Hey guys, new to the area and am looking for a good Catholic Church to get involved with!

What part of town? Houston is quite large.

St John Vianney on west side is a great parish.

i tend to prefer the bad ones myself

I'd suggest looking around this area. There should be a couple of good ones to try out.

St John Vianney on west side is a great parish.

Agree. Lots of ways to get involved.

If you're into a more traditional Mass, I can't recommend Holy Rosary enough. In the last few years it has has gone from mostly elderly folks to a lot of young families. They have a Latin Mass every Sunday. Really a great parish to be a part of. It can be a bit of a drive but my wife and I usually go to brunch somewhere in midtown or Montrose after Mass so it works out for us.

Holy Rosary. Very traditional.

HDeathstar said:

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St John Vianney on west side is a great parish.

Agree. Lots of ways to get involved.

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This. And I am not even Catholic. Great outreach and involvement programs.

Fall carnival is a lot of fun too.

You probably know my boss

The R&P has a few Houston Catholics. You might try there.

St. James

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They have a Latin Mass every Sunday.

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Are priests fluent, or trained to read the script, or what?

RPM said:

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St. James

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A lot of confessionals, too.

94chem said:

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They have a Latin Mass every Sunday.

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Are priests fluent, or trained to read the script, or what?

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What does this mean? It's a language that people can study and learn. Though they probably only need to know the common liturgical uses. There's usually a side by side in English for the mass goers.

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What does this mean? It's a language that people can study and learn.

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Of course. However, most theologians who study NT Greek don't speak Greek. They merely become familiar with word meanings. I could read a document in Spanish or German with good pronunciation, but I can't tell you what it means. Are priests required to study Latin in seminary? Is it so they can do word studies on ancient documents? Or so they can pronounce the language correctly (according to modern rules)? So they can speak fluently?

Latin is, and for thousands of years has been, primarily a written language. What they use in mass is "liturgical latin," the pronunciations resembling Italian. The level of scholarship would vary by interests and specialization, don't you think?

I guess I should add, if you've never been to a Latin mass, that the homily is in English and the readings are usually in English, so no one attending needs to be fluent. There are only a couple parishes here and there that still have some form of a Latin mass, so the people attending are usually interested in it.

ChiliBeans said:

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Latin is, and for thousands of years has been, primarily a written language. What they use in mass is "liturgical latin," the pronunciations resembling Italian. The level of scholarship would vary by interests and specialization, don't you think?

I guess I should add, if you've never been to a Latin mass, that the homily is in English and the readings are usually in English, so no one attending needs to be fluent. There are only a couple parishes here and there that still have some form of a Latin mass, so the people attending are usually interested in it.

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it's becoming more common though especially after the Vatican clarified that local parishes do not need Bishop approval to hold it.

We just moved from ITL to the Westside and like many above have started going to St. John Vianney. It's a big beautiful church that is finishing a renovation. Looking to get involved more there.

ITL, we went to St. Anne of Westheimer and loved it. It's smaller and and more intimate than a lot of churches around town. 9 and 11am masses on Sunday are always packed, but tend to have the best music, especially during Lent and Advent. Whatever you do, avoid the 5pm Mass the first Sunday of every month. It's the LifeTeen mass and the music is absolutely horrible.

Kujo30 said:

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It's the LifeTeen mass and the music is absolutely horrible.

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I'll never forget the first time I went to a LifeTeen mass in high school. I remember thinking WTF is this horrible music. Are they trying to make church cool? Seeing Father just sit there with "rock" music on in the background was so weird to me.

I'd imagine the Life Teen mass experience helped drive a few of us to search out more traditional services. Ironic some of us ended up preferring traditional Latin services after attending services geared towards the youth.

This. Exactly what happened for me.

I concur if you're anywhere itl near the sw side of town, St Annes is great. It's a beautiful church and very friendly people.

We just moved to ft bend county and looked for one as well. We've been hearing great things about St Faustino in Fulshear

The destructive practice of gearing worship towards youth instead of gearing youth towards worship is one of my favorite rants.

It's happening everywhere in lots of denoms. Drives me crazy.

Since you're joining SJV... have you been on an ACTS retreat yet?

swimmerbabe11 said:

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The destructive practice of gearing worship towards youth instead of gearing youth towards worship is one of my favorite rants.

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Funny thing about that is I was a teen when "Teen Life" came around.

It assumes a great distance between kids and adults, when in fact we're all searching for something more permanent.

St. Michael in Uptown.

the ritual and beauty of the divine liturgy is one of the reasons i've chosen to come into full communion with the Church from the protestant side of things.

i've attended a full Latin Mass also and will do so again soon.

as for the OP if you are near Garden Oaks, my wife and I got married in St Rose of Lima. we really enjoy it. it has a very active community.

these days I'm in Austin and have the joy of attending St Mary Cathedral which is a very beautiful church.

Have you checked out Our Lady of Walsingham? Lot of folks like you over there.

ChiliBeans said:

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Have you checked out Our Lady of Walsingham? Lot of folks like you over there.

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I have not. But I just looked it up. Definitely Interested in attending a mass there.

Walsingham began as an outcrop of the Anglican Use, but then attracted some cradle Catholic traditionalists. If you're a protestant convert, you might find some brethren there. In full communion, of course.

As a convert from the Episcopal Church I love Our Lady of Walsingham it's a beautiful parish. My parish is Annunciation next to Minute Maid. If you like Latin mass this is definitely the parish for you as we have two Latin and 2 English masses on Sundays. Holy Rosary is also a nice parish

I've been to three in Houston.

Holy Rosary: Very traditional church and Mass (As a convert, it's too traditional for me)
St. Anne: solid mass, but nothing particularly stood out other than to avoid Life Teen. It is the worst. Primarily yuppies, young families, and ITL residents (I.e River Oaks).
St. John Vianney: personal favorite. Love the priests, especially the Irish priest. Good mix of families, young adults, elderly, etc.

RPM said:

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St. James

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!

St Faustina in Katy/Fulshear is only 2 years old and we just moved into our parish hall while the church is being built, but we have an awesome priest, Fr Dat Hoang. He is a tremendous blessing for our parish. Plus, our patron saint is THE DIVINE MERCY lady, so we got that going for us, which is nice.