Gilbert-area Catholics break ground for new church

By Ambria Hammel | March 19, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

GILBERT — Parishioners at St. Mary Magdalene came one step closer last week to making their third worship space their permanent home.

They crowded around their pastor, Fr. Greg Menegay, Fr. Fred Adamson, vicar general for the diocese, Fr. Richard Felt, head of the east deanery and other Church and construction leaders March 8 to break ground on the parish campus.

It will be the second Roman Catholic church in Gilbert’s nearly 90-year history.

An exact construction date for the 20,000-square-foot, multi-use facility is still not scheduled, but the groundbreaking set the stage and the mood that the parish’s first building will soon follow.

“It’s been a very long road for us to get to this point,” said Fr. Menegay, pastor for the last four years. “It’s basically the home stretch.”

Parishioners first gathered for Mass in 2002 on the old Williams Air force Base in Mesa. They moved within three miles of their future parish site two and a half years ago when the weekend liturgies were moved to Gateway Pointe Elementary School in Higley.

While parish volunteers transform the school gym into a sacred worship space every weekend, it comes with a price tag: $50,000 a year in rent to the Higley School District.

Fr. Menegay and parishioners look forward to eliminating that bill and putting money instead into building up St. Mary Magdalene’s 20-acre property on Williams Field Road east of the Loop 202. The parish, which has raised $2 million in its capital campaign, will one day support an elementary school.

“We will see buildings all over this property. All these things that we are now envisioning,” Fr. Menegay said as he overlooked the field full of weeds.

The first phase is a $5 million project that will provide adequate meeting space for worship, religious education, social activities and parish administration.

“We’re so happy to finally get this,” parishioner Carol Lawless said after parish leaders turned over the dirt. She has been part of St. Mary Magdalene since day one when parish leaders recruited new members outside of St. Anne Parish, then the only Roman Catholic church in Gilbert.

St. Mary Magdalene parishioners have raised money through pledges and charity events including five golf tournaments, a car raffle and bake sales.