St. Frances Cabrini Church
Obviously, the Cabrini Neighborhood derived its name from our most important building in our neighborhood and that is St. Frances Cabrini Church. Their website can be found here for mass times and other information: https://cabrinitucson.org/
I contacted them recently about the history of the church in this area and received a wonderful reply with loads of info and I thought it should be shared. This church is not only a place of worship but also provides much help to not only this community but to the needy in other parts of the world.
This was sent to me in March of 2019 so it will likely become outdated over time but for the moment it's current and is very interesting:
It was founded on Feb. 24, 1961.
The first pastor, Fr. James T. Weber, served until March 1, 1987.
Fr. Robert D. Fuller then was pastor until his retirement on June 30, 2018.
He passed away Jan. 23, 2019.
Our current pastor, Fr. Jens-Peter Jensen ("Father Jay") took office on July 1, 2018.
In the beginning, the parish had many families with young children; now we have fewer of those and more parish members of retirement age. We treasure all our members and welcome new ones! There are currently around 750 households with registered members. Most live within the 85716 zip code, but we have quite a few who drive a long way because they enjoy the friendly church community.
In addition to Masses, we have religious education programs for children and teens, classes for adults preparing to become Catholics, and classes for adult Catholics seeking to deepen their knowledge about and discuss the Bible, Catholic social teaching, etc. Our youth minister keeps the young people we have engaged in parish life and community service. We have a fine choir with a dynamic young director.
The parish has an active St. Vincent de Paul Society that helps people in need who live within the parish boundaries with food boxes, bus passes, and more; when contributions are sufficient, we may pay overdue rent to prevent eviction or an overdue utility bill to prevent shutting off service. We help hundreds of households each year. We are bounded by the Rillito River on the north, Grant Rd. on the South, Campbell on the West and Columbus on the East.
Currently we sell Café Justo after Masses once a month. This is fair trade, organic coffee that helps farmers in a Chiapas co-op keep their land. We also have the Theology Uncorked program, which offers speakers and movies on various social justice issues and draws in people from across the city.
We have a coat and sock drive going to benefit Casa Alitas, which helps immigrants awaiting their court hearings, and we are raising money (we had a Pizza Party and a Spaghetti Dinner) to send food to certain countries in Africa where there is a lot of hunger, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, a national organization. We have held drives to benefit TIHAN, the local organization helping people living with HIV and AIDS. We have many social events that raise money for worthy causes.
Certain carefully selected community organizations that are not part of our parish sometimes use our Hall or classrooms. The Cabrini Neighborhood Association formerly met meet in one of our classrooms, but a disagreement between their leadership and ours several years ago led to their finding a different meeting space. Currently, Lend-a-Hand Senior Assistance Program hosts their monthly senior lunch socials in our Hall, and they had their huge Yard Sale here last year. The Tucson Quilters League, which has hundreds of members, has also rented our facilities for their meetings and workshops for many years.
I contacted them recently about the history of the church in this area and received a wonderful reply with loads of info and I thought it should be shared. This church is not only a place of worship but also provides much help to not only this community but to the needy in other parts of the world.
This was sent to me in March of 2019 so it will likely become outdated over time but for the moment it's current and is very interesting:
It was founded on Feb. 24, 1961.
The first pastor, Fr. James T. Weber, served until March 1, 1987.
Fr. Robert D. Fuller then was pastor until his retirement on June 30, 2018.
He passed away Jan. 23, 2019.
Our current pastor, Fr. Jens-Peter Jensen ("Father Jay") took office on July 1, 2018.
In the beginning, the parish had many families with young children; now we have fewer of those and more parish members of retirement age. We treasure all our members and welcome new ones! There are currently around 750 households with registered members. Most live within the 85716 zip code, but we have quite a few who drive a long way because they enjoy the friendly church community.
In addition to Masses, we have religious education programs for children and teens, classes for adults preparing to become Catholics, and classes for adult Catholics seeking to deepen their knowledge about and discuss the Bible, Catholic social teaching, etc. Our youth minister keeps the young people we have engaged in parish life and community service. We have a fine choir with a dynamic young director.
The parish has an active St. Vincent de Paul Society that helps people in need who live within the parish boundaries with food boxes, bus passes, and more; when contributions are sufficient, we may pay overdue rent to prevent eviction or an overdue utility bill to prevent shutting off service. We help hundreds of households each year. We are bounded by the Rillito River on the north, Grant Rd. on the South, Campbell on the West and Columbus on the East.
Currently we sell Café Justo after Masses once a month. This is fair trade, organic coffee that helps farmers in a Chiapas co-op keep their land. We also have the Theology Uncorked program, which offers speakers and movies on various social justice issues and draws in people from across the city.
We have a coat and sock drive going to benefit Casa Alitas, which helps immigrants awaiting their court hearings, and we are raising money (we had a Pizza Party and a Spaghetti Dinner) to send food to certain countries in Africa where there is a lot of hunger, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, a national organization. We have held drives to benefit TIHAN, the local organization helping people living with HIV and AIDS. We have many social events that raise money for worthy causes.
Certain carefully selected community organizations that are not part of our parish sometimes use our Hall or classrooms. The Cabrini Neighborhood Association formerly met meet in one of our classrooms, but a disagreement between their leadership and ours several years ago led to their finding a different meeting space. Currently, Lend-a-Hand Senior Assistance Program hosts their monthly senior lunch socials in our Hall, and they had their huge Yard Sale here last year. The Tucson Quilters League, which has hundreds of members, has also rented our facilities for their meetings and workshops for many years.