St. Patrick's Catholic Church sits on Fair Oaks Avenue in Arroyo Grande, a few blocks from the historic Village of Arroyo Grande on California's Central Coast. The parish belongs to the Diocese of Monterey and serves Catholics in the Five Cities area, including Oceano, Nipomo, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach and Shell Beach. Its mission statement is simple and direct: "As a Christ-centered family rich in tradition and cultures, we are called to live God's word. We will welcome, love and serve all people as we joyfully witness, worship and grow in our Catholic faith."
Mass in English and Spanish, Every Day of the Week
The parish runs a busy liturgical schedule that welcomes both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Catholics.
English Masses are celebrated on Saturday at 5:00 pm and on Sunday at 7:30 am, 9:00 am, 10:30 am and 6:00 pm. On weekdays, Mass is offered Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:00 am, and on Tuesday at 5:30 pm.
Misas en Español fill out the rest of the schedule. The Saturday evening Mass in Spanish is at 7:00 pm, and Sunday's Spanish Mass is at 12:15 pm. A weekly Tuesday morning Mass in Spanish is celebrated at 7:00 am. On the last Friday of each month at 7:00 pm, the parish gathers for the Misa de Unción de Enfermos y Adoración y Alabanza, which combines the Anointing of the Sick with Eucharistic Adoration and is celebrated in Spanish in Arroyo Grande.
Mass is also streamed live on the parish's YouTube channel for those who cannot attend in person.
Confession, Adoration and the Rosary
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is heard on Saturdays from 3:30 to 4:30 pm in the Church Confessional. Appointments with a priest can also be arranged by calling the parish office.
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every Friday from 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm in the Chapel, giving the parish an extended midday and evening window for adoration.
The Rosary is prayed in the Chapel on the 1st, 3rd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 4:15 pm, honoring Our Lady and offering the intentions of parishioners. On the 2nd Saturday of each month at 4:00 pm, the chapel hosts a special Patriots Rosary.
The Parish Staff and Pastoral Team
St. Patrick's is led by Pastor Rev. José Alberto Vázquez and Associate Pastor Rev. Abraham Barrera. Rev. Mr. Greg Dutra serves alongside them as a permanent deacon.
The wider staff includes Rachel Kovach, PhD, who directs Religious Education for kindergarten through 12th grade; Juana Tlatenchi as Hispanic Ministry Coordinator; Laura Conti as Liturgy Coordinator; Marie Ramirez Farley as Event Manager; and Jerri Fife, who coordinates OCIA, Adult Confirmation and Annulments. Chantelle Conti serves as Parish Secretary and Rosa Garcia-Baro as Office Manager and Bookkeeper; both speak Spanish. Michael Hansen is Parish Office Assistant, John Conti oversees Administration, Kathy Rietveld leads the Music Ministry, and Kris Victorine directs the Senior Adult Ministry.
Parish office hours are 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and 9:30 am to 5:00 pm on Wednesday. The office closes daily for lunch from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm. The office is closed Friday through Sunday, and on most federal holidays.
Sacraments and Sacramental Preparation
The parish prepares members for the seven sacraments through year-round programming.
Infant Baptism. English baptisms are scheduled the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month at 9:00 am, and Spanish baptisms are the 2nd and 4th Saturday at 9:00 am, with a requested donation of $50. Individual baptisms are also accommodated at 10:00 am on any Saturday, in any language, with a requested donation of $200. Parents and godparents of children younger than seven are required to attend a preparation class.
First Confession and First Eucharist. Following Diocesan guidelines, the parish runs a two-year preparation process. Children are typically prepared in second grade, with First Penance received several months before First Eucharist.
Anointing of the Sick. The parish office takes calls for sick members at home, in the hospital, or in care facilities; the staff asks for the name of the individual, their location, and (for hospitals) the room and bed number. After hours, callers can choose option 5 to page a priest in an emergency.
Marriage. Engaged couples are asked to make an appointment with the Pastor at least six months before the wedding. A bilingual wedding packet outlines the requirements.
