St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in Hyattsville.
About a hundred young Catholic families have moved to Hyattsville in recent years to help revitalize the local religious community.
Led in part by former city council member and Hyattsville Life & Times publisher Chris Currie, this “intentional community” has helped restore older houses, revitalize the St. Jerome Catholic church and redesign the curriculum at St. Jerome Academy, according to a story in Fare Forward, a Christian quarterly.
There are now unofficially about a hundred young, well-educated, and orthodox families in Hyattsville’s intentional community. “It’s a community without any kind of articles of incorporation or authority structure outside of the parish,” Currie says, “which is the basic unit of Catholic society.” In recent years, St. Jerome Parish has had significantly more baptisms than funerals, reversing a general trend of urban churches with dwindling numbers of mostly elderly parishioners. Several young parishioners have entered the seminary.
Hyattsville was well-positioned for this kind of revival.
St. Jerome’s dates back to 1886 and the school back to 1943, giving the local Catholic community strong local ties. The Catholic University of America is just four miles south while St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church is a little north, near the University of Maryland. There’s even a local Catholic moms group.
But the hard work of Currie and others to bring families to the area and restore the local religious institutions is a major factor in the growth of this community.
Thanks for shining a light on the growth of the local Catholic community. The article, understandably, is a bit broad brush in summarizing a complex history of community and parish renewal — and my role is, I think, rather exaggerated in both — but it does accurately highlight the importance of vision and intentionality in building strong community.
I would like to add, too, that I am not the founder of the Life & Times. Although as a City Councilmember I did propose the establishment of a community newspaper as part of Hyattsville’s Community Legacy Plan, it was original publisher Steve Clements and editor Nick Dunten who founded the paper. I became involved shortly after I retired from the Council, when I was elected president of the board. I’ve served as vice president and business manager a couple of terms after my one term as president.
Those interested in learning more about the community at St. Jerome’s might wish to attend either the 8:30 (contemporary) or 10:30 (traditional) Sunday morning Mass and stay for refreshments and fellowship in the Gold Room, underneath the church, afterward.
I updated the post to correct your title.
— RTB