The Rev. Mark Arnzen stands in St. Catherine Church Wednesday. Arnzen has been with the church -which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary Saturday - for six months.
For the last century, St. Catherine Church has been an indelible part of the lives of local residents who praise the Morgan Hill institution's role in bringing an increasingly diverse community together.
"It's been my extended family," said Johanna Tacci, a member of St. Catherine's parish since 1948. "I think it's fulfilled the word 'catholic,' and being universal because we share so many cultures."
Now occupying a sprawling campus on Peak Avenue with its own private school, St. Catherine's original church occupied the southwest corner of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue when Tacci, now 72, moved to Morgan Hill. In 1948, Tacci estimated St. Catherine Church had about 300 members. Now, about 3,500 families from throughout South County are registered parishioners.
The church has also grown ethnically as well, with a well-represented Hispanic community, and increasingly active Filipino and Vietnamese memberships, Tacci said. The church's list of annual events and ongoing programs is exhaustive, and caters to the eclectic interests of all its parishioners.
"It's so family oriented. We have hospitality after all the Masses, school plays, multicultural activities, celebrations - you can drive past the church any day of the week and the lights are always on somewhere," Tacci said.
Founded in 1909, St. Catherine Church will celebrate its centennial anniversary Saturday with a special bilingual Mass and a parish-wide dinner. Many of the church's former priests, including Bishop Patrick McGraw of the San Jose Diocese, will come back to Morgan Hill for the celebration.
The Rev. Mark Arnzen joined St. Catherine Church as pastor in July. He said Saturday's Mass will be especially important to him because he will be formally installed as the church's pastor.
"It's a huge honor," Arnzen said. "I'm here for a while, but (the parishioners) are here their whole lives. So it's a great honor."
Since he is new to the church, Arnzen struggles to list the many different ways St. Catherine's parish participates in the broader community of Morgan Hill, and brings people together within the church. The parish works with other local churches to host a community food bank that serves needy families. It is active in nonprofit groups such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Knights of Columbus.
St. Catherine's private school serves 312 children in grades K through 8 with accompanying activities including school plays, sports and after-school programs.
The church choirs do an exchange with singers from Latter-day Saints churches at Christmas time. St. Catherine has a slew of annual fundraising events, including a car raffle and a golf tournament. Each year in September they have the Parish Celebration, which includes carnival rides and a food court, and attracts a large crowd.
And the church population has grown substantially in 100 years. The original church was built in 1909 on land donated by the family of Catherine Dunne, an influential property owner in Morgan Hill's early days and the church's namesake. The parish started out with only 150 members, according to Jim Yinger, a parishioner since 1951. For the last couple of years, Yinger has worked on compiling a history of the parish in preparation for the centennial, which will be published later this year.
The church was originally part of the San Francisco Diocese, and grew out of a mission that started south of San Martin in the late 1800s, Yinger said.
St. Catherine moved to its current location and built a new church in 1967, and the parish has added onto its campus steadily since then. The school was started in 1963, at that time serving only first and second grades. The Milani Center, a parish gathering facility, was built next to the church in 1985, more classrooms were added in 1992, and another parish center named after Father Gene O'Donnell was built in 2000.
Expecting the growth to continue, St. Catherine has a master plan for the development of the property to meet the parish's future needs, Yinger explained.
At least one parishioner was so moved by the "welcoming" tone of St. Catherine Church attendees, and the parish's diversity, that he wanted to become involved as a clergy member.
Deacon Rick Haeckel, 69, moved to Morgan Hill with his wife and kids in 1976 to work for IBM. After celebrating Mass at St. Catherine for more than two decades, following his retirement in 2001 Haeckel decided to become a deacon.
"The parish has been known for its openness. It's warm and inviting, and that inspired me," said Haeckel, who has watched parishioners become baptized in the church, get married, and then baptized their children as a deacon.
St. Catherine is not the oldest Catholic parish in the Bay Area, but making it 100 years as a mainstay in Morgan Hill, almost as long as the city itself, is a milestone.
"It's a wonderful way to see the generational development of a community," Haeckel said. "The centennial reminds us this is a long-haul operation, that's not subject to the vicissitudes of the ups and downs. It's about placing yourself in God's hands, and realizing that many things have gone on here, and will continue to go on after the centennial."
Michael Moore Michael Moore covers county and law enforcement issues for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106, ext. 202, or mmoore@morganhilltimes.com.
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