I attempted to join Arlington Catholic Diocese in the early 1980s. I was single, and came under severe persecution from the ultra traditionalists because I would not become a priest. The diocese messed with the wrong dude. I was also a radio television news anchor in the DC market, and I started a media holy war. Just about every newscasts I did included a story about priest sex abuse. A monsignor who was pastor at St. James in Falls Church committed suicide after he was confronted about molesting kids in the 1960s. I accused the church of covering the situation up.

Try St. Athanasius Catholic Church in Vienna. Real Mass and Sacraments

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe no one has mentioned Cathedral STM. Wonderful parish. Fr. Rippy officiated our wedding. We are out of the area now, but miss it.

I used to go to STM and walked out the day Fr. Rippy gave a homily that said girls dream of being moms and princesses and boys dream of being doctors, lawyers, etc.

My family loves Our Lady Queen of Peace. Finding it is what made us go back to Catholic Mass. It's wonderful.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Cathedral STM. Wonderful parish. Fr. Rippy officiated our wedding. We are out of the area now, but miss it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former, lifelong Arlington Diocese Catholic; is there not a strict parish boundary requirement? Don’t you typically need to live within your assigned parish boundary? I attended six AD parishes - changed each time I moved.

Parish boundaries were for convenience but I was always taught you were assigned. No church shopping.

Agreed.

The Arlington diocese is the reason I’m no longer catholic. I didn’t want to leave either. But now I’ve baptized two babies in a Protestant church. I still attend church while traveling but couldn’t do the Arlington diocese with assigned churches.

The assigned churches thing is not true. There must have been some diocesan employee who spread this falsehood. I live in Reston and am zoned to St. Thomas a Becket. I am registered at St. Joseph's in Herndon. No one has said a thing and I've had my kids baptized at St. Joe's.

We attend St. Agnes. I'm sure folks will say that it's "conservative" relative to many parishes, and that's fair enough. While my personal view is that applying these sorts of labels tends to blur a murky line between theology and politics in a way that is unfortunate and not always appropriate, you obviously have a feel for what you're looking for so take it for what it's worth.

So with that said, I really would urge you to check it out. The pastor has put a noticeable (and noticeably successful) emphasis on expanding the sense of parish community through various activities, whether it's youth groups, potluck trivia nights, or more religiously focused activities. Lots of families, both old and new. In addition, they are in the early stages of facility capital improvements to better accommodate all of the activities that the parish supports (and wants to support), and of course, it has a solid elementary school if that will be of interest to you at any point.

From a religious perspective, the mass is of course the mass. But I have found that the priests give good homilies (and I originally come from a protestant tradition where that is a little more important). There is something for both the mind and the heart, that does not "talk down" to you, and leaves you with some practical things to think about when you leave. The priests have previously lived in the "real world", and are engaged.

Best of luck and God bless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would the Pope be pleased with this? Doubt it. Plus, what’s the land worth where St. Charles is? Seventy million, maybe?

Ignore the PP. Their writing style makes them stick out as a very obvious troll in almost every Catholic thread these days.

Yes, their undying praise of Fr Planty and the new St. Charles comes up in very single Arlington Diocese post. They are either a troll attempt to mock the Catholic Church or one of the Church militant who refers to Pope Francis as a heretic. Regardless they are to be ignored as they are not a true Catholic and have no idea of Christ’s teachings of love and mercy.

Anonymous wrote:Former, lifelong Arlington Diocese Catholic; is there not a strict parish boundary requirement? Don’t you typically need to live within your assigned parish boundary? I attended six AD parishes - changed each time I moved.

Parish boundaries were for convenience but I was always taught you were assigned. No church shopping.

Agreed.

The Arlington diocese is the reason I’m no longer catholic. I didn’t want to leave either. But now I’ve baptized two babies in a Protestant church. I still attend church while traveling but couldn’t do the Arlington diocese with assigned churches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would the Pope be pleased with this? Doubt it. Plus, what’s the land worth where St. Charles is? Seventy million, maybe?

Ignore the PP. Their writing style makes them stick out as a very obvious troll in almost every Catholic thread these days.

False.

Anonymous wrote:Would the Pope be pleased with this? Doubt it. Plus, what’s the land worth where St. Charles is? Seventy million, maybe?

Ignore the PP. Their writing style makes them stick out as a very obvious troll in almost every Catholic thread these days.

Anonymous wrote:Would the Pope be pleased with this? Doubt it. Plus, what’s the land worth where St. Charles is? Seventy million, maybe?

1. Church, not “chup”.

2. Any basilica anywhere is on valuable land. You need a populated area to build a basilica. But the ADW just doesn’t center itself in the liturgy the way the Diocese of Arlington does. So I support fully Father Planty’s goal to construct a Basilica that he can pastor.

To build such a beautiful liturgical dwelling, you have to clear the riff-raff from the site. No basilica I know distracts itself with a food pantry or clothing shelter. Sure, government financing of residential units on-site at 100% of median income would defray costs. I think that would be acceptable so long as the Pastor has veto rights over who occupies those units. But those units would be firewalled from the Basilica, so that the focus is where it belongs.

Would the Pope be pleased with this? Doubt it. Plus, what’s the land worth where St. Charles is? Seventy million, maybe?

We also go to OLQP, but we tried out St. Ann's for several months a couple years ago. I didn't find it too conservative (frankly, sometimes I find OLQP too political) and they had coffee and donuts in the hall after every Mass, which I thought was nice.

Anonymous wrote:Former, lifelong Arlington Diocese Catholic; is there not a strict parish boundary requirement? Don’t you typically need to live within your assigned parish boundary? I attended six AD parishes - changed each time I moved.

Parish boundaries were for convenience but I was always taught you were assigned. No church shopping.

The Arlington Diocese has boundary requirements so you can only join your assigned church but ADW churches welcome anyone.