Name of Church St. Dominic
Address 475 East I Street (corner of East 5th and East I), Benicia CA 94510
Phone number (707) 747-7220
Website www.stdominicsbenicia.org
Mass times Saturday vigil, 5:30 p.m.; Sunday 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. (Spanish-English), 5:30 p.m. First Sunday, 3 p.m. (Vietnamese). Monday – Friday, 7 a.m., Monday – Saturday, 8:15 a.m. (preceded by prayers from the Dominican community).
Confessions Saturday, 4-5 p.m. or by appointment
Names of priests All Dominican Fathers of the Western Province: Michael Hurley, pastor. John Marie Bingham, parochial vicar. LaSalle Hallissey, parochial vicar. Victor Cavalli, in residence.
School Yes, pre-K through 8th grade.
Special activities/parish groups Rosary before the weekday Mass and after the 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass; 24-hour adoration in adoration chapel; Grief Support Group; Legion of Mary; Life Abortion Alternative Ministries; Singles Ministry; Lazarus Ministry; St. Vincent de Paul Society; Knights of Columbus.
Music Lots of singing and music at the parish. They have something for everyone, depending on your taste. If you like more traditional music, attend the 9 a.m. and listen to the choir. The 7:30 a.m. has piano and flute, and the 11 a.m. organ. The 12:30 p.m. has a Spanish choir and the 5:30 p.m. is the youth Mass, so you’ll hear guitar and drums.
Parking No problem. The church has two lots on I and J streets, plus there is street parking.
Acoustics Good, backed up by a good sound system.
Cry room Yes, in the rear of the church.
Parish bulletin View on the parish website.
Additional observations While the Western Province Dominicans are a mixed bag when it comes to orthodoxy, St. Dominic’s is a beautiful old church near the northern end of San Francisco Bay. It was established by the Dominican Fathers in 1854; the current church was built in 1890. It was once the site where Dominicans in the novitiate studied for the priesthood, but the novitiate was re-located to St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland, where it remains today. You’ll enjoy a traditional interior; one of the striking features of this church’s interior is the row of white column along either side. It’s currently undergoing a restoration. Work is being performed on the front façade so you’ll see scaffolding in front through the end of this year (no work being done during Masses on weekends, though).
Sad to see the Western Dominicans continue in their modernist ways. Attending mass there over the years was never easy (as priests crowed about how “a deal has already been made for altar girls and women deacons” at the Vatican). Too bad they have no interest in obeying the Holy Father on Summorum Pontificum. Wonder if the interior will be “wreckovated” which continue unabated in CA (look at poor Queen of All Saints in Concord). How many parishes are moving the tabernacle back to the center, re-establishing altar rails, and trying to say Mass Ad Orientum? Christ asked if there would be any faith left when He returned — one wonders when seeing how the faith is practiced at many CA parishes. What do they believe in? It seems that the operative concern is “obedience” to the local ordinary (who has been elevated, in post Vatican II implementation, to a member of the “Office of Bishops”). Ask a local priest about undisputed Catholic dogma and doctrine — you will get a good range of answers, many of which are not at all Catholic. And the laity becomes more stupid about the Faith every passing year. But, we have “Vietnamese” masses. Now that is truly important in leading souls to salvation.
CHRIS, good to see you are consistent in your cranky attitude about the mass being said in languages people actually speak on this planet, like vietnamese and spanish.
you fuss and fuss about moving the tabernacle to the center (of what, i wonder?), as if the priest and people are worshiping the tabernacle during mass.
the mass prayers are almost all directed to GOD THE FATHER, thanking him for what he did in CHRIST HIS SON.
i can undestand you wanting everyone to face east, as in the old days, but otherwise your fussiness about some details has nothing to do with proclaiming and living the GOOD NEWS.
any prospective convert reading your posts would think we catholics were a bunch of loonies.
“Max”: The Catholic Church in CA (and elsewhere) is lost, as are Catholics that believe that having a priest be the center of the mass (“Step up folks, the fun is just beginning”), having the mass be about a “meal” rather than a re-creation of Calvary (which it is), having the mass said in a babel of languages, rather in the holy language that it was meant to be said in (Latin remains the language of the Church), having the Tabernacle be located at a spot other than the center of everyone’s attention (your comment “of what i wonder” is an excellent admission of not really knowing what is supposed to happen at the mass at the altar — not the “table of the meal” or whatever the Vatican II implementers call it), are all deliriously happy about the crumbling of the Church. If the form and function of the Mass is unimportant, why have one at all? Simply proclaim whatever it is that you believe and be happy. Christ gave power to Peter and to the apostles, including the power to set their order on the Church. The current crowd forgot that the Church effectively spread the Gospel throughout the world (yes, wearing their fussy habits and collars, and saying Mass Ad Orientum, in Latin, with lots of kneeling and taking the Blessed Host from a priest). Where is adherence to the Great Commandment of Christ — to go forth and preach the Good News to the World? Where is it? No where! Not at all “cranky”, but angry at the decades of abuse, and misleading the “many” to avoid the very salvation that the Mass was supposed to assist. Far more converts — centuries of them — were called to follow the “loonies” to the Faith and to salvation. The ignorance of most Catholics about the faith now is beyond sad. Dumbing down the Faith leads only to the loss of faith, or belief in a faith so wrong as to no longer be able to be defined as Catholic.
“Sad to see the Western Dominicans continue in their modernist ways.”
yeah, CHRIS, it was so much better when the dominicans were doing unmodernmist htings like leading the inquisitition!
you are so wise and…oops, time for BBQ.
Pope Benedict’s Moto Propio called for Bishops to stop interfering with priests and laity who desire the Mass of St. Pius V.
At my parish we have a young Dominican convert who came to us because of the liberalism that he could no longer tolerate.
Pray for him, he is currently very ill.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
i’ll pray for the young dominican, because i hate being sick myself, and have sympathy for those who are ill.
in this case, though, maybe he’s sick of being part of a breakaway parish that has separted itself from the roman catholic church?
perhaps coming back to a real parish, in communion with a real bishop, would be a nice change of scenery for him?
Oh God, may your servant be healed if it is Your Will. If not, may he be strengthened to bear his cross. Lead him to Yourself. We ask in the Name of Jesus. Mary, help of Christians, pray for him. St. Dominic, pray for him. Blessed John Paul II, pray for him. Venerable Fulton Sheen, pray for him. Pope St. Pius V, pray for him.
The hatred of the TLM posted here truly sickens me, are you a Roman Catholic or Cranmer??