Hurricane mission celebrates community as it grows

Intermountain Catholic

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Saint Paul Catholic Center in Hurricane was established two years ago; the center now celebrates two Masses each month. In the other weeks, Sunday Celebrations Absent a Priest are held. IC photo/Marie Mischel

HURRICANE — When Saint Paul Catholic Center in Hurricane was dedicated in 2009, about 30 people regularly attended the biweekly Sunday services. Now, two years later, more than 100 people celebrate during the biweekly Masses. The center also boasts three Sunday Celebrations Absent a Priest (SCAP), a weekly holy hour, a women’s club and a Knights of Columbus council. The center recently celebrated its first baptism and funeral Mass, and held Stations of the Cross during Lent.

The congregation also organizes potlucks and other events "to make sure that people have an opportunity to get together socially," said Toni Foran, the mission’s lay administrator. "It’s not like an LDS ward, where your neighbors are the same people you go to church with."

Instead, St. Paul’s draws people from Apple Valley, Springdale, La Verkin and Washington, "people who would not be neighbors and wouldn’t necessarily know each other," she said.

The mission started more than six years ago, when Deacon Joseph Regan (now deceased) agreed to come from St. George Parish twice a month for SCAP services at the Hurricane American Legion Hall. "We found a lady who played the piano; I had the piano tuned and so now we had music," said Jean Bourque, one of the mission’s founding members.

To raise funds to move from the Legion Hall to their own building, the community established a thrift store, which now is housed next to the church.

"Word started getting around that we were having a religious service at the American Legion Hall," so attendance increased, Bourque said. "Then, even before we got the existing building, we put an ad in the local newspaper inviting all Catholics in the region. Quite a few people responded to that."

"The name Saint Paul Catholic Center is there now, but the community has been growing for six years," said Foran, adding that they owe a debt of gratitude to Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, then the diocese’s vicar general, "for his foresight in buying the building and providing us with the opportunity to have a Catholic Center in Hurricane. Without the diocesan support it wouldn’t have happened."

St. George Parish continues to support the Hurricane mission, donating items such as chalices and a baptismal font. Father Martin Picos, St. George pastor, said he enjoys celebrating Mass at St. Paul Catholic Center because the close-knit community feels like family.

Deacon Willie Folkes agrees. Celebrating SCAP in Hurricane, "you get a chance to meet the people break bread with them and enjoy their presence," he said.

Many of the parishioners also appreciate their small community, even if it does require them to fill in where needed. "St. George (Parish) is too big," said Uli Scholz, who took upon himself the duty of doorman/greeter for St. Paul Mission. He worries that the growing congregation will soon need a larger space, and said that he would like to see a regular church built.

JoAnne Mills, who was received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, said she was very glad to find St. Paul’s. "The Catholic community has helped me restore my faith," she said. "I had wandered. I wasn’t reading my Bible, I was a doubting Thomas, I was just going along on my merry little way, going from one church to another church. Once I came here, it was like a bird that had landed. ‘Here I am!’"

Kay McPhail, Mills’ sponsor, also feels at home at St. Paul’s. "I am not a big church fan," she said. "I like a small church, the community. You know almost everybody when you walk in. Everybody says hello or gives you a nod of the head. I go into the big churches and I feel lost."

Last year’s Mother’s Day celebration epitomized the feel of St. Paul’s, Foran said. It was the congregation’s first SCAP led by a lay leader of prayer and, at the end of the service, the lay leader and thrift store manager invited forward all mothers, those who wanted to be mothers, or who acted like a mother for someone. "They came up single file, were presented a flower, and thanked for their vocation," Foran said. "It was a very moving few minutes and the smiles in the church were a mile wide."