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Cave Creek parish breaks ground on new campus
By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
September 20, 2007
CAVE CREEK — After more than five years of growing as a faith community, St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish finally broke ground Sept. 8 for the construction of its first permanent building.
Fr. Dennis J. O’Rourke, the pastor, led a large group of parishioners who came to celebrate the culmination of a long period of fundraising. Sporting hard hats, he and Fr. Fred Adamson, vicar general, as well as Joe Anderson, the diocese’s chief financial officer, broke into the dirt with shovels.
Parishioners of all ages followed their lead, sinking shovels into the dirt covering the future site of the 13,000-square-foot building that will contain a large multi-purpose hall and office space and is expected to be completed in December. The $3.5 million multi-purpose hall is the first building of a large campus.
“It’s the first permanent building on the campus — everything else is temporary,” Fr. O’Rourke said. “It’s about time we get a permanent spot.”
The builders project that the community may be able to access the building by the end of this calendar year, according to Fr. O’Rourke. St. Gabriel’s has outgrown the 450-person sanctuary where Mass is celebrated.
“We have people sitting outside at Mass. They can’t see the altar, they can’t see the podium where people read at Mass,” Fr. O’Rourke said.
“When we have kids for religious education they have to use Port-a-Johns for toilets because we have no inside plumbing,” he added.
It is estimated that the new multi-purpose hall will hold approximately 800 churchgoers for Mass, a fact Roberta Bazaldua, the coordinator for family faith formation and sanctity of life, is thrilled to hear.
“That’s going to almost double our ability to meet the needs of the parish family,” Bazaldua said.
Believing that St. Gabriel himself called her to minister at the parish, she calls the Cave Creek community “a group of people who truly want to build up the Body of Christ.”
“We’ve been working towards this goal,” she said, noting that the construction of the multi-purpose hall was delayed some two and a half years due to a lack of funds. “To see this first building go up — it creates enthusiasm for what’s bound to come.”
Vic Pietfiewicz, one of the founding members, said the new building would free up other structures.
“The existing, temporary building that we’re using currently will be used for ministries and classrooms,” he said.
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