ELGIN—When it appeared there was a decrease in the number of parishioners attending Masses, Father Jesus Dominguez, pastor of St. Joseph Parish here, broke with the paradigm of loss and launched into a plan to build a new church with greater capacity.
He had noticed a number of parishioners had begun to avoid going to St. Joseph because the building couldn’t handle the capacity needed by the parish.
The new building is expected to fulfill the needs of the spiritual community, especially on Sundays, and during the great celebrations, such as Lent, Holy Week, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Christmas, or for first Communion and confirmation, those times when the urgency for a larger church is easy to see.
“People are responding,” said Father Dominguez. “They were clapping when we announced that the bishop has approved the construction of the new building. They knew this was coming and they know this is the right time to do it.”
The proposed new church will be built next to the current one and the old church will be kept for its historical significance to the city.
The new building “will have the capacity to seat 1,200 people in one Mass. What we have right now is a building for 300,” Father Dominguez said.
The parish was founded almost 130 years ago, in 1887, to serve 70 families, he said. Today’s reality is completely different. He estimates there are “almost more than 2,000 families” attending Masses. As of the 2015 parish census, 1,424 families were registered at St. Joseph.
According to Dr. Michael Cieslak, diocesan director of Research and Planning, St. Joseph is the third largest parish in the diocese based on Mass attendance. It has grown 27 percent in the past 10 years.
The lack of space has been a constant challenge to having Mass and prayer services.
For some large services, such as this spring’s first Communion, the parish was a guest of St. Patrick Parish in St. Charles, which is big enough to hold St. Joseph’s 572 first communicants and their families.
“We used to have Masses in the gym and at the church at the same time,” Father Dominguez explained.
“That was done for 15 years. But now we are all in the church. We start now (Sunday) Masses at 7 o’clock in the morning and we go all the way to 7 o’clock at night, nonstop.”
The logistics of the Mass schedule are difficult.
“We have only 20 minutes to get (people) in and out of the building and sometimes that is kind of a squeeze,” Father Dominquez said.
He is confident that “the new building, right here in the heart of Elgin … is going to be very attractive to people ... . It will pull back a lot of people that have moved or are skeptical to come into St. Joe’s because of the crowds we have in Sunday.”
“I’m very happy that the parish is taking this step,” said parishioner Enrique Valdes. ”First of all, because this alleviates the overflow people during Masses and, also since the number of parishioners is growing in the community, having a larger church makes more welcoming environment and then it will provide the space for growth.”
“We will be all together under the same roof,” said Father Dominquez.
With the bigger capacity, he anticipates there will be fewer Masses on Sundays but every celebration will receive more parishioners.
“People will be able to know each other, so we will build community in that sense too,” he said. “When you are in a mobile room or you are in the gym, it’s not that you can’t have a Mass there once a month of once a year, but not every weekend. People deserve a spiritual worship sanctuary, a church.
“The parish has around 3,500 people attending Masses in the weekend and more than 1,000 people receiving the sacraments,” he said.