Name of Church St. Francis of Assisi
Address 900 H Street, Bakersfield CA 93304
Phone number (661) 327-4734
Website www.stfran.org
Mass times Saturday vigil, 5 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. (Vietnamese). Sundays, 6:45 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. (Latin), 5 p.m. (Spanish) & 7 p.m. Daily 6:30 a.m. & 12:10 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. (honoring Mary)
Confessions Saturdays, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. or by appointment.
Names of priests Monsignor Craig Harrison, pastor. Monsignor Harrison is beloved in his parish and respected in his community. He grew up in Bakersfield, was ordained a priest in 1987, and returned to become pastor of his hometown parish in 1999. He’s seen growth of both the parish and parish school since his arrival. He founded a home for unwed mothers and another for the homeless. He is a police and sheriff chaplain, and co-hosts a radio talk show. He has a special interest in working with families who have suffered the death of a child, and wrote a children’s book, Angel Girl, based on the true story of a girl who battled cancer. Last year, he served as guest chaplain on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, delivering an invocation. He is an accomplished homilist; listen to some of his homilies on the parish website. Before becoming a priest, he legally adopted seven children who came from difficult backgrounds. Monsignor Harrison is assisted by visiting priests who may stay at the rectory for several months at a time.
Special groups/activities Legion of Mary, Eucharistic Adoration (Monday and Tuesday mornings, Wednesday through Saturday morning), Little Flower Society (feeds the homeless), Tuesday Rosary Making Class, Detention Ministry, YES: Young Adult Fellowship, The Divine Mercy Cenacle
Music Depends on the Mass, choirs and cantors.
School Yes, pre-K through 8th grade.
Fellow parishioners Mostly English-speaking, some Hispanics.
Parking The lot fills up quickly on the weekends.
Acoustics If you have hearing problems you’ll want to sit in the front.
Additional observations St. Francis is a historic parish—the first parish church opened in 1881—in the Diocese of Fresno. The current church opened in 1957. It serves over 5,000 families in Bakersfield.
This is indeed a remarkable parish. A friend of mine served as a priest for a while in this church in recent years, and we heard wonderful things about all that is happening there. Wonderful Catholic churches in areas such as this part of Bakersfield serve as lifelines in so many ways when they are run well by good people, and it is a joy to read about this particular church and priest being celebrated in California Catholic Daily.
Great to see Holy Mass in Latin, do we know if it is a TLM or Novus Ordo in Latin, big difference there??
I just called. It’s a High Mass. Staffer didn’t know what I meant when I asked if the Mass was High or Low. But information she got from another on staff seems to indicate the Mass is a TLM.
as there is no such thing as a “high mass” or a “low mass” in the ordinary form (latin, spanish, whatever), if it’s a “high mass” it MUST be the extrfaordinary form.
whew!
This is a wonderfull parish!!Great to see the TLM there. Now we just
need the TLM in Visalia.
Seina,
According to the “Moto Propio” of Pope Benedict XVI, all you need to do is request it and it supposed to be granted, the pastor does not even need his bishop’s approval. Of course if you had a group requesting it, it would be helpful.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Hi Kenneth,
I’ve said here before that I think the TLM is beautiful and wish there was more of it but please be aware that there is a whole generation of priests that have not been trained on how to say it properly. When people ask for a TLM at a parish they should know of a priest close by who could say it properly and offer that in case the parish answer is ‘yes we’d like to do that but we don’t have the priest’. This might help with getting the mass said but also minimizes on the subsequent griping about “liturgical abuses” like Central Valley posted below. Imagine how a parish or priest feels when trying to give someone or group of people the type of mass that they want only to have them gripe and complain it wasn’t done right!
I’m telling you this from personal experience.
If you want more of the TLM what we should all be doing is 1) pray for more priests and 2) pray that they get trained on how to say the TLM. Complaining that it isn’t being done or done right rarely helps – we need more priests and we should all be praying for that! I’m certain the TLM will follow. My 89 year old father in law said the worst thing the local bishop could do (here in CA) is try and rid us of the TLM; this will only create the demand for it. I think there is the demand and now we need to pray for more priests who can say it!
Carol,
We will never have more priests until there is a change of attitude that our priests have towards the TLM. This is what I am praying for – a miracle of the sorry attitude of our bishops. If you look at statistics you will find a decrease of seminarians since the loss of the old tridentine mass. We will never have more priests until the TLM returns to more parishes. Oh, the reverence, the beauty of the TLM. What a shame we should have to beg for it. The excuse that the priests don’t know latin, etc. etc. is just that an excuse.
