Los Angeles • Emmanuel Perez was about 15 years old when he decided the Catholic faith was not for him.
Perez’s cousin had just died in a car crash and his mother drove from her Santa Ana home in Orange County to Tulare near Fresno to help prepare the body for the viewing. She wanted to “be there for her in her last moments,” said Perez, 23.
Because his mom had divorced his father and lived with her new partner without getting married, Perez’s aunt didn’t consider her “holy enough” to be near her niece’s body.