Catholics in Granite Bay in Placer County welcomed 2004 by celebrating a new parish community in their midst. The parish, established Jan. 1 by Bishop William K. Weigand, is named for St. Joseph Marello, founder of the Oblates of St. Joseph religious community.

Founding pastor, Oblate Father Arnold Ortiz, celebrated the parish’s first Masses Jan. 3-4 at Cavitt Junior High School at 7200 Fuller Drive, the parish’s temporary home for weekend liturgies.

The bishop has entrusted the new parish to the Oblates of St. Joseph. The religious order’s Mount St. Joseph Seminary and Marello Youth Center are located in Loomis, about a mile and half from the new parish site, a 17-acre parcel at the corner of Cavitt-Stallman Road and Laird Road, just off Auburn-Folsom Road.

“I’m excited about this challenge,” said Father Ortiz, who previously served as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Sacramento from 1998 to 2003 and as director of the youth center for the past several months.

“This area and the surrounding areas are growing rapidly,” he said. “It looks rural, but there are new homes going up everywhere. It’s a great opportunity with more people coming to build a vibrant faith community.”

In October, Bishop Weigand met with about 400 Catholics in the Granite Bay area to discuss the forming of the new parish, which has been considered for several years. The parish area is between Roseville and Rocklin on the west, and Folsom Lake on the east. It is the first new parish established in the diocese since 1995.

Diocesan officials said that pastors of the four parishes affected by the new parish ñ St. Rose of Lima in Roseville, Divine Savior in Orangevale, St. John the Baptist in Folsom and Saints Peter and Paul in Rocklin — agreed that because of population growth a new parish was needed.

Father Ortiz noted that although the parish area is not densely populated, with many homes are on multi-acre parcels, it is a considerable distance from the nearest parishes and the four area parishes have large congregations with rapidly increasing populations. Placer County has been cited in the past few years as one of the most rapidly growing counties in the state.

Following the October meeting, Father Ortiz called together a group of about 30 parishioners as a planning committee “to assist me with the preparation of all the details for the foundation of our faith community,” he said.

The new pastor proposed naming the parish after St. Joseph Marello, founder of the Oblates of St. Joseph, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in November 2001. “We are the first parish in the world to have this distinction,” he noted.

Weekend Masses at Cavitt Junior High School are celebrated on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Weekday Masses are celebrated at 7 a.m. at Mount St. Joseph Seminary at 6530 Wells Ave. in Loomis. The parish office is also located temporarily at Mount St. Joseph Seminary, where Father Ortiz will continue to live with several members of his religious community.

Father Ortiz said parish activities, such as religious education classes and youth ministry, will be held at the Marello Youth Center on the grounds of the seminary. A Mass for high school teen-agers will be celebrated every Sunday at 5 p.m. at the youth center beginning Feb. 1. Oblate Brother Mat Chipp will direct the parish’s youth ministries.

Discussion about plans to build a church for the new parish will likely begin in the fall, Father Ortiz said. “We’re concentrating now on our liturgical services, because what’s important is building our faith community,” he said.

Jim Cortese, a member of the parish’s planning committee and liturgy coordinator, agreed that “the first challenge is to build the core of our community and get our ministries up and running.”

The parish property “is in a great location, and we hope to do something architecturally with the church that will fit in with the landscape. We want to be sensitive to that,” Cortese said.

For more information about St. Joseph Marello Parish, call the parish office at (916) 652-5001 or visit the Web site at www.gbparish.org.

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