Flagstaff parish making progress on new church

Ambria Hammel/CATHOLIC SUN

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted celebrates Mass Aug. 21 at the site of the new San Franscisco de Asís church in Flagstaff.

San Francisco de Asís site honors its patron

FLAGSTAFF — Northern Arizona Catholics have juggled daily and weekend liturgies at up to four locations for more than a decade.

That juggling act finally has an end in sight. Sewer lines at what will be the first centralized church for San Francisco de Asís Parish are in and the water and electric lines should be installed by the end of the summer.

Some 200 parishioners celebrated these latest developments, along with raising nearly $5 million through campaign pledges, during an Aug. 21 Mass at the site of the future church.

It was the first liturgy at the new parish site and, because the church only exists on paper, was also a liturgy that embodied the simple values of its patron saint.

“The views coming up that way really are holy,” Fr. Pat Mowrer, pastor, told the crowd before Mass began.

The 100-plus-acre site atop McMillan Mesa borders an urban trail and a neighborhood. Views of dozens of pine trees and surrounding mountaintops abound.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who celebrated the Mass along with two other parish priests, agreed.

“Only God could create such beauty and only God could create in us a desire to build such a worship space,” the bishop said.

He went on to discuss the importance of foundations, a theme mentioned in the first reading. The bishop reminded local Catholics — whose camping chairs, lawn chairs and blankets served as makeshift pews — that they are to be God’s co-workers, especially when it comes to building churches.

That’s a concept not lost on San Francisco de Asís parishioners.

A Jesuit priest laid some of the brick and mortar for the Church of the Nativity, now a parish chapel, in the late 1880s. Local Catholics also funded construction of Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel in the 1920s and St. Pius X church — two-and-a-half miles northeast of the new space — in the 1950s.

They also supported several site moves and school openings.

“All of those whose work of faith have proclaimed to the people of Flagstaff, ‘You are loved,’ are co-workers,” the bishop said, quoting Fr. Mowrer’s infamous words.

Bishop Olmsted noted that while the foundations built by previous families are vital, they’re not “nearly as important as the foundation placed in our souls, in our hearts and in our minds.”

It’s their attitude of service that will form the foundation for future generations, the bishop said. He encouraged Catholics to draw on their gifts from the Holy Spirit. Working together on the one vine, Christ, will lead to completion of the new church, the bishop said.

He led Catholics in the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi before breaking bread on an altar made of three large boulders uncovered at the construction site.

Immediately after communion, Deacon Larry Whelan added more symbolism to the site. He scattered dirt down the center isle that local Catholics had brought back over the years from Assisi, Italy.

Bishop Olmsted walked behind him blessing the land and the people.

Before Mass ended, the Knights of Columbus, most in formal Fourth Degree Knight regalia, presented a check for $100,000 toward the project. The Knights have contributed double that amount over the years.

San Francisco de Asís church will be no more than 23 acres and seat up to 1,500 people for Mass, more than double its current capacity.