About Us

INTRODUCTION

In these pages, we present “The path of the people of God in Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in West Valley City 2020-2024”, how our parish community has implemented the Diocesan Pastoral Plan (DPP) which has the theme: “Charting our Mission Pastoral Plan Diocese of Salt Lake City 2018-2023”. We will try to present how we have walked with our Diocese, our parishioners in our parish and in our city of West Valley City.

Our predecessor, Father Francisco Pires had started with the “Faith Formation” (FF). When I arrived in August 2020, I continued with FF until December. In January 2021, we started with “Vocations” and so on.

The “terminus ad quem” of our journey is that of “Building a Community of Brothers and Sisters who Believe, Celebrate and Live Together as Missionary Disciples”. This goal is part of the Great Evangelization Project (GEP) of our parish which covers the entire city of West Valley City. After fifty years, what kind of community do we want to build? How are we moving from the current community to the ideal community, that of Acts of the Apostles 2: 42-47?

In the following pages, we will present the Great Evangelization Project (GEP) of our Parish. Secondly, we will set out the foundations of our pastoral Ministry without which the DPP would not be possible. In a third moment, we will present the development and implementing of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan in the reality of our parish. The fourth chapter will talk about the Future of our community: where we want to go!

I. GREAT EVANGELIZATION PROJECT (GEP)

1.1. Introduction: Pastoral Path of Saints Peter and Saint Paul

We continue our pastoral path, our work of building a community of brothers and sisters who believe, celebrate and live together as missionary disciples of Christ in West Valley City.

In this first chapter, we will present the Great Project of the Evangelization of our parish. Saints Peter and Paul is a parish that covers all the city of West Valley City. Let's see what this project is about.

1.2. Global Orientation Project

The Great Project of Evangelization of our parish includes three points. The first is the Kerygmatic Phase, that's to say of AWARENESS. The second is the Pre-catechumenal Phase, that's to say of EVANGELIZATION. Finally, the Catechumenal Phase will be the third point. It will be a question of DEFINING OURSELVES AS A CHURCH ON MISSION, a community witness to the Risen Christ.

1.2.1. Kerygmatic Phase (2021-2024)

The objective of this phase is to raise awareness among the people of God of Saints Peter and Paul so that they wake up, are connected to the life of the parish, living fraternity and reconciliation with God and their brothers and sisters. The people of God are called to the "initial proclamation" (First Proclamation) and to make a first experience of discovering Christ, friend of men and herald of the Good News for life.  The first phase focused the attention of the People of God on the Encounter, Fraternity, Church and Reconciliation.

1.2.2. Pre-Catechumenal Phase (2024-2027)

The objective of the second phase is the Evangelization of our entire parish. It will be a systematic evangelization. We must make the Gospel known, in a systematic and cyclical process of significant experiences of encounter and oriented to the election of Christ.  The first year will talk about the Word of God, the second will be the Faith, and we will finish with the election of Christ as our Lord.

1.2.3. Catechumenal Phase (2027-2030)

The third phase will help us identify ourselves as a Church. It will be a question of collecting the fruits of the reflection on Christ and the Church and to consciously make a concrete and programmatic choice to witness it as a faith community Church, as a Church in a state of mission (“goes forth”). Thus, our parish community can become a vibrant and missionary community.

The focus will be on the Mystery of the Church, then the Sacraments and we will finish with the Eucharist. 

 1.3. Conclusion

In this first chapter we presented the Great Project of Evangelization of our parish territory. It is a process that takes time. We must be patient, full of faith and zeal to see it concretely realized. This great promise will help realize the dream of building a Christian community like that of Acts 2:42-47. We must set solid foundations for our pastoral ministry.

II. FOUNDATIONS OF OUR PASTORAL MINISTRY

 2.1. Introduction

In this second chapter, we first express our gratitude to God and all our predecessors. Secondly, we will present the identity of our parish of Saints Peter and Paul. In the third point, we will talk about the spirit with which we will work. The three Christian prerogatives will be part of the fourth point. The fifth point will tell us about the "integral ecclesiology" which will accompany our project. Missionary pastoral care for a completely missionary church will be the subject of the sixth point. The penultimate point will deal with the "Spirituality of Communion" as the key to all pastoral ministries. Finally, the last point will give the structures of dialogue for the realization of this plan of evangelization of our parish territory.

2.2. Remembering the Past with Gratitude

2.2.1. Gratitude to God

Despite this long time of suffering and confinement due to Covid-19, our family of Saints Peter and Paul continued their mission to “Believe, Celebrate and Live” the redeeming love of Our Lord Jesus Christ”. We give thanks to God for having accompanied us and for being generous with our parish for fifty years and these last three years (2020-2023). We are grateful for all the work done by our brother priests, deacons, nuns and lay people.

