Anonymous wrote:I am not familiar with Queen of Peace--no one mentioned it to us when we moved here--but we drive from VA to Holy Trinity. I love the homilies and how they run the RE classes. They have the best children's mass I have ever attended--the only really good one! There is a constant emphasis on social service that appeals to my family. I think that they try very hard to be inclusive and, as a result, have parishioners who drive quite a ways to attend mass there.
The one downside, and it's a disappointingly big one, is related to what I just mentioned. I don't find there to be much a community feel. There probably is among families whose kids attend the school? But people who drive from different parts of DC or VA aren't likely to come in midweek for a talk or even Friday for supper. It is really too bad. The Jesuits are wonderful.
Trinity tends to attract a wealthy and white crowd of highly educated professional families, which is fine if that's what you're looking for. Queen of Peace in Arlington is a traditional black church whose congregation is now largely white but still much more diverse racially and economically than Trinity will ever be.
The church is a dump and in a not particularly nice part of town, further creating a real down to earth atmosphere. I would be very surprised to learn of any Catholic church in the inner DMV that comes close to being as "open" as Queen of Peace in every sense of the word.