Gilbert Sun News; 1-3-15: Spirit by Times Media Group

St. Mary Magdalene expands to accommodate town’s growth

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

Gilbert’s second-largest Catholic church, St. Mary Magdalene, has responded to the town’s growth with an expansion of its own.

The congregation recently completed a 7,000-squarefoot building with a 90-seat adoration chapel and a permanent office to the tune of $1.5 million.

“We’ve been working out of a really tiny office space where everybody shared offices— except for me,” says Father Will Schmid.

“So there were two to three people working out of tiny little offices and they were getting kind of cramped. The parish was growing so much that we needed the space to be able to work. We needed a chapel for people to pray in. The multipurpose building was getting so much use that it was hard for people to come in and pray.”

and have a quiet time with the Lord,” he says. “Then the rest of the building is for offices and cubicles for those who volunteer and for the various ministries that need access to computers.”

Schmid says he and the congregation are “very excited” about the expansion, especially the chapel.

“The 90-seat chapel is for people to come in throughout the day and pray

The expansion is a two-phase project. The second part involved minor renovations to the existing building.

“We took the old offices and turned them into meeting spaces, classes for education, various ministries, and

expanded the back of the church a little bit to put in more seats,” he says. “Our Masses were standing room only. We wanted to add more seats for people to be able to sit down during Mass.”

The Mesa-born Schmid has been with St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church since 2012; his previous assignment was as a chaplain at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School in Chandler. Since he arrived in Gilbert, the church’s congregation has grown from 2,600 families to 4,000 families.

“Everybody’s moving out here,” he says of Gilbert. “For people who are Catholic, it’s a logical place for them to really settle down their roots. There are a lot of young families. It’s a growing part of Gilbert.”

Now that St. Mary Magdalene has the space, Schmid and other church officials are considering the sort of events they want to host.

“Our next goal is to build an actual church,” he says of the $7 million to $10 million project. “We’re going to put our heads together and pray about what kind of events to put on, not only for fundraising, but for community building and culture building. We want to help form a culture.”

Schmid says a church “in the near future is highly likely.”

“We have a really strong parish and the families are generous,” he says. “They really want a church.”

Not only are the parishioners generous, but they’re excited about being Catholic as well, Schmid says.

“The Holy Spirit is really at work,” he says. “There are a lot of young families, which is great. There are places in the U.S. where there aren’t a lot of young people involved in their faith.

“We have a whole parish full of young Catholics. They’re very excited about their Catholic identity. We’re trying to reach out to everybody. It takes time to build programs for that.”

Schmid is trying to minister to the needs of his parishioners. Recently, St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church hired a director of marriage and family life, and formed a ministry for senior singles who are widows and widowers.

“That’s been a real blessing to see that ministry grow,” Schmid says. “On every level, we’re trying to strengthen our program. The adoration chapel is huge. We’re starting to see people all throughout the hours pray and be with the Lord. We hope to have a perpetual adoration chapel within the next year. Right now, the adoration chapel is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The adoration chapel would be open 24 hours a day.”

St. Mary Magdalene is one of two Catholic churches in Gilbert. The other, St. Anne Roman Catholic Parish, has 5,000 registered families. They belong to the 93-parish Phoenix Diocese, which serves about 800,000 Catholics.

BUILT IN 2010: St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church seats more than 950 congregants. Photo courtesy of St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church

ADORATION CHAPEL: The Adoration Chapel is open from 9

a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Photo courtesy of St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church

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