{"id":4983,"date":"2010-09-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/09\/the-church-building-boom-in-texas.html"},"modified":"2010-09-30T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T05:00:00","slug":"the-church-building-boom-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/09\/the-church-building-boom-in-texas.html","title":{"rendered":"The Catholic church building boom in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20100924-160330-pic-645914086_t607.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
\nSome heartening news from the Lone Star state. At a time when many dioceses are closing or consolidating parishes, down in Texas, the church business is booming<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\nEach week at Midland’s Our Lady of San Juan Parish, churchgoers attending Mass overflow the building, into the lobby and outside.<\/p>\n

The church, located 112 miles west of San Angelo, seats just 300 people, but more than 1,000 families call it their church home.<\/p>\n

In November, San Juan’s parishioners will have a new church building, one with a seating capacity of 1,200 and a 20-foot diameter dome that towers 91 feet in the sky.<\/p>\n

Eighty percent complete, the new San Juan — renamed San Miguel Arc\u00e1ngel — is a visual testament to growth in the 29-county Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, where at least 12 building projects have been under way the past two years.<\/p>\n

Bishop Michael Pfeifer called it the biggest building boom he’s seen in his 25 years as bishop of the diocese.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a lot of demand for constructing new buildings,” he said. “Buildings aren’t the most important thing in the world — people are — but to me it’s a sign there are many people coming to our churches and wanting more space for worship, prayer, teaching, religious education and other activities.<\/p>\n

“I tell our priests (that) when the demands are there to have to build more churches, that’s a happy problem. That means we’ve got a lot of people.”<\/p>\n

Catholicism, too, is growing in smaller communities such as Mertzon, about 29 miles southwest of San Angelo.<\/p>\n

The parishioners at St. Peter Mission also have outgrown their parish, built in the 1940s, and will be moving to a new building later this year.<\/p>\n

“The church we are in right now is very small,” said Mike Kahlig, deacon of St. Peter. “It doesn’t have side aisles; it has a very narrow center aisle. The church we’re building, you can fit three of our churches inside the new one.”<\/p>\n

The new building’s completion has been helped along by San Juan — which is donating its old pews — at least one grant and the generosity of the parishioners, Kahlig said.<\/p>\n

“If they can build a church in a tiny community like Mertzon, and a church that holds three or more times as many people as before, that’s a beautiful example of people being generous, the growth of the community, the growth of the faith,” Pfeifer said.<\/p>\n

Michael LaMonica, one of three deacons at San Juan, said the church had not been able to afford a new building until recently — a blessing, he said, in an economic recession.<\/p>\n

“We were given a challenge grant of $400,000, and the parish had to raise $400,000 in two years and they raised it in less than two years,” LaMonica said. “We did all kinds of festivals, had food after every Mass, golf tournaments — everything we can to raise money. The church responded wonderfully.”<\/p>\n

In Odessa, about 132 miles from San Angelo, Holy Redeemer Parish is consolidating its religious education in a new 17-classroom building, expected to be complete in September.<\/p>\n

“I understand very well that the kids are bigger in size compared to the kids 10 years ago the same age,” said the Rev. Bernardito Getigan, Holy Redeemer’s priest. “It’s a bigger size, and we are looking at making it technology friendly.”<\/p>\n

Holy Redeemer’s parish is growing, Getigan said, and so is the number of children.<\/p>\n

“Every year we see a growth of 50 to 80 kids, and this parish is a young parish — a lot of young people are coming to Holy Redeemer,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that’s just for starters. Check out the rest.<\/a> Praise God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some heartening news from the Lone Star state. At a time when many dioceses are closing or consolidating parishes, down in Texas, the church business is booming: Each week at Midland’s Our Lady of San Juan Parish, churchgoers attending Mass overflow the building, into the lobby and outside. The church, located 112 miles west of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,26,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bishops","category-churches","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Catholic church building boom in Texas - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/09\/the-church-building-boom-in-texas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Catholic church building boom in Texas - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some heartening news from the Lone Star state. At a time when many dioceses are closing or consolidating parishes, down in Texas, the church business is booming: Each week at Midland’s Our Lady of San Juan Parish, churchgoers attending Mass overflow the building, into the lobby and outside. 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