When news first trickled out that Chris Ponnet, the longtime pastor of the St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care in Lincoln Heights, had died, images and condolences popped up online.
There was a photograph of him being arrested in 2011 at a blockade in downtown Los Angeles over the war in Afghanistan. Another image showed him at an anti-death-penalty rally holding a cross with the message “replace the death penalty” written across the center.
The condolences included one from Sacred Heart High School in Lincoln Heights, where he was praised as a “beloved presider and homilist at our masses.”
Ponnet is being remembered as a man who often served as the lone visitor to hundreds dying of COVID-19, who presided over an annual service honoring the unclaimed dead and who attended protests and was arrested dozens of times in the process.
For family members, though, he was “the person who cared most for us,” said his brother Jim.
The family announced Ponnet’s passing on Oct. 7 at the age of 68.
He is survived by his sisters Elizabeth and Mary Alice and brother Jim. He was an uncle to more than 20 nieces and nephews.
A viewing, rosary and vigil will be held at St. Luke’s in Temple City on Monday, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
The formal celebration of life funeral Mass is scheduled for Tuesday at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles at 10 a.m.
Both the viewing and funeral are open to the public, while the burial is private.
Ponnet spent the last 30 years as pastor of St. Camillus, which is across the street from USC’s health sciences campus.
There he served as the site administrator for the Urban Interfaith Chaplaincy Program, where he helped train the next generation of chaplains. He was also the director of the Los Angeles General Medical Center’s Office of Spiritual Care.
It was in the latter position that Ponnet attended to isolated COVID-19 patients during the pandemic’s first year.
Ponnet fully donned personal protective equipment — a helmet, mask and gown — and prayed with COVID patients in isolation when few others were allowed to enter, Connie Castro, spokesperson for the Los Angeles General Medical Center, said in a statement.
“Father Chris’s legacy is one of love, service, and unwavering faith,” the statement read. “Beloved by staff, patients, and the broader community, he leaves a void that will be deeply felt. His memory and the values he instilled will continue to inspire all who knew him.”
The first year of COVID-19 deeply affected Ponnet.
“I’ve journeyed with nine people on one day in death,” Ponnet said in March 2021. He added: “You have to deal with that and put it into context because the next person needs you.”
Ponnet also volunteered his time to preside over the annual ceremony and burial of the unclaimed dead in Boyle Heights, during which hundreds of L.A. County residents are buried together.
“Chris Ponnet was, first and foremost, a man of God,” his sister-in-law Dawn said. “Everything he did was guided by the message of Jesus Christ — to love others, to care for them, and to be kind.”
Ponnet was born in 1957 at then Garfield Hospital in Monterey Park.
He was the youngest of eight children for parents Mary and Frank J. Ponnet, who lived in Temple City.
His father fought in World War II’s Battle of the Bulge and came home to serve as a mailman, before dying of a heart attack in 1961. Needing income, his mother served as a registered nurse for more than two decades at Alhambra Hospital.
“We grew up as a devout Catholic family that believed in going to Mass weekly, that believed in family first,” said Elizabeth Ponnet, 78, one of Chris Ponnet’s four sisters. “We believed in helping out and I think Chris really believed in that.”
Ponnet was as an altar server at St. Luke’s Church, where he attended elementary and middle school.
In eighth grade, Ponnet recited Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech for a class project.
“That’s when I thought he would be involved in service and helping people for the rest of his life,” his sister Elizabeth said.
Ponnet followed his brother, Frank A. Ponnet, into the now-defunct Our Lady Queen of Angels Minor Seminary in San Fernando and later into St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo.
Where Frank veered into a life of teaching, Chris continued his path into the priesthood.
“He loved God and I always thought he would become a priest,” his brother Jim, 74, said. “He always wanted to help.”
Ponnet was ordained as a priest on Dec. 3, 1983, and began his ministry at Our Lady of the Valley in Canoga Park and Our Lady of the Assumption in Claremont before serving 30-plus years as the pastor of St. Camillus.
He championed a variety of causes through a robust and politically active life. In 1990, he pressured former GOP Rep. David Dreier of La Verne to cut military aid to El Salvador during that nation’s civil war.
He called the first Gulf War “unjust” and, as the pacifist director of the Catholic Peace Coalition, led a fast against the war’s glorification.
He also took stands on local issues, such as the legalization of Pomona card rooms, while he led the archdiocese’s gay and lesbian ministry and AIDS ministry.
One of his many passion projects was the fight against the death penalty. He was a board member of Death Penalty Watch, an organization whose goal is to abolish the punishment.
“He was always organizing and always on the streets,” said Mike Farrell, the former actor and a Death Penalty Watch advocate.
Ponnet’s advocacy led to his arrest at least 30 times, according to the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Yet, more than the activism, it’s Ponnet’s humility that will stick with him, Farrell said.
Death Penalty Watch hosts an annual gala at the Skirball Cultural Center during which it honors individuals who have fought to rescind the death penalty.
At each of those events, Ponnet would often find himself assisting others.
“He would pull out chairs, he would direct people to tables and do whatever was needed,” Farrell said. “There’s no one like him.”
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