St. Joseph Parish dedicates new education center

Friday, Oct. 09, 2015

OGDEN — With prayers and thanksgiving, the Saint Joseph Parish community gathered Oct. 3 for the dedication of their new education center, which was blessed by Diocesan Administrator Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, who as pastor of the parish from 1995 to 2003 purchased the building that was previously on the site.

“I wish I’d had this when I was pastor,” Msgr. Bircumshaw told those gathered.

Among the other dignitaries present for the festivities were Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general emeritus; Trappist Father Brendan Freeman of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, and Fathers Raul Cervantes and David Trujillo, parochial vicars.

The Trappist monks at the Huntsville monastery donated $500,000 to the project, which “allowed us to have not only one floor, but two; not only eight classrooms, but 16,” said Father Kenneth Vialpando, the parish pastor, who acted as master of ceremonies for the event.

The education’s main social center has been dedicated in honor of the monks.

St. Joseph Parish averages 500 to 600 children and adults in religious education each year, Fr. Vialpando said during an interview, and “that was a selling point with the Trappist monks. When they found out we had 500 kids and they were sitting like sardines in this small education center, they thought ‘Wow, we’ve got to do something.’”

Everyone in the parish will use the new center “in one way or the other, through religious education – with our students in elementary, junior high and high school, and the adults in RCIA – and every group or committee is going to be in here at one time or another throughout the week and throughout the month and year,” Fr. Vialpando said.

In addition to the classrooms and reception area, the new center houses the parish’s main offices, which were moved from the rectory. 

The building campaign started more than eight years ago. At the ribbon cutting, Fr. Vialpando acknowledged “not only the big donors, but everybody in the parish who has contributed a penny, a nickel, a dime or a quarter. This is how we’re paying for it.” 

During the ceremony, Fr. Vialpando thanked the parishioners, saying, “You are what makes this place what it is. We are here to celebrate you.”

In his opening comments, Fr. Vialpando recalled those who were killed in the Oct. 1 shooting on the Oregon community college campus, “as a way of asking them to pray for all of us that we, too, within this church and this education center can be filled with that same seed of life – the blood of Christ – so that when called upon to stand up and profess our faith, we, like those nine martyrs, can boldly announce ‘I am a Christian.’” 

He added, “You and I are here to ask God to bless this building so that it can be a seminary, a seed bed of faith that will help all of our students – children, teenagers and adults – know exactly who they are in Christ. … Let us pray that our seminary, our seed bed of faith here at St. Joseph education center, will be that holy ground where all of our students, along with you and me, will be able to learn to practice the virtues of forgiveness, mercy, compassion and love, not only throughout this jubilee Year of Mercy, but throughout their lives. If St. Joseph education center is going to be that seed bed of faith, we as pastors, parents and teachers must impress upon all of our students that in order for us to stop the violence and the murders all around us, you and I have to be the heart and the hands of Christ. We have to be that hope in the midst of despair. We have to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. …” 

Speaking in Spanish, Fr. Cervantes thanked God for the gift of the center. To those gathered, he said, “This is the result of your effort, of all your hard work,” and he asked God’s blessing on all.