St. Francis Xavier Chapel in Downtown Los Angeles
St. Francis Xavier Chapel - Japanese Catholic Center sits on South Hewitt Street in downtown Los Angeles, in the neighborhood that has long served as a gathering place for Japanese Americans. The chapel traces its beginnings to a Mass said on Christmas Day 1912 and is described by the parish as the last remaining Japanese Catholic center in the United States. A bilingual Mass chapel, it also carries the older name that many neighbors still use, the Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center. Its ministry centers on Japanese-speaking Catholics and reaches out to English-speaking parishioners, Nikkei families, and the wider downtown community.
The Mission
The parish summarizes its calling in one paragraph: "We of Saint Francis Xavier Chapel, as members of the Body of Christ, are called to announce in word and in deed the Good News of the Lord Jesus, through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We recognize our community's call to holiness based on mutuality, reciprocity, and interdependence and its ministry focusing on Japanese Catholics while also welcoming all in our greater community."
Masses in Japanese and English
The central rhythm of the chapel is a bilingual Mass schedule. On Sundays, an 8:30 a.m. Mass is celebrated in Japanese, followed by a 10 a.m. Mass in English. Saturday evening at 5 p.m. brings a Vigil Mass in English. Weekday Masses are celebrated Tuesday through Friday at 12:05 p.m. in English, though the parish notes that weekday Masses are subject to change due to funerals or illness. Confessions are heard Tuesday through Friday at 11:30 a.m. and by appointment. The chapel also gathers on the first Saturday of each month for the First Saturday Devotion, beginning with a 9 a.m. Mass followed by the Rosary and Divine Mercy, with confessions afterward. During cold, flu, and COVID season the parish asks anyone feeling unwell to stay home; masks are optional, and hand sanitizer is available in the worship space.
The Seven Sacraments
St. Francis Xavier Chapel prepares the faithful for and celebrates all seven Catholic sacraments. Baptism is presented as the gateway to the Christian life, the moment when the community welcomes a new member into the family of God and the parents or godparents commit to raising the child in the Catholic faith. First Communion is a two-year program for children that begins each September. Reconciliation is heard in confession Tuesday through Friday at 11:30 a.m. Confirmation is a two-year program for high school students, and baptized Catholic adults preparing for confirmation also follow a tailored track. Couples planning a wedding are asked to contact the office at least six months before the desired date. The Anointing of the Sick is celebrated after the Thursday noon Mass, and the rectory welcomes inquiries about the Sacrament of Holy Orders for men considering a religious vocation.
Sunday School and OCIA
Children ages three through seventeen gather in the Activity Center each Sunday morning at 8:45 a.m. for religious education, before joining the parish for the 10 a.m. Mass. A Japanese-language Sunday school runs alongside the English track. First Communion preparation is a two-year program; grades three through six meet in their own classroom; grades seven and eight meet together; and high school students follow the two-year Confirmation program. Classes run from September through May or June, and enrollment is open at any time during the year.
Adults who want to learn about the Catholic faith, prepare for Baptism, Confirmation, or First Communion, or simply explore the tradition are invited to OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. OCIA classes meet Wednesday evenings from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Online participation is available for those who cannot travel downtown on a weeknight. Classes meet once a week from August to April in a flexible rhythm, and all reading materials are available online at no cost. A short orientation opens each new cycle.
Parish Ministries and Groups
A network of lay groups supports the life of the chapel. The Auxiliary, formed by parishioners in October 2008, organizes spiritual and social activities, supports parish fundraisers, and welcomes anyone interested in joining. The Maryknoll Ladies Guild, one of the chapel's oldest service organizations, hosts social activities and workshops, stocks an annual boutique, and welcomes women of all ages. Maria Kai is the local chapter of the Legion of Mary, an international lay association that performs spiritual works of mercy in Japanese and English. Boy Scout Troop 145, founded more than eighty years ago by the Maryknoll Fathers, continues to meet Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the upstairs clubroom. The Maryknoll Karate Club has taught Shotokan Karate in the tradition of Sensei Tsutomu Ohshima since 1963, with classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:15 to 9 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 10 a.m. in the Auditorium; beginners age ten and older are welcome. The Maryknoll of Los Angeles Federal Credit Union has served parishioners and their immediate families for more than seventy-five years, with its office open Sundays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Activity Center.
