Priest Becomes Savior in Foreclosure Crisis
From Thelma Gutierrez CNN PACOIMA, California --Father John Lasseigne has never owned a home, but he's become one of the key saviors for those who face losing their house. As banks move in to take over homes in foreclosure, this priest is stepping in to stop them. Father John Lasseigne has led the charge. "We have to respond," he says. "When I first arrived in the church, at the end of Mass, a family came to speak with me and said, 'Father, would you pray for us? We are about to lose our home,' " Lasseigne said. "Suddenly, the crisis became very real and personal for me." Lasseigne is the priest of Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in the Southern California community of Pacoima, where one in every nine homes is in some stage of foreclosure. He says the people in this community were targeted by predatory lenders and given loans they never should have qualified for. "Many of them were lured into taking out mortgages that had very small intere...
