“Busting at the seams,” Phoenix adds another church to serve growing Catholic population

This speaks to the vibrant faith of the American southwest—and the burgeoning immigrant population.

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A longstanding Catholic parish in Chandler is moving forward with plans to build a second church at the southern end of the city.

The new church, called St. Juan Diego…will be part of the existing parish at St. Mary’s Catholic Church but will stand as a separate church to meet the needs of the burgeoning Catholic population in the area, said the Rev. Daniel McBride, pastor of St. Mary’s.

St. Mary’s, located at 230 W. Galveston St., serves an estimated 10,000 Catholics who live within a 60-square-mile area, McBride said. St. Steven Catholic Church on Dobson Road in Sun Lakes largely serves that vast senior community, and St. Andrew the Apostle is located in west Chandler on Ray Road. Other Catholic churches are located nearby in Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe, with parish boundaries that take in those areas.

“The huge growth (in south Chandler) really made the main campus busting at the seams. It put pressure on other parishes around us because of the need,” McBride said.

…The Diocese of Phoenix identified a need in the south Chandler area based on the continued growth and development in that region, so it made sense from a resources standpoint to establish St. Juan Diego Church as part of St. Mary’s Parish,” he said. “This provides for an efficient use of staff and religious education classes as the St. Juan Diego Church community grows with its surroundings.”

There are an estimated 800,000 Catholics and 93 parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix, DeFrancesco said. St. Juan Diego will be the second new Catholic church to open in the East Valley because of the growing population in recent years. St. Mary Magdalene, at 2654 E. Williams Field Road in Gilbert, was established in 2002 and its new church opened in 2010. Prior to that, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne opened in Anthem in 2009, he said.

Priests and staff from St. Mary’s also will staff the new church initially, McBride said.

McBride said St. Mary’s is a multicultural parish. Masses are said in English, Spanish and Tagalog, a Filipino language that is common to the many different people of the Phillipines. A group of Filipino parishioners has raised funds for a special shrine dedicated Our Lady of Penafrancia, which is of special significant to many Filipino Catholics.

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