more than 25 beautiful statues of saints placed throughout the parish, are evidence that a colorful Los Angeles Catholic tradition thrives.