Any suggestions on Parishes in the Philadelphia area?

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My DH and I are relocating from Omaha, NE. I am looking for a parish that will have a variety of ages of parishioners but will offer traditional masses and sermons.

I am sort of peculiar in what is important to me outside of real Catholic stances on issues such as euthanasia, abortion, contraception, etc. . . , but in a perfect world the average Mass at such a parish would be celebrated without people holding hands or raising their hands, with people kneeling until after the great Amen, and featuring traditional organ music.

A church that features a sanctuary in the front of the church, is more long than it is wide, and has statues, stained glass and a school would be nice.

The ideal town would offer this sort of a parish and also have new homes being built at relatively reasonable prices ($400 - 600,000). The town would also have access to a FertilityCare center featuring the Creighton Model of NFP.

Any help is appreciated. I know my requests may seem silly but I’ve never lived anywhere else and am starting to panic about how I will meet new people with similar values, etc…
 
We moved out of Philadelphia a year ago. My husband grew up there and I lived there for a few years (after having come from the midwest, like you).

Doylestown has the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine, located in Doylestown, about an hour outside of Philadelphia (40 miles). Doylestown is on the R-5 train line and goes directly into the city if your husband is commuting or if that interests either of you. Anyway, the shrine is run by the extremely devout Pauline fathers, with daily confessions and nearly all-day confessions on Sat/Sunday–or it was that way just a year ago. It’s beautiful and lovely and completely faithful to the Church. They have all sorts of interesting things happening there throughout the year–Fr. Corapi comes and speaks annually, there’s a Polish festival, etc. czestochowa.us/direct_us.php

If you live in or near Doylestown, there is plenty of new contruction in your price range. My old FCP from the CrM lives in Perkasie (nearby) and meets with people in Lansdale-Doylestown. She has six kids and is great. There are a variety of ages that attend the shrine and a fair amount of tourists that come, though at least part of the Parish are immigrants from Poland or second-generations, maybe–we went there frequently but were not parishioners, as we lived in a different city. However, they were all so welcoming to us… the Pauline priests are wonderful, too. So, so devout.

I also lived in Center City Philadelphia and went to the Cathedral, then Bryn Mawr and eventually the Lansdale/Hatfield area, so if any of those are where you’re looking…let me know and I could help with more specific information.
 
While there may be exceptions, in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia one is strongly encouraged to support the parish in whose geographic boundaries one’s address falls.

Living in the great Archdiocese myself (feel free to PM me), I have to say that my impression is that there aren’t many “rogue” parishes…Philadelphia’s a pretty well-run archdioces. I could be mistaken, however.

As for CrM & FertilityCare centers… check out www.pnfpn.org (Philadelphia Natural Family Planning Network.). I’ll PM you with the name of my instructor & OBGYN, who trained in Omaha at Pope Paul VI.

Your price range for homes will get you plenty in any area. I’d say it’s in the upper end of new construction pricing.

Welcome to Philly!
 
Thanks again for your suggestions and reassurance. Change is hard for me and I have a lot of it going on right now.

We visited Philly this weekend and I loved what we saw. I was attracted to Downingtown in Chester County due to it being on a train line which also goes to my husband’s office and I absolutely loved the church, St. Josephs, there.

It’s funny how the Lord works. Here I’ve been fretting because we recently changed parishes from the one I grew up in, got married in, etc… to the one that is 6 blocks from our house. My heart was just aching for my former parish and the fear of the unknown across the country was really getting to me. St. Joseph’s is a near replica of my former parish. There are very slight differences but even my darling husband said, Oh My Gosh, it’s St. Thomas More when we walked in. Thanks again everybody!
 
If it were north of Philly, I would say Mary, Mother of the Redeemer in North Wales. That is where I went and it attracts people from the neighboring parishes. Lots of activies most of which are lay initiated. Housing is still relatively resonable there too. You also have multiple rail lines (R5, R2) in the area which go downtown.
 
Princess_Abby said:
We moved out of Philadelphia a year ago. My husband grew up there and I lived there for a few years (after having come from the midwest, like you).

