HOME

About Us \| Contact Us



		Life & Times Transcript 04/11/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- MTA crews unearthed dozens of human remains during construction. Why would anyone care about a few old bones? Irvin Lai>> This is not Chinese history. This is American history. I want them to understand that. Sofia Quinones>> It's the desecration of families. Val Zavala>> And then, all creatures great and small take part in a colorful Los Angeles tradition. We visit the annual Blessing of the Animals. These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> Holy Week is not just a special time for Christians. It's a special time for all God's creatures, including pets. Patt Morrison explains. These are my only children that don't talk back. Our cat's kind of riled up all the time and Caitlin over here decided maybe this will go ahead and take a little bit off of him. Sometimes Chulo is a bad boy, so I tell him you got to go and get blessed every once in a while. Patt Morrison>> This mural is called "The Blessing of the Animals". It's by Los Angeles artist, Leo Politi, who is known for painting, among other things, "Angels Flight". Now this mural was painted in the 1970's, but the Blessing of the Animals has been an event here on Olvera street since 1930. Those, of course, were the days before dog shrinks and cat psychiatrists, so the only recourse for a behavioral problem was to bring them down to the Blessing of the Animals. Cardinal Roger Mahony>> "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Lord, our God, who has filled the earth with a great diversity of animals, You who have created them with magnanimity and paternally given them to us, You who ordered Noah to gather them into the ark and have destined them for our service, hear our prayer today. We ask You to protect these animals, to bless them so that they may rejoice in Your presence. Help us so that we may honor You with them. Give us the knowledge and the virtue to take care of them and use them well and wisely for Your greater honor and glory. We ask this through Christ our Lord." Patt Morrison>> This is Osgood. When people ask me what kind of dog Osgood is, I say he's a Highland Collie because if I were going to design a Highland Collie, this is what it would look like. But actually, Osgood is a mutt, a Heinz 57, although I think in more politically correct America, we have to call them multi-cultural canines. As you can see, this multi-cultural canine is a little bit on stress overload. I think he likes bagpipes better than Mariachi and certainly isn't accustomed to this much company, but he'll come out of the blessing better than he went into it, I hope. Won't you? Is that right? Oh, you got to see this. She loves to get her nails done. Patt Morrison>> Here we go. I think he got a kick out of that. Yeah, there we go. See? You feel better now? Patt Morrison>> There were so many people and so many pets and creatures here today that the Cardinal wore out his aspergillum, the silver thing full of holy water with which he splashed everybody, and one of his assistants had to run over to a bush and break off some branches and he used that. Actually, that's not quite true. The aspergillum clogged up and they had to go to the branches. You know, Los Angeles, hard water. Cardinal Roger Mahony>> We've seen the diversity of God's creation and the animals bring us so much love and companionship and they're such a great help for all of us, from little tiny ones to the great big ones. Patt Morrison>> There were some huge ones, yes. Cardinal Roger Mahony>> There were some big ones today. Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.