Benedicta,
Around the time the novus ordo was introduced, there were many other changes introduced at the same time. A lot of change happened very quickly – how do you not know that some of these other factors are contributing to less vocations? I think there is more than one factor in the current level of vocations. Let’s all keep praying – God will always give what he knows to be good for us!
To say that you have to beg for a TLM sounds a little dramatic to me. Part of my first post that you have commented on has been edited out. Namely, what my personal experience was – a very holy priest at a great parish telling me he couldn’t say a TLM for a speical occasion. He didn’t know how to say the TLM. This is not an excuse, it’s reality. He is a human being with actual limitations and genuinely didn’t know how to say the mass. He said if I could find the priest to say a TLM that was fine with him. And this was in Chicago where Cardinal George let anyone who wanted to say the TLM to go ahead and do it.
There is a whole generation of priests who are not trained on how to say this mass – they are still good holy priests and we need to be grateful for them. We need to pray that 1) we have more priests and 2) more of them learn how to properly say the TLM.
Mr. Fisher, the Moto Proprio does not say all you have to do is ask. It says “In parishes where there is a stable group of the faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition the pastor should willingly accept their requests.” If he does not, then the bishop should be informed and “it is strongly suggested that he grant their requests.” If he cannot, then he is to contact the Pontifical Commission Eccesia Dei. I know I told you before that there are only 2 priests in our diocese who can say the TLM.
Just curious, does this good priest still have the seven adopted children living with him? Were they adults when he was ordained or were special accomodiations made for him and the children?
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Father’s adopted kids are grown and “out of the house” now.
The question was were they grown and out of the house when he was ordained or were special arrangements made for him?
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
there was an african-american priest in chicago who adopted a couple of kids, way back, as an exmaple to his flock.
i think this is correct, because i remember at the time being amazed by his doing so, having to run a parish and now a family also.
Don’t be fooled by the description of St. Francis. I was not durprised the oiffice staff could not tell you if the Mass was offered in the Ordinary or Extraordinary Form or if it were a high or low Mass. The only reason the Extraordinary Form of the Mass was at St. Francis was because of Msgr Harrison allowign the late Monsignor Belluomini to offer the Mass of Ages after the Latin Mass community as for all intelemente Mission, a parish many of the Latin Mass types built. The Extraordinary From MAss has been moved numerous times at St. Francis from morning hours to Sunday afternoon. Since the death of Monsignor Belluomini last year, attendance dwindled. I had heard in person numerous derogatory comments regarding those of us who attend the Extraordinary Form from St. Francis parishoners and staff members.
St. Francis is your typical money parish where you check book gets you special attention from the pastor. Altar girls abound, Extraordinary ministes of the Eucharist are found throughout the chuch giving blessings and at a time when there is a Pastor and several priests in residences. When Monsignor Belluomini offered the Extraordinary Form, attendance was 300 plus any Sunday, and at seventy-five plus and battleing cancer would distribute Holy Communion as all the priests and deacons at St. Francis were occupied with other things. At funeral masses, Monsignor Harrison invites everoyone at Mass to extend their hands and assists in the final blessig of the remains…I coudl go on and on with the liturgical abuses at the Ordinary Form of the Mass at St. Francis but space here is limited. If parish cliques are for you or you have a checkbook to influence, St. Francis is the parish for you.
Not at all surprised about this, altar girls running around, hand holding, Eucharistic ministers, just a real Novus Ordo mess!! Oh well I was hoping for the best. Thanks for the heads up Central Valley.
Seina,
As Director of Music for The Catholic Church of Visalia, your fondest wish is something I have lobbied for over two pastorates. This is not news to those who know both our responsibile pastor nor me. That I would attest to that publicly here should verify the honesty of my heart. The musical resources of Visalia stand ready, and have for many years to serve the TLM.
Kenneth, your reductionist reply does an injustice to all concerned, including the pastorate and those of us who are laying the brick by brick foundation. Your simplistic retort does not account for whether there are clergy assigned to any parish where such a request is formally proposed are properly trained and prepared so as to comply with the conditions of the motu proprio. At this time, and for much of the twenty years I’ve spent in Visalia as a DMusic, this is not the case at the present. You do NOT know if formal request has been made, but assume that it has. I am not even privy to that information.
