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WAVENEY ANN MOOREToo snug on Snell Isle, parishioners look forward to a brand-new church and more space for students.
ST. PETERSBURG - St. Raphael's, the Catholic congregation on 11 waterfront acres in Snell Isle, is building a new church and expanding its school.
Work is expected to begin within a month on the $6-million project and should take about a year.
A 24,000-square-foot church, with seating for 1,000, will go up in front of St. Raphael's School and on the east side of the old church. The existing church will be converted to a chapel and also renovated to accommodate classrooms and media and science labs.
Sunday's groundbreaking capped five years of planning, when a parish committee was charged with envisioning the future of the church, which serves about 1,500 families, and the school, which has nearly 300 students.
Monsignor J. Bernard Caverly said a three-year capital campaign has raised more than $4-million in pledges.
"We're deeply grateful to our people for the sacrifices they have made in order for this to become a reality," he said.
"It's been a long time coming and a lot of people put a lot of effort into getting it to the point where it is at right now," agreed Edward Hamm, chairman of the building committee.
The church, which began as the Snell Isle Mission in 1960, simply has run out of space, Caverly said. Dedicated in 1963 and remodeled in 1981, the sanctuary seats 500 and is overcrowded on Christmas and Easter and on First Communion and confirmation services, the priest said.
"We also need a church to keep up with the new liturgical regulations," said Caverly, who arrived at St. Raphael's in 1996 after 20 years as rector of the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.
The baptistry should be at the main entrance of the church and the congregation seated closer to the altar, Caverly said.
Besides the groundbreaking ceremony, which was attended by Monsignor Anton Dechering, the second pastor of St. Raphael's and now dean of the Lower Pinellas Deanery, Sunday held additional significance for St. Raphael's parishioners.
Brother Alphonsus, a Capuchin friar from Dublin, Ireland, paid a visit with a relic of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, or Padre Pio, as the saint is popularly known. Padre Pio is said to have carried stigmata - wounds on his hands, feet and side, similar to those of the crucified Jesus - for most of his life. A Capuchin friar, he died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
"Because of his devout life, he is an example for people to accept suffering and to lead a life that is pleasing to God," Caverly said.
"The saints are intercessors for us and different people have devotions to certain saints. Padre Pio, even during his lifetime, people used to visit him and ask him to pray for them. Apparently he had certain gifts of healing."
Brother Alphonsus described the Padre Pio relic as "a piece of cloth steeped in the blood of the stigmata." He said it is taken to hospitals and also used at a monthly Mass for a Padre Pio prayer group.
Sixteen boys from an inner-city Dublin youth soccer team and their chaperones also accompanied Brother Alphonsus to St. Petersburg. The visitors were guests of St. Raphael's families.