Doylestown has the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine, located in Doylestown, about an hour outside of Philadelphia (40 miles). Doylestown is on the R-5 train line and goes directly into the city if your husband is commuting or if that interests either of you. Anyway, the shrine is run by the extremely devout Pauline fathers, with daily confessions and nearly all-day confessions on Sat/Sunday–or it was that way just a year ago. It’s beautiful and lovely and completely faithful to the Church. They have all sorts of interesting things happening there throughout the year–Fr. Corapi comes and speaks annually, there’s a Polish festival, etc. czestochowa.us/direct_us.php

If you live in or near Doylestown, there is plenty of new contruction in your price range. My old FCP from the CrM lives in Perkasie (nearby) and meets with people in Lansdale-Doylestown. She has six kids and is great. There are a variety of ages that attend the shrine and a fair amount of tourists that come, though at least part of the Parish are immigrants from Poland or second-generations, maybe–we went there frequently but were not parishioners, as we lived in a different city. However, they were all so welcoming to us… the Pauline priests are wonderful, too. So, so devout.

I also lived in Center City Philadelphia and went to the Cathedral, then Bryn Mawr and eventually the Lansdale/Hatfield area, so if any of those are where you’re looking…let me know and I could help with more specific information.
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Our Lady of Czestochowa is where we go to mass. I love that shine… daily confession at 11:30 mass is convenient!
go to peace valley park next door, have a picnic at the park, rent a boat on the lake on a saturday afternoon then go next door to the shrine for the vigil mass… my wife and i did that quite a few times when we were dating.
 
Our Lady of Czestohowa is amazing!!! I started going there regularly by the end of the summer. Confession daily is wonderful!

For an actual parish, depending on where you are, Our Lady of Good Counsel in Southampton is very good (I’m more familiar with Bucks County than anywhere else…).

Oops, I just saw that you said you were interested in Chester County. I’m not too familiar with that area, but I do know people who live there, so I’ll ask.

Welcome to Philly!!!
 
we moved to perkasie last year after living in bethlehem ¶for 2 years. I have to say that i really like the churches better there than here. But we go to Sacred Heart here in perkasie and its a fairly good parish. the music is much better than the other church here which is St. Agnes, the music is horrible there. We are actually closer to St. Agnes but we got special permission to join Sacred Heart because my husband has been going there since he was 12, that was also the church he had been sponsored by to go to seminary.

As for housing you should check out www.phillyburbs.com I believe you can search by listing in certain counties and for the money you are looking to spend you will have NO problem buying a house. You would run into more problems if you were trying to stay under the 220 range:)

Good luck with everything:)
 
I don’t know if this will be of any interest, but in South Jersey, Camden Diocese, we have an Indult parish. It would be pretty far from Doylestown, but I understand there are many people from the Archdiocese who come there for Mass. The parish is Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, NJ. They have a website, I think it’s materecclesiae.org.

Peace,
Linda
 
I am from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and I love it. Along the main line and in some other suburban areas there are several very good parishes. I will also agree about Downington’s St. Joseph’s parish; I would go there for nightly mass during Lent. I would also recommend St. Patrick’s Parish (Kennett Square), Asumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary(Avongrove),and Saint Agnes (West Chester). All three of these have schools and are true Catholic Churches. The greater Philadelphia area is a great place to live and I think you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for.
 
I think Father Larry Richards is in that area - his church is “Bread of Life Community” I believe. Just google him and it will be easy to find. The word ‘community’ makes me cringe, but he says an extrememly reverent Mass, seems very orthodox, and is a fantastic speaker - expect a 40 minute homily, but it will go by like it was 10.

It’s a charismatic parish, but my guess is regular Sunday Mass would not be charismatic.
 
LindaS said:
I don’t know if this will be of any interest, but in South Jersey, Camden Diocese, we have an Indult parish. It would be pretty far from Doylestown, but I understand there are many people from the Archdiocese who come there for Mass. The parish is Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, NJ. They have a website, I think it’s materecclesiae.org.

Peace,
Linda
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Linda is correct. I am a parishioner there. I drive 40 miles every Sunday (usually, that is) to Mater Ecclesiae with my family. There are many people from PA who come to Mater Ecclesiae every Sunday also.

(Link to Mater Ecclesiae is below my name)

Ken
 
My daughter recently moved to Philadelphia…and we went to Mass with her Sat. and Sunday. I think the name of her parish is Our Lady of Lourdes… it’s in the Overbrook Area… staffed by Priests of the Mercedarian Order. On Sunday the 10am Mass is the Latin (Novus Ordo Mass)… wonderful organ…chant…Great!
 
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