Purchase of Property for New Parish Approved

August 17, 2011

Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce that at their joint meeting of July 21, 2011, the Diocesan Finance Council and the College of Consultors gave unanimous approval to the purchase of a church and adjoining buildings on Lucretia Avenue in San Jose. The purchase - made possible by funds generated from the Capital Campaign and in the custody of the Catholic Foundation of Santa Clara County - should close by August 12. We hope to be operational at the beginning of 2012.  This will be the site of a new parish on the East Side.

It has been over a decade since we established a parish in the Diocese. Demographic studies and the 2010 Census confirm that the anticipated population increase that was foreseen in our Pastoral Plan continues.  Our parishes on the East Side are at capacity - with ten to fourteen weekend Masses at each location.  The area for the new parish has been served for 20 years by the Santee Mission and supported by Saint Maria Goretti Parish. Most recently they have been renting a school auditorium for a single mass on Sunday that is able to serve just 350 people in this densely populated area. 
    
As I shared with you in April, we were successful in identifying an existing church building and property in our greatest area of need. At that time, I invited proposals from parishes on how we might best proceed with this endeavor; in June I accepted an exciting proposal.  That proposal was submitted by three parishes: Saint Mary in Los Gatos, Saint Simon in Los Altos and Holy Spirit in Almaden, who have come together to form a "sponsoring team" to help give birth to this new parish. The team began working officially on July 1, 2011, with Father Brendan McGuire as the administrator of the new parish and Monsignor Francisco Rios as the onsite pastoral minister.

I ask for your support as we develop a new model of beginning a parish and building a church in a community that needs our help.  Normally, it takes at least five years to establish a new parish, but we anticipate accomplishing this task in six months. There is much to be done and we will depend upon each of you to add to the effort.  Many hands make for light work!

We will soon need to name this new parish. We have already received some suggestions, but would like to hear from you. If you have a suggestion for a name, please send it to Father Brendan McGuire at bmcguire@dsj.org by September 1, 2011. We would be grateful if you would include a brief explanation why you believe it would be a good name for this multi-ethnic community.  We will announce the name of the parish in future communications.

Additional details about this work will follow in the weeks and months ahead. Please look to the Diocesan web site and future issues of The Valley Catholic for continuing coverage.

This is indeed a unique opportunity for us, as a community of believers, to work together to build this new house for the Church.  Thank you for your support of these efforts, efforts that prove that we can and do care for each other - as we grow together in Christ.

With every best wish and kind regard, I remain,

                                                    Sincerely yours,
                                     
                                                       Patrick J. McGrath
                                                       Bishop of San Jose