St Clare of Assisi Catholic Parish — Local services in Surprise

Update on 6-7-23 (originally post 3 months ago) my mother has not heard anything from the church even though they said someone would reach out. If you are a member here I would ask your parish leaders about this, for them to refuse my step-father communion and not follow through on what they said they would do are actions that I personally would not want to belong to. It may be a beautiful church with seemingly caring and Godly leaders but they do not care about their members when they are dying. It also seems from another post they do not care about the unhoused community members (I am not surprised by this). post: I have never attended this church and never will. Please read why. My step father was an established member of this parish, who had given thousands in tithes and thousands to the recent building fund. He found out in November 2022 he had cancer and was dying. He became homebound and was a devote Catholic who never missed a Sunday mass in the 33 years of being my step father unless he was sick or during COVID. My family reached out to his church, this church, where again, he attended every Sunday and was a member, to ask for the church to come give communion to him in his home as he was just a few weeks from passing away. The church refused, saying he was not in their area. (He was a half block south of their area as he lived a half block south of Waddell.) However, they did admit he was a listed member. This deeply hurt my step father and it absolutely breaks my heart that in his last few days of his life he felt this hurt and rejection. I don’t understand how someone thought this was ok. It tears me up every time I think of what this was like for him. My mother wrote a letter and did get a response saying the Priest from this Parish would be reaching out to her. No one has reached out to her from this church, it’s been about 2 months. My step father passed away on December 31, 2022, a man who loved the Catholic Church, but in his last days felt rejected by his church. I am thankful that Santa Teresita Catholic Church in El Mirage was willing to come give my step father communion in his last days. I would recommend anyone who attends this church to not and instead find a church that would support a member in his last days and not deepen the grief of his family, who think about the hurt he felt from the actions of...

We had such a terrible experience having our our last daughter's wedding here at St. Clare's. Having moved from New York and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, I, at first, loved the beauty of this church. We met with the elderly man and his wife who are in charge of the couple's to be married. It was a destination wedding for them as they still live in NY. We live in AZ. The first sign of trouble was he gave us the wrong time. After all the invites were printed, he called us in Nes York asking to change it! My husband told him that would not be possible a month before the wedding as all arrangements had been made. He was not happy. Up to then, they had always been cordial. Unfortunately they were anything but nice and Christ like the day of our children's wedding. Being wedding photographers for over 23 years, we had never encountered such hostility. They made our florist cry. Our transportation broke down and this was politely told to them by the groom that morning. We scrambled to get a limousine to take the 9 of us from Wickenburg to St. Clare's. They drove 80 mph knowing they would not be happy. When we arrived, they were looking st us with anger in the vestibule and quickly told us to line up all while we rushed in mind you it was just 10 minutes late with our ring bearer who was all of 3, being shoved into place by the woman who then made him cry. Next I was told as I began to walk down the aisle, that our Mass we paid for was now a ceremony as he had to leave! I proceeded to cry but he didn't care. Seriously it's someone's wedding and you couldn't make up 10 minutes? This Deacon then proceeded to be so rude to the priest we had officiating that my guests remarked about it! The priest was obviously new and didn't know the exact order and the Deacon embarrassed him. It was awful. We are church goers and worked and volunteered in our parish in NY. That never would have happened. And the Catholic Church wonders why people leave the church if this is the way they're treated. We now go to a lovely parish in Sun City. Maybe this couple who is in their 80's should consider retiring their services to the church and wedding couples if this is so hard on them. Thanks for ruining a...

We're new to AZ, arriving from Oregon. We were impressed with the beauty of St Clare's and the enormity of the church; however, we attended a couple of times and were very disappointed in the music, in addition to the presiding priest who's English is so broken we could barely understand him. The homily opens the 'word' for each of us to ponder and take with us when we leave. However, if we can't understand what the priest is saying what's the purpose? Sadly, we have not returned. Regarding the music, we attended Sat evening Mass - no choir - and the hymns we had never heard. Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) offers a host of familiar hymns to most people from outside the state of Oregon. Beautiful, meaningful music with lyrics that are penetrating. Is OCP something St Clare's could consider looking into? In spite of our disappointments, we greatly miss attending Mass and have decided to give St Clare's another try in the hope that maybe we could 'learn' to accept the differences. If our return doesn't 'fit' we notice there are other Catholic churches not too terribly far away. Our desire is to remain with St. Clare's so we're praying for success. Thanks for allowing space for comments. Your reply is most appreciated. Vic...