A Bilingual Parish in the Heart of La Habra
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church stands on the west side of La Habra at 900 W. La Habra Boulevard, a Roman Catholic parish of the Diocese of Orange whose simple motto - "Transforming hearts for Christ" - is printed across the top of its bulletin and newsletter. The parish sits inside a quiet stretch of northern Orange County, behind it a school and a blacktop used for overflow parking, beside it an office building known as the Coleman Center. From that campus Our Lady of Guadalupe ministers to a community that prays in two languages, welcomes every generation from infants to grandparents, and traces much of its character to a priest who served as pastor for thirty-five years.
That priest was Msgr. Justin MacCarthy, ordained on June 14, 1964. He celebrated sixty years of priesthood in 2024 and was named Pastor Emeritus after his retirement. On the morning of January 2, surrounded by the sacraments of the Church, Msgr. MacCarthy died at home. His funeral Mass was celebrated on Saturday, January 26 at 10:30am by Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, with Bishop Freyer and priests from across the diocese concelebrating. Monsignor's longtime caregivers, Scott Miller in particular, were thanked at the funeral, along with the staff and volunteers who had walked with him in his final years. The parish that Msgr. MacCarthy shepherded for more than three decades is now led by Rev. William B. Goldin, S.Th.D., as pastor, with Rev. Gastón Mendiola Arroyo as parochial vicar.
Masses in English, Spanish, and Latin
The schedule at Our Lady of Guadalupe is built around the bilingual life of its people. On Saturday evening a Vigil Mass is offered at 5:30pm in English and at 7:00pm in Spanish. Sunday brings five Masses: 6:30am in English, 8:00am in Spanish, 10:00am in English, 1:30pm in Spanish, and 4:00pm in English. Weekday Masses keep the same dual rhythm - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 8:00am in English; Tuesday and Friday at 8:00am in Spanish - with one striking addition. On Thursday evenings the parish offers a 6:00pm Novus Ordo Mass prayed in Latin with Spanish readings and homily, a setting that brings the older Roman liturgy into the middle of a Spanish-speaking week.
Confessions are heard every weekday morning from 8:30am to 9:00am, after the morning Mass, and again on Thursdays from 6:30pm to 7:00pm after the Latin-Spanish Mass. Saturday afternoons bring a final block of confessions from 4:00pm to 5:00pm before the Vigil. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place on Wednesdays from 12:00pm to 12:30pm, and on the third Wednesday of every month the church opens for extended Adoration from 12:00pm to 8:00pm, with the Faith Formation team publishing the schedule on the parish calendar.
What a First-Time Visitor Should Know
The parish keeps its building open every day from 8:00am to 5:30pm and publishes a printed Order of the Mass in the pews so that visitors can follow the liturgy without being self-conscious about when to sit, stand, or kneel. Ushers hand out the worship aids when they are missing, and the same worship aid is available as a PDF download for anyone who wants to prepare at home. The church has a cry room for families with young children who need a bit more space to listen to the Mass; ushers will point the way.
Parking is plentiful behind the church and on the blacktop behind the parish school, past the gates. Handicap parking sits next to the church building near the exit. The parish asks that visitors, particularly for Sunday Mass, baptisms, weddings, and funerals, dress modestly in what many Catholics call "Sunday best" - modest dresses or skirts with nice tops for women, button-down shirts with slacks for men. The parish teaches, quoting 1 Corinthians 6:19, that the human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and recommends that skirts and dresses end no more than three inches above the knee, that shorts provide full coverage, and that tops be neither low-cut nor revealing of the midriff.
Visitors who are not Catholic, or Catholics who are not prepared to receive, are warmly invited to come forward in the Communion line and to cross their arms over their chest to receive a blessing instead of the Eucharist. The parish catechists explain that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith and that only those in full communion with the Church and in a state of grace should receive.
The Sacraments: Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation
Infant baptism at Our Lady of Guadalupe is for children up to five years of age. Parents begin by completing a "Registration for Infant Baptism" form, attaching a copy of the child's birth certificate and a fifty-dollar donation, and submitting it to the Parish Office. A Baptism preparation class, required of both parents and godparents, is scheduled at the time of registration, along with the date of the Baptism itself. Baptisms are not celebrated during Lent except in cases of health emergency. Each candidate must have at least one godparent; if there are two, one must be a godfather and one a godmother. The parish publishes the full list of canonical requirements - sixteen years of age or older, a confirmed Catholic who has received First Eucharist, practicing the faith including weekly Mass, and married in the Church if married - on its baptism page, citing the Code of Canon Law.
