Salt Lake parish highlighted in book on Masses throughout U.S.
Saint Catherine of Siena Parish in Salt Lake City is among the churches featured in a new book, 52 Masses: A Journey to Experience Catholicism Across America, which takes a look at Catholic worship in the United States.
Over the course of just more than a year, author Daniel Markham attended Mass in Catholic churches in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico; the book recounts his visits.
“Daniel Markham shares the stories of parishes and parishioners whose experiences bear witness to the immediate and unquestionably real presence of God in their lives,” Travis J. Vanden Heuvel, co-author of To Heaven & Back, writes in the book’s foreword. “52 Masses resoundingly assures us that we never journey alone.”
Markham came to Utah in June 2021 and attended Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church/Newman Center, which ministers to the University of Utah community. He chose this church because he wanted to include a Newman Center in his book, Markham told the Intermountain Catholic. While there, he interviewed pastor Rev. Jacek Buda, OP and several students about their experiences. (Fr. Jacek has since been reassigned by his order; Fr. Gabriel Mosher, OP is now the parish’s pastor).
In the book, Fr. Jacek shared how he had seen this Catholic community thrive since he came to Utah in 2016. “It’s a very lively community, always,” he said. “If it’s not lively, it means something’s happened, a crisis.”
Fr. Jacek and Fr. Cody Jorgensen, OP, director of campus ministry, also shared their perspective of living through the pandemic in Utah and of the challenges of serving the faithful during that time, especially college students whose campus was shut down.
Dovetailing on the state-mandated precautions regarding the pandemic, Bishop Oscar A. Solis instructed parishes to implement measures such as sanitization protocols and social distancing that affected attendance at church events, including Masses.
Student Alejandro Jacquez told Markham that the time of the pandemic was eye-opening for him. “I think one of the really cool parts of starting here during the pandemic vs. a more normal time is you see the true stripes, true colors of people,” he said. “That provides an environment of encouragement, people who genuinely want the same thing you do and will push you to that and you can push them as well.”
Jacquez and other Catholic students find that attending school in Utah has a positive impact on them living their faith, they told Markham.
“I think the Mormons push the Catholics in a positive way,” Jacquez said. “Whether they’re fully devout or not, they are very good about doing the right things for their faith.”
The University of Utah campus has a vibrant community of young Catholics, student Nellie Webb said in 52 Masses. “I wasn’t expecting people to be in love with their faith as they are here. I had never experienced that a lot, especially on a day-to-day level.”
Markham returned to St. Catherine of Siena in the spring of 2022 because he wanted to experience the Newman Center community during the school year. During that visit he attended a daily Mass and joined two parishioners in following and praying along with Pope Francis during his Act of Consecration for peace in Ukraine.
“That memory will long stay with me,” he told the Intermountain Catholic recently. “It truly demonstrated the deep faith of the people I met during my two stops in Salt Lake City.”
When he first got the idea for his book, Markham planned to focus only on the parishes of his home diocese of Gary, Ind., but he then decided to expand the project to include the whole country. The final product chronicles his visits to churches across the country, describing church buildings and services, highlighting how Catholics live out their faith – from the parishioners of St. Joseph Parish in Dexter, Mich., who each summer journey to areas hit by natural disasters to aid in the recovery efforts; to the parish of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Louis, Mo., where they operate a homeless shelter in the church’s basement; to Holy Rosary Parish Church in Dillingham, Alaska, where Father Scott Garrett, a licensed pilot, routinely travels the vast parish in a Piper Cherokee airplane to reach the far flung members of his flock.
Utah Catholics may enjoy this chronicle of Markham’s experiences in the faith while traveling the country. The book illustrates that no matter how small or large the Church’s presence in a community, the People of God are making a difference where they live and serve. Readers also may find it its pages some parishes they’d like to visit in their travels.
A former newspaper and freelance writer, Daniel Markham is editor-in-chief at Metal Center News, a metals distribution industry trade magazine.
© Copyright 2024 The Diocese of Salt Lake City. All rights reserved.
Stay Connected With Us