Alice Callaghan (born circa 1947, Calgary, Alberta) is an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

priest and a former Roman Catholic nun. She is also an advocate of the homeless and impoverished people of downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Early years

Her family moved from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

when she was a small child. Diminutive and athletic, she became a proficient surfer in

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

. She attended college and became a nun. She left the convent in order to become an Episcopalian priest. Seeing the grinding poverty of skid row, she decided to "make erselfuseful there."

Activism

Callaghan participated in anti-war protests during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Callaghan founded Las Familias del Pueblo, a Skid Row community center, in June 1981 in a one-room storefront near the neighborhood. She remained its director as of 2021, when it moved to a larger building. She also founded the SRO Housing Trust. As of 1982, she was an associate minister at All Saints Episcopal Church in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

. In May 1983, she led a protest demanding that the city of Los Angeles install a traffic light on one block of Sixth Street, citing concerns for children crossing the street in the area. In the late 1990s, Callaghan worked as a tutor for young Latino immigrant students. In 1998, she supported Proposition 227, which largely dismantled California's bilingual education system, on the grounds that Spanish-speaking students were not being taught English nor receiving an equivalent education to English-speaking students.

References

1940s births Living people 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century American Episcopal priests 21st-century American women Activists from Los Angeles American anti-poverty advocates American anti-war activists American homelessness activists Canadian emigrants to the United States Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism People from Calgary {{US-reli-bio-stub People from Newport Beach, California