St. Francis of Assisi prepares for a new church

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This architect’s rendering shows the new Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Orem.

OREM – A dream 10 years in the making will start to become reality in October, when a weekend of groundbreaking festivities will take place for a new Saint Francis de Assisi Catholic Church.

Throughout the years, the members of the St. Francis of Assisi congregation have performed service for the community in a number of ways. Parishioners have visited the homeless and brought food to them in the shelters. In recent years, the Catholic population in Utah County has been increasing, a situation that has led to begging for the construction of a new church.

“This is a dream that the parishioners have had for more than 10 years, when they all realized that their old church in Provo was getting too small,” said Father David J. Bittmenn, St. Francis of Assisi pastor.

Currently, Mass is celebrated in the parish’s gymnasium, which seats approximately 650; the new church will seat 1,000.

The construction of a new church has a lot of meaning for all the Catholics in Utah County.

“It’s extremely important because for 10 and a half years we have been having Mass in a gymnasium,” said Susan Nielsen, a long-time parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi.

“For the long-time parishioners, it’s a good resolution to many false starts and dashed hopes for a new church,” said Julie Boerio-Goates, the pastoral coordinator and chairwoman of the parish’s building committee. “For newcomers, it’s a promise that kneeling on the floor and looking at the jump circle will give way to kneelers, stained glass windows, and a real church feeling.”

St. Francis of Assisi Parish started when the Most Rev. Lawrence Scanlan, then bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, dedicated the first chapel and rectory in Provo in 1892 out of a remodeled home. This church served the community until the turn of the century.

“People that started out in St. Francis were our fathers and mothers; they helped to build the church and to see it torn out it was too traumatic,” Nielsen said. “But now we just need a larger church. We need a worship space where people feel they are really worshiping; we need that spirituality; we need a church.”

The groundbreaking celebrations will start Friday, Oct. 1, with a grand Italian Fest, followed by a dance.

“It’s the start of the culmination of a long-term dream,” Fr. Bittmenn said.

The celebration will include a blessing of the animals and a Hispanic dance. The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake will celebrate a bilingual Mass and dedicate the ground for the new church.

“This is a celebration not only of our community but the whole community – the whole Catholic community – so the whole community is invited, and if they are not able to come, please keep us in their prayers,” Fr. Bittmenn said.