Our Parish community seeks to provide a welcoming environment of Catholic worship, evangelization, and fellowship, growing in God’s love and grace. We seek to share this loving grace to those most in need and to use our various gifts and talents, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to build up the body of Christ.


Our Lady of Lourdes Church (Parish) (“OLL”) is located at 9970 California City Blvd., California City, CA. California City is roughly 100 miles north of Los Angeles in the Western Mojave Desert, north of Hwy 58 and east of Hwy 14, roughly 35 miles east of Tehachapi. Nearby communities are Mojave to the southwest, Edwards AFB to the southeast, and Boron to the East. (See Contact/Find Us for map.)



St. Joseph Mission (“SJM”) is located at 12456 Boron Ave., Boron, CA. Boron is in the Western Mojave Desert along Hwy 58 and roughly six miles west of the “Four Corners” intersection with Hwy 395. It is roughly 35 minutes between Our Lady of Lourdes Church and St. Joseph Mission. (See Contact/Find Us for map.)

Our Parish is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, California, within the High Desert Vicariate. 

Our Pastor is Father Kris Sorenson, who is also the High Desert Vicar (V.F.) for the Fresno Diocese. Fr. Kris has led the Parish since 2010. He also currently also serves as Administrator of St. Mary of the Desert Church in Rosamond and St. Francis of Assisi Mission in Mojave, thus having responsibility for a total of four churches within a radius of roughly 35 miles. (Keep praying for more priestly vocations in our diocese!) In addition, he brings the sacraments to the inmates at the California City Correctional Center.

The Parish Office for both OLL and SJM is located in California City, so mail, telephone, fax, and email all come to the same location:

Mailing:                                           P. O. Box 2060, California City, CA 93504-2060
Telephone:                                    (760) 373-2256
Fax:                                                   (760) 373-2206
Parish Email:                               [email protected]
Bookkeeper Email:                   [email protected]

Office Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM, and Friday 8:30 AM - 12:00 Noon.

Parish Staff includes a Secretary, Bookkeeper, Director of Religious Education (DRE), and various volunteers.

DONATIONS: If you would like to make a donation to the Parish, go to the Donate page.

If you would like to receive email or text messages from the Parish about what is going on in the Parish, please go to the Sign Up to Stay in Touch page.

Who Is Our Lady of Lourdes?

From February 11 to July 16, 1858, St. Bernadette Soubirous – then a poor, asthmatic girl of 14 living in Lourdes, France – saw several apparitions of a “beautiful lady” while she was gathering firewood next a river about a mile from town. The townspeople assumed it was the Blessed Virgin Mary but Bernette just called her the “Beautiful Lady” until, at the urging of the parish priest, Bernatte asked her who she was and she answered, “I am the Immaculate Concepcion.” In other words, the one conceived in purity, without sin. Many documented miracles of healing have occurred at Lourdes and it is is now a major pilgrimage site. 

On the centenary of the apparitions, Pope Pius XII wrote the encyclical Le pèlerinage de Lourdes about Lourdes in which he said:

In the school of Mary one can learn to live, not only to give Christ to the world, but also to await with faith the hour of Jesus, and to remain with Mary at the foot of the cross.... Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery, defenseless against the hardships of life and the indifference of men. Go to her, you who are assailed by sorrows and moral trials. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are sincerely welcomed and honored at Lourdes as the suffering members of our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of heart, strength for your daily duties, joy for the sacrifice you offer.