Bishop to bless new mausoleum

Huntington Beach Catholics can rest assured that when their time comes, there will be a place for them with the completion of the Resurrection Garden Mausoleum.

The Diocese of Orange spent $12.8 million to build the mausoleum to accommodate the needs of the next 75 years or more. The above-ground mausoleum has 1,998 crypts, 1,300 cremation niches and 34 semi-private family estate alcoves in Good Shepherd Cemetery at 8301 Talbert Ave.

The changes are part of the master plan for the Huntington Beach cemetery to maximize the length of its usage, said Mike Wesner, director of Diocesan cemeteries. The renovations also give Catholics more options for how they want to be laid to rest, Wesner said.

“It gives us more space and more life to the cemetery,” he said.

Wesner said he hasn’t seen an increase in demand for space, but the existing land was filling up. There are still about 10 acres left of undeveloped space in the Good Shepherd Cemetery, he said.

Part of the project was improving or upgrading the infrastructure to the site. New sidewalks and gates were built, curbs and gutters were created along Beach Boulevard and Talbert, and water-retention channels were built under the parking lot to help relieve flooding in the city as part of storm-drain upgrades, Wesner said.

The mausoleum was the second in a three-part long-term planning project to provide enough space for the Orange County Catholic community in years to come by expanding its cemeteries with three new mausoleums. The first part was completed in March 2007 with a $3.7-million mausoleum at Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest.

The Resurrection Garden Mausoleum will be blessed by the Bishop of Orange, the Most Rev. Tod D. Brown, at 2 p.m. Saturday.

— Britney Barnes