SANTEE — St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Parish, which currently gathers for worship on Sunday mornings in the monastery chapel at St. Augustine High School, has broken ground for a permanent church.
About 80 people gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony July 7 in Santee, the future home of a 4,200-square-foot parish campus that will consist of a Byzantine-style church and a parish hall.
“Over six years, we were waiting for this moment,” said Father Yurii Sas, pastor, who explained that delays were caused by the pandemic and waiting for approval for a conditional-use permit.
Construction is expected to take between 12 and 18 months, he said.
Established in 1960, St. John the Baptizer Parish isn’t part of the Diocese of San Diego. It is one of several Eastern-rite Catholic parishes in the San Diego area, each of which answers to their own bishops and follows their own liturgical traditions, while remaining in full communion with the pope.
The parish, which consists of about 60 families, is part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is based in Kyiv. Its diocese is headquartered in Chicago.
Father Sas recalled that, about six years ago, he had been ministering at a parish in North Dakota and was on the cusp of transferring to another parish in Denver, when his bishop asked him to accept a different – and more challenging – assignment in San Diego.
“There is no church, no money, no rectory … but (the) opportunity to build a church,” he recalls his bishop telling him at the time.
Father Sas describes the effort “to build this church for future generations” as “the biggest project in my life.”
During his years as pastor, he said, he has “passed with those people (in the parish) through many, many difficulties,” including having to celebrate online and outdoor Masses, or “Divine Liturgies” as they are called in Eastern Catholic Church, during the COVID-era lockdowns.
Father Sas said that both he and his parishioners have welcomed “many, many families” fleeing war-torn Ukraine since the Russian invasion in early 2022.
However, he said, the new church will be “not only for Ukrainians,” but a welcoming place “for all nations.”
St. John the Baptizer Parish will gratefully accept donations to its building fund at stjohnthebaptizer.org/contribution.