A Century on Hewitt Street
The first Japanese-language Mass in California was celebrated on Christmas Day 1912 in the Settlement House at 711 Jackson Street by Father Albert Breton, a priest sent from the Diocese of Hakodate by Bishop Alexander Berlioz in response to a letter from a Japanese Catholic man who could not find a priest who spoke his language. Los Angeles then had a population of about 300,000, including roughly 10,000 Japanese residents. In 1915, eight women arrived from Nagasaki to assist the mission, and the work settled at 133 South Hewitt Street, not far from the present Zenshu-ji Temple. The Maryknoll Fathers took charge of the mission in the early 1920s, and Maryknoll School was dedicated in 1921; by 1922 it enrolled 200 children. The school building on South Hewitt Street was expanded through the 1930s, the current chapel was completed in 1939, and the rectory and auditorium were added later that decade.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Maryknoll priests, brothers, and sisters accompanied Japanese and Japanese American Catholics into the internment camps. When the war ended, the community returned and the mission resumed under Father Hugh Lavery, who had led it since 1935. The school building aged out of city safety codes, and a new Maryknoll school was dedicated in May 1964. Enrollment fell through the 1970s and 1980s as Japanese American families moved out of the area; by 1994 only three parish families still had children enrolled. The school closed, and the property was rededicated in September 1995 as the Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center, with pastoral care for Japanese and English speakers at its heart. In 2006, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles asked that the original name of the chapel be restored, and the parish became known once again as St. Francis Xavier Chapel - Japanese Catholic Center. Christmas Day 2012 marked the centennial, celebrated with a Mass con-celebrated by Archbishop Jose Gomez and Father Richard Hoynes and a luncheon at Stevens Steakhouse in the City of Commerce; the following October a centennial photo album was published.
The neighborhood around the chapel has changed with the wider transformation of downtown Los Angeles. New condominiums, apartment buildings, and artists' lofts have come up around the parish, and the area is now dotted with restaurants. The pandemic in 2020 suspended in-person worship; Masses resumed in the auditorium in May 2020 and outdoors in June 2020, with Sunday Mass video-streamed during the closure, before indoor weekend Masses returned in June 2021.
Devotion to Our Lady of Akita
St. Francis Xavier Chapel carries a particular devotion to Our Lady of Akita, the apparition recognized by Bishop John Shojiro Ito of Niigata in 1984 and given further endorsement by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1988. The parish recounting of the events notes that a small wooden statue of Mary carved in 1963 in Akita shed tears on different occasions over six years and eight months, witnessed by more than five hundred people. The visionary, Sister Agnes Sasagawa, received the stigmata, three messages, and a healing of deafness. The chapel keeps this devotion as a reminder of the long history of Catholic faith in Japan.
The Pastor: Father Toshio Sato, C.M.
The chapel's current administrator is Father Toshio Francesco Sato, C.M., a Vincentian missionary priest of the Congregation of the Mission who began serving St. Francis Xavier Chapel on August 1, 2026. Originally from Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan, Father Sato is the first Japanese Vincentian priest in the history of the Congregation, ordained on June 27, 2013 in St. Louis by Bishop David M. O'Connell. His ministry has taken him through parishes in Texas and Arkansas and across Vincentian missions in Bolivia, and he served as Vocation Director for the Vincentians in the Western Province before his arrival in Los Angeles. He speaks Japanese, English, and Spanish. He succeeds Father Doan Hoang, S.J., who served St. Francis Xavier Chapel from July 2015 with events such as the Spirit of Aloha and the St. Francis Xavier Festival and parish Bible Study, and who completed his assignment on August 1, 2026 after eleven years of service.
Visiting St. Francis Xavier Chapel
The chapel stands at 222 South Hewitt Street in Los Angeles. Visitors coming for Sunday worship can choose an 8:30 a.m. Japanese Mass or a 10 a.m. English Mass, both followed by time for fellowship in the parish hall. The parish office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Phone (213) 626-2279 or email info@sfxcjcc.org connect visitors with the rectory. Family registration, baptism, first communion, and sacramental records forms are available online; sacramental records are released with a suggested ten-dollar donation per certificate after identification is verified, and three to four business days are needed to research and process each request. The Spaghetti Harvest Festival, the annual Blessing of the Animals, and the St. Francis Xavier Feast Day Festival and Craft Fair bring the parish together through the year.