Multipurpose Worship & Religious Education Center

                    Multipurpose Worship & Religious Education Center

  Over the past three years, our parish registrations here at St. Catherine’s has more than doubled, nearly tripling the total number of parishioners who now attend Mass regularly and who come to celebrate their spiritual faith and a sense of community. 

The parish of St. Catherine's is young, vibrant, and engaged community – built across multiple cultures, yet with the primary cultural influence coming from our Hispanic community.  Many of our Hispanic families are financially lower income households, most being employed within the unpredictability of the nursery industry environment…resulting in weather extremes, long hard manual hours, and the variability of employment.  Still, they embrace the opportunity to provide for their family, to educate their children in both studies and faith, and to ultimately secure opportunities for the next generation of their families.

As St. Catherine continues to grow Spiritually and in Faith, so have the numerous ministries required to meet the needs of ALL Parishioners.  We work hard to promote pride in their accomplishment and a sense of unity within the parish.  We celebrate the diversity of our spiritual and social activities across both Anglo and various Hispanic cultures, resulting in the church overflowing with members who are Spiritually rich.

To support this incredible growth, we now host 5 weekend Masses, just to accommodate our bilingual and Spanish community.  Still, these weekend services are consistently overcrowded; often, leaving parishioners sitting in folding chairs on the sanctuary;  standing and sitting in the aisles, the narthex, and sometimes even outside with the elements of weather. (see photos below)   The church has reached its physical limits, resulting in many other parishioners disappointed, as the closest nearby Catholic church is a 30-minute drive from McMinnville. Now we are starting to feel the effects in both our Mass participation and growth.

Today, knowing we can no longer sustain all those parishioners seeking to attend a Mass, retreat, or community events, we must take the steps to support our growth and in doing so, we are constructing a steal-fabricated modular building – and with the blessings of our donors and the Diocese, it will become our Multipurpose Worship & Religious Education Center – an all-purpose building where we will hold worship services, retreats, festivals, religious education opportunities.  This building has been enhanced to include five religious education classrooms.  This building project is estimated to cost around $1,750,000, and will seat 560 parishioners, vs the 200 seats we currently have in the current church.

The Overall Project includes the services of an Owners Representative to ensure success of the Building Project and it being on schedule and on budget, and includes is the purchase of an acre of land for the required additional parking, and improvements to that lot to enhance safety (additional entrance, crosswalks, flashing lights, etc.). The Overall Project is estimated to cost $1,950,000.

To date, we have raised about $1,900,000, through 3+ years of hard work, personal sacrifices, the support of the Diocese, three other parishes and numerous generous donors.  The financial gap has narrowed and we are now also working on supplying the internal needs of the building, and we know with God’s grace and your support, come spring to early summer 2025, we will celebrate Mass as one large family vs. multiple smaller families.  Our church will now become one.  Your financial support and prayers are greatly appreciated. 

 We, the people of St. Catherine of Alexandria, are grateful to you for your prayers

and support for our parish growth projects. You are a blessing and a needed response to our prayers.  God bless you all.