First Catholic church in 45 years to break ground

It's been 45 years since a new parish church has been built to serve Bakersfield's Catholic community.

That's a long dry spell for a city that has charted tremendous growth since 1968 when St. Philip the Apostle Church was established in Bakersfield's rapidly growing southwest.

But times are changing -- and soon that dry spell is expected to come to an end.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Bakersfield's newest Roman Catholic parish and the first centered in the city's northwest, will begin construction of its first-phase worship center and parish facilities beginning with a groundbreaking ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday.

For those parishioners who have spent years working and praying for this moment, the event at the northwest corner of Old Farm and Reina roads -- the site of the planned 720-seat worship center -- symbolizes a new beginning, an opportunity to "get in on the ground floor" of a new Catholic parish.

At an estimated cost of $6.2 million, the facility will also include classrooms, meeting and office space, a children's center and a kitchen. An even larger worship center is planned in the not-too-distant future as projected growth demands.

The first-phase project was designed by Robert Habiger of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, with revisions by Mark Russell, Radian Design Group. Construction is managed by S. C. Anderson.

"It's a real honor to be asked to do this," said Monsignor Perry Kavookjian, pastor of St. Elizabeth's since its formation in April 2008.

"You don't do this on your own," he said. "It's through the cooperation of people, their goodness and generosity, that something like this can happen."

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa, head of the Diocese of Fresno, will preside over Saturday's ceremony, ushering in a new era for the parish's nearly 1,000 families, who have been meeting for worship each Sunday in an auditorium at Frontier High School.

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First Catholic church in 45 years to break ground