the Stations of the Cross. Noted Italian artist, Carlo Wostry, had been hired to paint murals at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Pasadena, and was also hired to paint the Stations of the Cross at Blessed Sacrament. Wostry began working on the Stations in Italy in 1930 and finished them in 1932. It was not until 1951 that architect, J. Earl Trudeau, was hired to complete the interior design. Trudeau said he "chose a rather simpler treatment, featuring economy of means both in the artistic and economic senses." The interior work was finally completed in early 1954. Father McCoy: pastor from 1932 to 1957 The parish's longest-serving pastor was Father Cornelius McCoy, who was pastor for 25 years from 1932 to. 1957. He took over the parish in the middle of the Great Depression and oversaw the completion of the church. When he stepped down as pastor in 1957, the parish had 6,000 members. During Father McCoy's tenure the new archbishop, James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, offered to purchase the church from the Jesuit order. Cardinal McIntyre wanted to replace St Vibiana's cathedral in downtown Los Angeles with an existing church more centrally located in the sprawling archdiocese to serve as the new cathedral. The order refused to sell the property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the matter of finding a new cathedral remained unsettled. In 1955, organist Richard Key Biggs received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice decoration in recognition of 27 years service. Father Falvey priest abuse scandal Father Mark Falvey who was an assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament from 1959 until his death in 1975 was accused of sexually molesting four girls and five boys between 1959 and 1975 at Blessed Sacrament. Falvey was never charged with a crime. In May 2007, The Jesuit order agreed to pay $16 million to settle these claims. A Jesuit representative said he agreed with the plaintiffs' lawyer that "Father Falvey was not handled correctly by the Jesuit order", and that he "should have been removed from ministry" after the first victim. Since then the church has instituted the VIRTUS program to prevent such a tragedy in the future. Economic decline and violence In recent decades, the Hollywood area has experienced an economic decline, with large numbers of homeless and poor people living in the area. A low point for the parish came in October 1987, when a gunman opened fire