2.2.2. Our Mission: Fruit of the Work of Several Brothers and Sisters who Preceded Us

This mission is the fruit of many souls of goodwill. It was initiated by the priests of Saint Patrick (Salt Lake City) and Saint Francis Xavier (Kearns) who offered their service to the Catholics of Granger. With the blessing of the Bishop Federal, in August 1972, the parish of Saints Peter and Paul was established in West Valley City. Father Victor G. Bonnell continued the pastoral ministry initiated by his brothers by celebrating Masses at the Granger Weight Watchers Building with the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Dick Trentman. This mission is also the fruit of the lay parishioners who bought the current land in March 1974. A year later, in February 1975, bishop Federal celebrates the first mass. In June 1975, he consecrated the new parish of Saints Peter and Paul. Thus, the mission pursued today is the fruit of the work of the various lay people under the guidance of these priests: Monsignor Victor G. Bonnell (1972-1982), Padre Paul R. Franco (1982-1986), Monsignor Robert C. Pollock (1986-1992), Monsignor Francis B. Pellegrino (1992-2003), Padre Javier Virgen (2003-2008), Padre Stanislaw Herba (2008-2010), Padre Omar Ontiveros (2010-2016) and Padre Francisco Pires (2016 - 2020). Several vicar priests, deacons, monks and nuns have also been at the service of our parish community. To all of them, we are grateful and pray for the living and those who preceded us to the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father.

We too, Fr. Sebastien Sasa (2020 -), we are part of this great missionary movement under the enlightened leadership of our Bishop Oscar A. Solis who gave pastoral orientations in his first pastoral letter (2017) "A Springtime of the New Evangelization” and the DPP which, by the way, is the fruit of the work of all of us members of the local Catholic Church here in Utah.

We can say that our parish of Saints Peter and Paul was and still is the fruit of an ecclesial communion between committed lay people, deacons and priests zealous for the things of God.

2.3. Identity and Realities of our Parish

Our parish of Saints Peter and Paul is part of the Deanery of the Wasatch. It is a multicultural parish with parishioners from all the five continents. We give thanks to God for this diversity which is an opportunity and at the same time a challenge. We are a parish whose majority is made up of the Latinas community (Central and South America) followed by Tongans and Samoa, then Anglos, Vietnamese, Africans, African Americans, Europeans and Native Americans.

The number of families is growing. The attendance at the Holy Masses on weekends and days of the week is going up. There is an urgent need to build a new church. Another challenge is the number of classes for the students in Religious Education and RCIA and RICA. Two pastoral priorities are close to our hearts: the Pastoral Care of the Family, of couples and the Pastoral Care of Youth and Young Adult.

We can say that our community is welcoming, eucharistic, vibrant, missionary parish   and connected with our city of West Valley.

 2.3.1. Welcoming

Saints Peter and Paul, rich in its diversity (presence of peoples coming from the five continents), attempts to welcome everyone: those who come for the first time here, those who come to adore Jesus (Monday to Friday), to confess or to talk with me at the office, or even that I am going to visit in their families. So, everyone is welcome in our parish family.

2.3.2. Eucharistic

Our parish has made the Eucharist the Center of its life. I invite the West Valley People of God in these terms: “Dear brothers and sisters, we are invited to be and always become “Bread of Life” for our brothers and sisters within our family of Saints Peter and Paul, of our town of West Valley and our local Church here in Utah. Jesus, "Bread of Life" is with us and accompanies us in our mission to build the house of God here in West Valley".

The Eucharistic presence of Jesus in our parish is a strength for all our families and all the people who come from our valley or from the surroundings of Salt Lake City to worship the Kings of kings. A day we have ten hours of adoration, during the week we have fifty hours and a month we have two hundred hours. We are truly a blessed parish.

2.3.3. Vibrant

The Holy Spirit is at work in our family of Saints Peter and Paul. Our hearts are like those of the disciples of Emmaus when they listen to Jesus speak to them of the Word of God. Our hearts vibrate and we sing and praise our God with joy. As Pope Francis says, this joy is great and is becoming more and more contagious, because Jesus Christ is with us.

Our Eucharistic celebrations are joyful, because Jesus Christ is always with us, and he is alive. “I invite all Christians, said Pope Francis, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”” (The Joy of the Gospel #3). As the Psalm 150 teach us, we e praise God in our temple of Saints Peter and Paul “with blasts upon the horn…with harp and lyre… with tambourines and dance… with strings and pipes … with crashing cymbals … with sounding cymbals.”

2.3.4. Missionary

We are blessed because our parish is under the patronage of Peter and Paul, two great missionaries. Two ways of making the Church, but united in the same Wonderful Plan of God beginning with Jesus Christ. We welcome the invitation of Jesus, of the Church, of the Popes (especially Francis), of our Bishop Oscar Solis and of our Bishops in the USA, to make all nations missionary disciples of Christ.

We have the Missionary Group Saints Peter and Paul (MGSPP). It has been four years since our parish organizes Utah Catholic Missionary Weeks (SMCU). In this spirit, this year, our parish organized the "Fourth Utah Catholic Missionary Week" and the “Missionary Expo” in 2023. All this is to animate our parish with a missionary spirit. Another beautiful missionary experience is that with the Little Missionaries of Saints Peter and Paul (LMSPP), we are celebrating the Eucharist in all their families. We have already visited, with these little friends of Jesus, the Central and Southern part of our local Church. We only have the Northern part left.

