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St. Catherine Church in McMinnville Celebrates   Groundbreaking of Community Center

Most Reverend J. Mark Spalding, Bishop of Nashville, joined Father Bala Showraiah, OFM, pastor of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in McMinnville, for an outdoor Mass and the groundbreaking of a new, multipurpose community center on Sunday, May 26. Father Showraiah speaks to the parishioners of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church during the groundbreaking of the community center.Photo by Steven Boero. The growing community of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in McMinnville broke ground on a $1.95-million multipurpose community center on Sunday, May 26.

Most Reverend J. Mark Spalding, Bishop of Nashville, joined Father Bala Showraiah, OFM, pastor of St. Catherine Church, for the groundbreaking ceremony after celebrating an outdoor Mass where the new building will be located. The St. Catherine community celebrated the festive occasion with music and traditional Mexican dishes, including tamales, elotes, and tortas, which were prepared by the parishioners. “I have been looking forward to this moment, because we thought it would have taken longer than we expected. But God has blessed us,” said Father Showraiah. 

The new multipurpose building will serve as additional worship space, with a seating capacity of 560 people, more than doubling the 220 seats in the current church. It will serve a growing need as the bilingual community at St. Catherine has expanded in recent years. The building will also be used as an event space for retreats, classrooms for children, and a general recreation area.

“The church has grown quite a lot,” said Father Showraiah. “When I came here, we had 125 registered families, now we have more than 300 families. It is so wonderful to see how people have been getting involved and have taken initiative in this parish.”

Joe Wehr has been one of many parishioners who has offered his talents and time to support fundraising and planning of the project. Wehr became a parishioner of St. Catherine Church in 2021 after moving to Middle Tennessee from Colorado. Not long after joining the church, he began assisting the effort to fund and build this community center when discussions began in summer 2021. “The groundbreaking was tremendous,” said Wehr. “Parishioners are finally going to see that this building is going to happen. There have been a lot of questions, but we’re going to make it happen.” 

Pablo and Yadira Campos and their family have been ingrained in the community since becoming parishioners at St. Catherine in 2006. They have seen the growth firsthand and said they are excited about the new opportunities the community center will bring. “The community has been growing and growing, thanks to Father Bala. He likes to get people in the community involved and that’s what we like,” said Pablo Campos. “That’s how your church grows. If you get people involved, you will have a stronger community. That’s what’s happening here."   "We love this new opportunity because we have a lot of younger parishioners and we wanted something for them to enjoy because normally we would have to go to Nashville or Franklin to be able to attend retreats,” added Yadira Campos. “Now we can host our own retreats on a larger scale.”

The parishioners played a major role in raising the funds for this project. Every Sunday for the past two-and-half years, members of the Spanish-speaking community have been selling classic Mexican dishes at the church. They have also been selling food in downtown McMinnville and at the McMinnville Autumn Street Fair. Violeta Mendez prepares a torta, a traditional Mexican sandwich, at the post-groundbreaking celebration St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in McMinnville. 

“People asked, ‘How are we going to raise money?’” Pablo Campos explained. “We raised money by selling food, which we’ve been doing every single Sunday after each Mass. This year will be the third year that we will be selling food at the Fall Festival to be able to reach our goal. Every dime helps. “I told Father Bala, look around and see your church,” he continued. “Here, we are working people, simple people. We work on farms, we work at nurseries, we are constantly working, and we don’t have that kind of money. But I told father, use [our hands], use what you have, put us to work, because if there is something we know how to do, it’s work. We may not be able to always give the church monetary aid, but we’ll work to get the money some other way.”

Along with the hard work from parishioners, St. Catherine Church has received financial support from other diocesan parishes, including St. Henry Church, and St. Matthew Church and St. Philip the Apostle Church in Franklin. “We’re so thankful for the communities of St. Philip in Franklin, St. Henry, St. Matthew Church, and the Diocese of Nashville for all their help and donations,” said Yadira Campos. “This has allowed our community to grow, and it feels like we’ve been heard, but most of all I think God heard our prayers, because we wanted this big community and now we’re witnessing it happening.”

The community center is tentatively scheduled to be completed in May 2025. So far, $1.6 million of the $1.95 million goal has been raised. But with the continuing hard work from parishioners and assistance from the greater Middle Tennessee Catholic communities, the project is well on the way to reaching its goal. 

“We have raised right around $1.6 million,” said Wehr. “So in two and a half years, with a lot of effort by the local parishioners and a lot of support from outside from great, generous people, and generous parishes, we are finally doing it. But we do need to close the gap, and we’ll work hard the rest of the year to do that.”

Steven Boero // June 12, 2024    Nashville Catholic