Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Unbroken Spirits : Religion: Despite damage to their church, Mary Immaculate Catholic Church parishioners still worship--in the parking lot.

Nothing can keep Angie Alvarado away from Mass at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima--not even the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that devastated the church, forcing parishioners to worship in the parking lot.

“I have been in the Valley for 43 years and this has been my parish all our lives,” said Alvarado, 64, who recently celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary with husband Manuel at the church. “We have good memories here. And we hopefully will have more.”

Since the Jan. 17 temblor, parishioners have come by the hundreds to worship at the church on Sundays. First, they met on the field at the adjoining church school, also heavily damaged in the quake.

When it rained, they congregated in a tent. Now they are meeting in a metal structure erected in the parking lot that will house the congregation for the next year while the church and school are being rebuilt.

The women still wear their high-heeled shoes and the men wear ties. Some parishioners bring their own chairs; others stand for the hourlong service. Most don’t think twice about kneeling on the asphalt.

Alvarado said no natural disaster could break the spirit of the loyal parish. She has seen her two children marry at the church and has three grandchildren enrolled at the school.

“And besides, when you are here, you are here for God,” Alvarado said.

“They have a sense of belonging here and they want to keep that,” said Father Tom Rush, pastor of the large Latino and mostly low- income congregation. “We didn’t chose for it to be this way, but God has given it to us and we will go forward.”

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The parish will apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid through the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese and hopes to raise the rest of the money it will take to rebuild, Rush said.

It will take about $2 million to rebuild the school and much more money for a new church, officials said. Parish leaders hope the church building can be repaired, Rush said.

Despite the destruction, the church is still providing funeral, wedding and quincenera services for its more than 10,000 parishioners, Rush said. These services are being held in the parish hall, a small building that withstood the earthquake but can hold only about 300 people--insufficient for the some 1,500 worshipers who attend each of the nine masses held on Sundays.

“I never did think that this would happen,” said Anita M. Ramirez, 76, of Pacoima, who has been a parish member since the church was organized in 1951. “It is very painful because when you love your church and you have everything you need there, it is kind of hard.”

As a member of the church’s Guadalupanos, she helps organize fund-raisers for the parish, including a monthly menudo brunch.

But since the earthquake, selling menudo and all other fund-raising activities have been halted and the 45-member group is concentrating on raising money to rebuild the church.

“Right away people give donations, even if they are poor,” she said.

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The elementary school attached to the church and built by parishioners in the 1950s suffered severe quake damage and will be demolished this week, Rush said.

For the next few months, students are sharing classrooms with students at St. Ferdinand’s Catholic School in San Fernando. They will return to Mary Immaculate when 10 portable classrooms are set up.

“We miss the school a lot,” said Ricky Hernandez, 11, a sixth-grader and parish altar boy. “It is pretty sad for me because I have been here since the first grade.”

“The children keep asking when they are going to come back,” said Sister Virginia San Roman, the school’s principal. “They want to come back here because this is their home.”

Last week, about 100 past and present parishioners reunited in the parish hall to remember the school before it is demolished.

Becky Aguilar, 34, of Sylmar, came with her two children--partly to give them a chance to say goodby to their school--but also for herself.

“I came here in 1965 for first grade,” she said to those assembled. “It was kind of weird once you graduate because you think you will never come back. But I am a traditionalist--I have my two kids here now. It is sad they are going to tear the school down because I have a lot of fond memories here.”

As parishioners applauded Aguilar’s comments, Cindy Padilla, 31, of Arleta, raised her hand to speak.

“My grandmother and grandfather helped build this school,” she said. “My children come to this school and I think as long as our kids are here and they are OK, there is still a school.”

“The building was only a symbol of something; what is most important are the people,” Rush told parishioners, as they quietly nodded in agreement.

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Later, over cookies and punch, Priscilla Hernandez, 45, reminisced about the school.

“I was here the first day the school opened,” she said. “My father helped build the church; I was married here, and my two children were baptized here.”

Although she is no longer a parish member, she said she had to see the school one last time.

“You get the chills when you see the church and you want to cry,” said Hernandez’s mother, Angelina Marez, 70.

Hernandez and Marez took pictures of the school to send to family members in San Jose who once attended the church and who were devastated when they heard of its fate.