Florida Catholic | St. Vincent de Paul Parish Growing

Wildwood parish to start construction of larger church

Exploding growth creates a need for a new 1,700-seat church at St. Vincent de Paul Parish.

CHRIS CURRY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 02.15.08

Architectural elevation of St. Paul Parish, Wildwood.

Courtesy of Project Architect

WILDWOOD | Because of exploding growth in and around this city, St. Vincent de Paul Parish will build a 1,700-seat church to replace its existing worship space, a mission church built in the early 1990s.

The pastor, Father Peter Sagorski, officiated at the Feb. 2 groundbreaking for the church, which will have a traditional cross-shaped floor plan and is expected to be complete in October 2009.

“We have outgrown our present church facility,” Father Sagorski said. “We need classrooms for religious formation, meeting space and a larger social room. Since 2002, we have grown from some 200 families to approximately 1,200 registered families.”

St. Vincent de Paul began in 1973 as a mission of St. Lawrence Parish in Bushnell. The 10 or 12 worshippers meeting for Masses in private homes knew it would grow.

“We looked forward to building a church for more than 10 years,” said Martha Richie, one of the founding members.

As the mission grew, a group of more than 200 people attended Masses each Sunday in the Page-Theuss Funeral Home chapel in Wildwood for 13 years. At the urging of the small group, the diocese purchased 19 acres of land on County Road 462 in 1988. The church building was started in 1993, with the first Mass being offered in June of 1994 by Bishop Norbert Dorsey, who was bishop of Orlando at the time.

The mission was served by several priests in the years following its completion. Father Sagorski was assigned in 2002 to St. Vincent de Paul Mission from St. Paul Parish, now the Basilica of St. Paul, in Daytona Beach.

Bishop Thomas Wenski announced in September 2005 that the mission church would become a parish and celebrated a Mass there at which the designation became official on Oct. 30, 2005.

Eight years ago only two Masses were offered each week, one on Wednesdays and one on Sundays.

“We now have 20 scheduled Masses per week in addition to other liturgies. Therefore we need a larger church,” Father Sagorski said. The present church building will be used for the needed classroom, meeting and social function spaces.

The congregation comes not just from Wildwood, but also the vast retirement community of The Villages and the areas of Summerfield, Lady Lake, Leesburg and Oxford. Following long-range demographic studies of the area, original plans to enlarge the present building were put aside in favor of a new and larger structure.

Sue Miller, past president of the parish Council of Catholic Women and the Orlando Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, said, “Even during our formative years as a Catholic presence in Sumter County, the women of our small mission supported this ministry. Today, with a burgeoning congregation, our women continue to build church community through active involvement in spiritual, social and volunteer works.” The council has been active at St. Vincent de Paul since 1973.

With the growing congregation comes growing needs, and those needs are filled by volunteers in the 26 ministries active in the parish. As the annual Our Catholic Appeal begins, the parish also is beginning its participation in the diocese’s Alive in Christ capital campaign, which will supply some funding for the new church. “It is my wish that through the loving power of God, prayer, discernment and action, we will strive to support the spiritual and temporal needs of the community,” Father Sagorski said. “This growth and development we are experiencing is a wonderful challenge especially as the people are utilizing their time, talent and treasures with such a positive attitude.”

Each new week brings additional worshippers. Father Sagorski said,“I can hardly wait to celebrate my first Mass in our new, soon-to-be-built church. I’ve been looking forward to this for almost six years. I ask that all of you say a prayer each day that we will soon see our new church completed in a timely manner and that we will minister and work to fulfill the tasks that God gives us.”

Tanya Goodman of the Florida Catholic staff contributed to this article.

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