The story

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.

"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 interest payments in the beginning, which then ballooned into much larger payments later," he said. Watch priest's mission to fight foreclosure

Lasseigne began to preach to his congregation about the power of community organization. He teamed up with the One LA community group, and together they started teaching Foreclosure 101 to his flock. Read full article »

CNN's Wayne Drash, Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.

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