If you were being fully responsible, you’d mention that such a request would have to flow up hill to the bishopric, and if unaddressed to Ecclesia Dei at the Vatican.
All of such conjecture on your part is irreponsible. There are many folks working to fulfill the erstwhile goals of SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM in Visalia, but you seem to think it’s as simple as flicking a light switch. I’d be pleased and surprised were you to actually think through what our beloved Holy Father intended by the “clarification” that the EF was never suppressed by VII, and what, perhaps, was the intended outcome of the motu proprio.
It is all well and fine to portray situations that do have real concerns as simplistic problems with simplistic solutions. But, that is not the Catholic Church that I know, nor the one that has survived for over two millenia.
Pax et bonum.
CHARLES, thanks for your most sensible and intelligent post.
you can’t merely say “i want the TLM” and expect it to happen by magic: few priests nowadayss are capable of saying the tridentien mass and would have a LOT of learning to do.
pace e bene!
All this talk about the Tridentine mass is way too much! We have it at St Francis, no one goes because no one can understand it and it is outdated. Vatican II happened and some folks still can’t stand it. I prefer to understand the prayers I pray and want to participate with full,active conscious participation. All Catholics by virtue of their baptism are priest, prophet and king – so why not extend our hands and give them our blessing too. We become what we receive and when I receive Christ, Christ resides in me…so I must have some blessings I can give. We are asked to be Christ for one another. After all Christ has no body now but yours. All I hear is how good one kind of mass is over another…. be happy folks there is a room for everyone…go to latin mass if you want it, but let me see girl altar servers and sing contemporary music..I like singing too and I can’t at the latin mass… so leave On Eagles Wings and Amazing grace to us who love it and you can keep your pax whatever!
So the TLM is outdated and no one can understand it? Tell that to the thousands of Saints before us who worshipped with this outdated Mass. You can have your man made Novus Ordo and Protestant songs, altar girls, dancing nuns, hand holding, kiss of peace, drums, guitars, Polka music, giant puppets, female lectors, ugly churches, we will stick with the REAL Mass of All Times, Latin, Gregorian chant, Mozart, Palestrina, Schubert, kneeling, silence, respect, proper dress, communion on the tongue, incense, organ, in other words THE TRUE MASS!!
Janek,
I must say, I do smirk a bit when you call the TLM the true mass – you must know the very first mass said by Our Lord was probably said in Hebrew or Aramaic.
I love the TLM and wish there was more of it but I can still look at a church with a hard working devoted priest and be grateful – even if there is no TLM (yet).
FYI the Tridentine Latin Mass Society of Visalia has sent letters to the Pastor of the catholic church of Visalia and also to the Bishop in the last 6 months but no response their next move is Ecclesia Dei.
Dear Seina,
I’m gladdened (and surprised) to know that there is a “Latin Mass Society of Visalia” and that letters to the pastor and bishop have been posted. This is happy news to me, as when I’m approached I very much encourage the laity to express their voices about this aching absence in our schedule of Masses.
Not to dampen your zeal, I hope you understood the real political hurdles that will be engaged. Other voices here have declared only two priests capable of celebrating a TLM are resident, diocesan priests. I don’t actually think that’s absolutely true. But, in any case, dialogue among interested parties, and I believe you must know who those folks are in town, should be an essential component before shifting a weighty problem such as this up the ecclesial ladder. You can contact me through the parish bulletin.
I heartily agree with the diosucsisn going on. Perhaps (if it is not a rabbit hole) I could pick everyone’s brain on strategies to help with a little problem I have training altar boys for the TLM my home parish has a weekly Low Mass on a weeknight, and the pool of altar boys is mostly 8-year-olds. My experience is that while they enjoy the challenge and work hard, they really do lack the maturity and day-to-day understanding of the structure and flow of the Mass to handle the expanded responsibilities of serving the TLM without an adult as the other server or a hands on supernumerary. Is there a general sense at what age you can allow the boys to fully handle the responsibilities if they are serving once or twice a month and don’t attend the TLM every Sunday?Since I’m responsible for their training, I really want to help form them in discipline and religion I just don’t want to over-reach and turn them off to the TLM.In Christ,
Trad mass gone…no longer at St Francis. Youth Mass in! guitars drums and lots of spirit.. not missing the trads