Our growing Church
Hispanic Catholics fueling dramatic surge
for Church in southern Chester County
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
AVONDALE — It’s the second Mass of the morning at Assumption B.V.M. Parish’s St. Mary Chapel in West Grove, and every pew is filled.
It is a testimony to the growth of the Catholic community in Chester County, where Misión Santa Mariá, Madre de Dios serves more than 2,600 registered Hispanic Catholic families every weekend, and increasingly, during the week as well. The mission is, in a word, thriving.
In fact, with nearly 12,000 members — 1,600 of them under the age of 5 — the Avondale-based mission is looking at significant and sustained growth.
“We have a very young community,” said Msgr. Francis J. Depman, the mission chaplain. “We have almost nobody up in the 60 or 70 age range.”
Although the Misión Santa Mariá operates like a parish, and canonically has the right to administer the sacraments and keep records like a parish, it does not have a church building.
Instead, the mission celebrates Spanish-language Masses and administers the sacraments of the faith for the mission’s community at five area Catholic churches.
On any given Saturday evening or Sunday, the chaplain and an assistant may be found celebrating Spanish Masses at St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother in Avondale, St. Patrick in Kennett Square, Assumption B.V.M in West Grove, Sacred Heart in Oxford and Our Lady of Consolation in Parkesburg.
It is not unusual for a number of presentations, baptisms and quinceañeras to take place at mission Masses. Last year alone, the mission baptized 384 infants. This year it also had 140 first Communions, and Msgr. Depman anticipates there will be more than 200 next year.
Msgr. Depman is tireless when it comes to finding new ways to encourage the community to prepare for and obtain the sacraments. For example, there are more than 1,000 children registered in the catechism classes taught by the Sisters, Servants of the Lord and Virgin of Matará.
The sisters, who assist Msgr. Depman in various evangelization outreach programs, also help the chaplain drive the mission buses that shuttle students to and from their catechism classes.
The mission also offers Masses at different times so that those in the community who work in labor-intensive industries or are migrant workers have an opportunity to attend Mass before or after work.
In fact, during the archdiocesan October count, when parishes are asked to record attendance at all the October weekend Masses, the mission reported an average of 1,800 people in attendance per weekend, with the highest weekend tally at 2,200.
In addition to the sacramental and spiritual needs of the people, Misión Santa María offers material help to low-income members on a daily basis — providing anything from pots and pans to baby needs, as well as legal, immigration and translating services. Msgr. Depman and the mission staff may be found working at their Avondale site as late as 11 p.m. most nights.
“By being open at night and having a fully bilingual staff, it makes it much easier for people to come and receive services from the mission,” Msgr. Depman said.
Those two components have been the major causes for the success of the mission, he added.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.