First Communion is a two-year program open to all children in grades one through eight. Families choose either a Monday evening class (6:00pm to 7:30pm) or a Tuesday evening class, both held in English or Spanish. The program is built around parent involvement: both parents must attend six parish events across the year, three in the fall and three in the spring, with at least two of those being Wednesday-evening Family Adoration evenings with their children. After each event the parents fill out a short form with a photo and a three- or four-sentence reflection. Children who have not yet been baptized participate in the program alongside their peers, and the parish sets up additional meetings with the family to walk through the unbaptized path.
Confirmation for high school students is also a two-year program, currently organized separately for young men and young women. Year One classes meet on weekday evenings - young men on Thursdays, young women on Wednesdays. Year Two students can choose between a Sunday morning session at 11:30am, designed for teens who already have some catechetical background, or a weekday evening option. Year One is waitlist only for the current year; teens interested in the program fill out an inquiry form and meet with Solei Ocegueda, the parish's Director of Youth Ministry and Confirmation, before being placed.
Marriage preparation, Anointing of the Sick, quinceañeras, wedding anniversaries, and funeral Masses are all scheduled through the Parish Office. The parish treats weddings and anniversaries not as rentals but as celebrations of the sacrament, asking couples for a donation to cover the staff work rather than a fee, and publishing the suggested giving in a printed pamphlet.
Becoming Catholic as an Adult
Adults who would like to be baptized, to receive First Communion, or to be confirmed begin with a conversation. Kimberly Hebert, the parish's Director of Evangelization & Communications, invites inquirers to book a low-commitment meeting to talk about their story and to discern the next steps. From there the adult formation program, similar in shape to the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, runs for nine months to a year and meets twice a week: on Sundays at the parish from 11:30am to 12:30pm, and online on Wednesdays from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. Both sessions are required, and unbaptized candidates also attend the 10:00am Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe. Adult classes are currently offered in English; Spanish-speaking inquirers are referred to neighboring parishes that offer the program in Spanish.
The OLG Schola Cantorum and the Music of the Mass
Music at Our Lady of Guadalupe is led by Music Director Connie Salazar. The 10:00am Sunday Mass is sung by the OLG Schola Cantorum, a roster of professional chorists and singers who also serve the parish at special Masses throughout the year. The Schola most notably sang at the installation Mass of Fr. William Goldin as pastor and was featured in a video produced for the Diocese of Orange's 50th anniversary "There's More" celebration. A separate Spanish choir leads the sung prayer at the 8:00am Sunday Mass, and any parishioner interested in joining the Spanish choir can reach Connie Salazar at csalazar@olglahabra.org.
Anima Christi: The Young Adult Ministry
Our Lady of Guadalupe's young adult ministry carries the name Anima Christi and gathers men and women ages 18 to 39 "to know, love, and serve Christ." The ministry is directed by Jacelyn Vo, and the parish publishes a separate website and an Instagram account, olg_lahabra_ya, to keep young adults connected. The backbone of the year is a five-week reading series through C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves, meeting on Thursday evenings from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, in which young adults in their twenties and thirties work through Charity as the highest form of love that purifies the natural loves.
Around the reading series the Anima Christi calendar offers a Lectio Divina night on the first Thursday of every month from October through May with Deacon Kevin Duthoy, J.D., a Family Adoration and Play evening on the third Wednesday of every month at 5:00pm that welcomes families with children twelve and under, and the Be Light Date Night Series, held every other month on selected Thursdays from 7:00pm to 8:30pm in the Coleman Center. Be Light is designed for married Catholic couples - whether married one year or fifty - and includes childcare for potty-trained children twelve and under, supervised by at least three experienced adult caregivers. The parish also runs a Run to Mary pilgrimage on the Fullerton Loop Trail, with trips to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in the planning, and accepts prayer intentions from young adults going on those trips.
Family Adoration, the Cry Room, and Children at Mass
Children are a visible part of the parish at every level. Beyond the cry room inside the church, the third-Wednesday Family Adoration and Play gathering brings parents and children up to age twelve into the church at 5:00pm for a Holy Hour, then into Classroom 5 for snacks and playtime. The event is free but requires advance registration so that the parish can keep children safe and cared for. For First Communion families, the Wednesday-evening Adoration is one of the events parents are asked to attend as part of their sacramental formation, a way of weaving family prayer into the longer path of preparation.