We also have our Missionary Group Saints Peter and Paul (MGSPP). The "Little Jesus-Missionary" accompanies us throughout this missionary pilgrimage when we visit families and evangelize them both "ad intra" and "ad extra.”

With this Pastoral Year 2024-2025, we have the Missionary Center Saints Peter and Paul (MCSPP).  This MCSPP has the mission of offering missionary formation to our parishioners or to those from elsewhere who would like to receive this training. It also organizes the Utah Catholic Missionary Weeks (UCMW) in October, one week before the World Mission Day (WMD). The diffusion and publication of missionary, missiological and Theology of Mission reflections, Missionary Pastoral Care is ensured by our Missionary Review “Duc in Altum”, and it will be quarterly. The MCSPP has within it a Listening and Support Service for families, young people, adults, etc. Finally, the Center promotes the four Pontifical Mission Societies: The Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith (PSPF), The Pontifical Society of Holy Childhood (PSHC), The Pontifical Society of Saint Peter the Apostle (PSSPA) and The Pontifical Missionary Union (PMU).

2.3.5. Growing a Greener Church

Our parish responds to the call of Pope Francis in his second Encyclical "Laudato Si' of May 24, 2015, ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME.

Through Pastoral Care of Our Common Home, we inform our community about what is going on regarding climate change. After the information, we give a formation to our brothers and sisters so that they take care and respect for creation. 

Our wish and hope are that the People of God of Saints Peter and Paul be good Catholics and faithful citizens to God and to our Mother Earth.

2.3.6. Connected With Our City of West Valley City

As Pope Francis says and according to the missionary guidelines of our Bishop, we want to be a parish “goes forth”, connected with the world, with our city, our State of Utah. Thus, we have Arline Ramirez who is the representative of our parish with the group of all the leaders of the Churches and religious denominations of our city (Interfaith Council). A beautiful organization of all of us present in West Valley, one family of God's children with different colors that form the Rainbow of Peace, of Unity.

 2.4.  The Spirit of Our Community

Saints Peter and Paul Parish in West Valley City, Utah is a community of faithful Catholics who BELIEVE in the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a community that CELEBRATES the Word of God, the Eucharist and the other sacraments. Finally, as brothers and sisters, members of this community LIVE what we celebrate in accordance with the spirit of the Acts of the Apostles 2: 42-47 and the Pastoral Plan of our Diocese of Salt Lake City. Our parish protects and accompanies children, young people, vulnerable brothers and sisters    and families in their human and spiritual growth: wisdom, knowledge and holiness of life.

Finally, as Pope Francis says, our family of Saints Peter and Paul is like a “Country Hospital”, a “Good Samaritan” parish.

 2.5. The three prerogatives of the Christian

We are a community of lay faithful, priests and deacons working together to build a vibrant and missionary community, a community of missionary disciples. The roots of our "being-together", "working-together" is our incorporation into Jesus Christ: Priest, Prophet and King. We are all Christians. We too, by our baptism, are all priests, prophets and kings. Ordained and lay ministers, we all belong to Jesus Christ. We have the mission to continue his work, i.e. to bring the Good News to all nations, to all realities, peripheries of our parish, our city of West Valley City, our state of Utah and our country the United States of America.

2.6.An “Integral Ecclesiology”

It is only in this logic of an "integral ecclesiology" as Pope Francis says, i.e. an "ecclesiology of communion" that our parish can live a "pastoral together". Ordained and lay ministers, we are in the same boat of Saint Peter for the same mission, specifically to evangelize families, children, young people, the sick, fiancés, couples, the elderly, etc. On this topic, Pope Francis  [1] is clear: “It is in this perspective that we can properly approach the issue of shared responsibility on the part of laypersons in the Church. The need to enhance the role of the laity is not based on some theological novelty, or due to the shortage of priests, much less a desire to make up for their neglect in the past. Rather, it is grounded in a correct vision of the Church, which is the People of God, of which the laity, together with the ordained ministers, are fully a part. The ordained ministers, then, are not masters, they are servants: shepherds, not masters. This means recovering an “integral ecclesiology”, like that of the first centuries, when everything was unified by membership in Christ and by supernatural communion with him and with our brothers and sisters. It means leaving behind a sociological vision that distinguishes classes and social rank, and is ultimately based on the “power” assigned to each category. The emphasis needs to be placed on unity, not on separation or distinction. The layperson is more than a “non-cleric” or a “non-religious”; he or she must be considered as a baptized person, a member of the holy People of God, for that is the sacrament which opens all doors. In the New Testament, the word “layperson” does not appear; we hear of “believers”, “disciples”, “brethren” and “saints”, terms applied to everyone: lay faithful and ordained ministers alike, the People of God journeying together.”[2]

  [1]Address of the Holy Father to the participants of the Congress for the presidents and referents of the Episcopal Commissions for the laity “Pastors and lay faithful called to walk together”, Synod Hall, 18 February 2023, in To Participants at the Conference promoted by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (18 February 2023) | Francis (vatican.va)  February 24, 2023.

 [2] Ibidem 

Father Sébastien SASA, PhD, MPA

Administrator of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

West Valley City, UT