The Board of Directors, Members and Associate Members of the Queen of Angels Foundation (the “Foundation”) strive together in a common endeavor to foster a more perfect life for themselves and their community by promoting reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose name, as Our Lady of the Angels, the City and Archdiocese of Los Angeles were founded, and whom our Popes and all Catholic Faithful have declared is Queen of Heaven and Empress of the Americas.
The Foundation seeks to educate, “E-vangelize” and re-evangelize the public regarding Our Lady of the Angels, the glorious Catholic heritage of Los Angeles, the Archangels St. Michael, St. Raphael, and St. Gabriel, and the Guardian Angels, and related devotional practices and their history by this website, www.queenofangels.com, and such announcements, articles and brochures as may be issued from time to time by the Foundation in support of its devotional and educational mission. By doing so, the Foundation seeks to foster a more perfect life in its Members, deepening their bond to Christ and His Church through Mary, the Theotokos, the Mother of God and Mother of all believers.
To further that end, the Foundation’s Members contribute their time, talent and treasure to organize, fund and implement an annual Procession, Mass and Feast in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on an appropriate Saturday on or near September 4th each year, the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Angels and the Birthday of the City of Our Lady of the Angels — when no comparable religious or civic celebration presently occurs — or at such other time as the Archbishop or appropriate Bishop shall designate. The Procession shall lead through the streets of Los Angeles to its Cathedral home, for culmination in the Sacred Liturgy of a Holy Mass in Her honor. A Feast (reception) in her honor will be held following the Mass.
By joining together prayerfully through these public forms of popular devotion – through our website and our Procession, Mass and Feast on September 4th or the nearest Saturday to the feast day of Our Lady of the Angels and the birthday of Los Angeles, the Foundation, its Board and Members hope to achieve several salutary objectives for themselves, all participants, and the entire community of Los Angeles. These objectives include, without limitation and without precedence in order, the following:
- Civic and Community Celebration: to celebrate the founding of the City of Los Angeles on September 4, 1781. The City of Los Angeles is named for Mary, Queen of Angels (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles). For approximately the first 100 years of the City’s history, citizens marked Los Angeles’ founding through processions and parades calling for God’s blessings and protection for our civic and religious leaders and inhabitants. By re-inaugurating this civic birthday celebration and ancient religious observance, we hope to honor the Southland’s history and heritage, celebrate our City’s accomplishments and diversity, and unite our multicultural community to face our common challenges.
- Devotion to Our Lady of the Angels: To reinstall Our Blessed Mother at the heart of the Archdiocese, City and County that bear her name. In doing so, it is our hope and prayer that God’s blessings and grace will shower upon our religious and civic leaders, and all of people of our community, helping all of us to bear our burdens more lightly, to face difficulties, disappointments, and temptations with patience and fortitude, to increase faith, hope and love, and to engender increased temperance, prudence and tolerance, in every human being, here and everywhere.
- New Evangelization and Apologetics: To make known the Catholic faith before all the world and to proclaim the praise of God, marking our willingness to dedicate ourselves to the New Evangelization under the banner of Our Lady, the “Star of the New Evangelization.” In doing so, we endeavor to rebuke rampant secularism and the other enemies of religion which diminish faith, hope and charity, serving as a concrete and beautiful form of apologetics, making God’s saving grace more visible in the lives of the faithful, following Mary to Her Son, Jesus Christ and renewed participation in the liturgical life of the Church, thereby bringing home those who have wandered from Her protection and Sacraments.
- Healing and Reconciliation: To invoke the Holy Spirit’s healing power to rally the Family of God to support our Church, Archdiocese, Archbishops, priests, other clergy and religious in the greater Los Angeles area, helping to heal the wounds of the Church through the common devotion to Our Lady, which surely is very powerful, leading the Faithful ever closer to Her Son, Jesus Christ and His Church.
- Fidelity and Obedience: To demonstrate obedience and fidelity to the wishes of the Popes, especially the most recent ones, while inspiring in both participants and witnesses works of piety and charity, and animating the temporal order of the City of Los Angeles with a renewed and more fervent Christian spirit, centered on the Sacred Liturgy of a Mass in honor of Our Lady of the Angels, thereby inspiring new vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.
- Blessings and Grace: To entreat the blessings of God upon our City, County and Archdiocese, and all their leaders and inhabitants, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Angels, Queen of Heaven and Empress of the Americas, and the Angelic Host whom she commands to fulfill the will of Her Son, Jesus Christ, King of Heaven. Uniting local Catholics of today with the ancient and ever-renewing practices of the Church in every age and country, we hope to bring together the diverse constituents of the Family of God in the greater Los Angeles area in joyful union around the feet of Our Lady of the Angels, invoking the grace and protection of Ss. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, the Guardian Angels, and the entire Seraphic Order of whom she is Queen.
- Ecumenism and Inter-religious Outreach: To foster interreligious and ecumenical outreach to all members of the multicultural community of Los Angeles, bringing them together for the celebration of the founding of our Pueblo in the name of Our Lady of the Angels, who is a symbol, guide and model for all humanity, a sure template of virtue and faith for everyone, regardless of race, creed, national origin, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, gender preference, or other apparent differences between the diverse children of Eve that make up humankind.