Parish Ministries in English and Spanish
The parish life of Our Lady of Guadalupe is carried by a long list of lay ministries, several of them meeting weekly. The Legion of Mary gathers on Mondays at 3:30pm in Room 4 of OLG School, working in pairs to assist the priests and to evangelize, in the tradition of the worldwide lay apostolate founded in Ireland in 1921. The Divine Mercy Ministry meets on the second Saturday of every month from 9:00am to 12:00pm in Room 9 of the school building, studying the diary of St. Faustina Kowalska along with Sacred Scripture and the Catechism, and praying for God's mercy on the whole world.
Couples for Christ Family Ministries, recognized with Pontifical Right and with an office in the Vatican, is present at Our Lady of Guadalupe and walks members through a Christian Life Program that feeds into ministries for children, youth, single adults, married couples, and older men and women. The Knights of Columbus Joseph Scott Council 7142 anchors the men's ministry of the parish and is active in pro-life and social justice work. The St. Paul Mission Circle, a group of Catholic men and women, raises support for missionaries as far away as Kenya and as close as La Habra, and operates the parish Gift Shop of religious goods, which opens before and after Saturday and Sunday Masses.
In Spanish the parish hosts the Encuentro Matrimonial Mundial, a marriage enrichment weekend; the Misión Bíblica, a Bible mission for Catholic families; a group devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe that promotes devotion and raises funds for the December 12 celebration; and the Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group, a weekly gathering of praise, prayer, and the reading of God's Word. Liturgical ministries on Sunday include ushers and ministers of hospitality, altar servers, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and ministers of care to the sick and homebound who bring the Eucharist to those unable to attend Mass.
Safe Environment and the Pastoral Services Appeal
Adults who wish to volunteer in any ministry that serves or interacts with minors complete a Safe Environment training, offered in person each year at the parish in English on one evening and in Spanish on the next, both at 7:00pm in the Coleman Center. The parish runs the training to satisfy the requirements of the Diocese of Orange and posts registration links in both English and Spanish.
Like every parish in the Diocese of Orange, Our Lady of Guadalupe participates in the yearly Pastoral Services Appeal, a diocesan-wide effort that funds retired priests, vocations, Catholic schools, outreach, and parish support. One hundred percent of every dollar raised above the parish's goal comes back to Our Lady of Guadalupe to be used at the pastor's discretion. The parish notes that the Diocese of Orange has, over the years, extended loans for new asphalt, repairs and renovations, and staff salaries, and recently forgave $700,000 in parish loans through the PSA. Giving is available online through WeShare, by check or cash in the collection basket during Mass, or in person at the Parish Office during weekday hours.
The Clergy, the Staff, and Four Dogs
Pastor William B. Goldin, S.Th.D., is assisted at the altar by Parochial Vicar Gastón Mendiola Arroyo and by two deacons, Kevin Duthoy, J.D., and Chuck Doidge. Fr. Timothy Donovan, President and Founder of Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries, lives in residence and works with the parish's evangelization efforts. The parish staff is led by Business Manager Vanessa Alonso-Gonzalez and includes Kimberly Hebert as Director of Evangelization & Communications, Jacelyn Vo as Director of Young Adult & Young Family Evangelization, Solei Ocegueda as Director of Youth Ministry and Confirmation, Connie Salazar as Music Director, and Jack Campbell as Communications Coordinator. The rectory is also home to four dogs who are part of the parish's quiet life: Ralph and Louie, two Portuguese Water Dogs belonging to the pastor; Frankie, the pastor's Irish Wolfhound; and Rocky, a French Bulldog belonging to the parochial vicar.
Mass Intentions, Devotional Candles, and Prayer Requests
Parishioners can request a Mass intention for a loved one through an online portal that lets the requester pick a date and time and submit a donation. The same portal allows visitors to light a devotional candle in memory of someone who has died or for a special intention. A separate online form accepts prayer requests that the parish lifts up in community prayer, and another form adds the names of the Faithful Departed to the Prayers of the Faithful at the next weekend's Masses.
Visiting and Joining the Parish
Newcomers are invited to register through an online form that records the head of household, spouse, and up to four additional family members along with sacraments already received. The parish follows up by phone if more information is needed. For those still exploring Catholicism, the parish points inquirers to Kimberly Hebert's calendar and to catholic.com for further reading. The bulletin and weekly newsletter are published online in both English and Spanish, and the parish shares its calendar of liturgies and events through the same site.