Funeral Planning. A funeral planning guide helps families select Sacred Readings and Sacred Music from the Order of Christian Funerals. Trained Compassionate Care Volunteers walk families through the process.
Reconciliation. Saturday confessions, 3:30 to 4:30 pm, are the regular weekly opportunity.
OCIA for Adults. The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults serves those who were not baptized, those baptized in other Christian traditions, and baptized Catholics who have not yet received Confirmation and First Eucharist. Adult Confirmation is offered separately for Catholics who have already received First Eucharist.
OCIA for Children and Teens. The Children's Catechumenate follows the same pattern for children of catechetical age who were not baptized as infants, leading them to the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.
Faith Formation for Children
Children's faith formation at St. Patrick's reaches well beyond the parish school walls. Children's Liturgy of the Word sends children in pre-K through fifth grade, with their leaders, from the 9:00 am and 10:30 am Sunday Masses to the Chapel, where the Sunday scriptures are proclaimed and explained at an age-appropriate level. Children return to the main liturgy at the Presentation of the Gifts. The program runs from September through May, with no advance registration required.
The K-6th Grade Faith Formation Program supplements the work of Catholic schools for children enrolled in non-Catholic schools or home-school programs. Classes meet weekly with two catechists in each room, on Tuesdays from 4:00 to 5:15 pm at St. Patrick's School. The annual fee is $40 per child, payable through the parish's online payment portal.
First Confession and First Eucharist preparation follows the same Tuesday schedule and uses the same two-year diocesan process.
Middle School, High School and the Youth Bungalow
Junior high youth group, branded Middle School Mondays, meets from 6:30 to 8:00 pm for fellowship, prayer, faith-sharing and outings.
High school youth meet in the parish's Youth Bungalow for Confirmation classes on Sundays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. Wednesday evenings are reserved for Homework and Fellowship Youth Nights, when both middle schoolers and high schoolers gather from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. A monthly Tuesday Movie Night at the Regal in Arroyo Grande gathers the teens at 6:30 pm.
Confirmation preparation at St. Patrick's follows the Diocese of Monterey's two-year program.
Liturgical Ministries
A range of liturgical roles support the Masses celebrated throughout the week. The Altar Server is open to children who have already made their First Communion and have completed the diocesan Sacramental Preparation classes; servers must be in at least second grade. Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist assist the presider with distribution at Mass and, in some cases, bring communion to the homebound. Greeters and Hospitality ministers welcome parishioners and visitors at the door and serve coffee and donuts in the hall after Sunday morning Masses once a month and at special events.
Lectors proclaim the readings at weekend and Holy Day Masses, with training held annually. The Music Ministry, led by Kathy Rietveld, provides musical leadership for Masses and other liturgical events. Altar Care members take the liturgical linens home for laundering each week. The parish uses an online scheduling tool, the Liturgical Ministers' Mass Scheduler, to assign its teams.
The parish's liturgical ministry page leans heavily on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal: the Eucharist is an act of the whole Church, and every role at Mass, from greeter to choir to extraordinary minister, flows from the baptismal and confirmational vocation of the People of God.
Prayer Groups and Spiritual Direction
The parish's prayer life extends well beyond scheduled Masses.
Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina. The Centering Prayer group gathers in the Chapel on the first Tuesday of each month at 10:00 am, beginning with twenty minutes of contemplative silence and followed by shared prayers and petitions. The other Tuesdays, the group meets on Zoom. On the first Tuesday, a period of Lectio Divina follows the Centering Prayer.
Charismatic Prayer Group. A prayer group in the Spirit worships, praises, reads Scripture, prays for those in need and offers intercessory prayers every Tuesday from 1:00 to 2:30 pm in the Chapel.
Grupo de Oración. The Spanish-language prayer group meets every Monday at 7:00 pm in the San Francisco Chapel in Oceano.
Spiritual Direction. Five trained and certified spiritual directors are connected with St. Patrick's: Terri Bledsoe, Joan Lauriente, Terry Burrows, Patty Moyer and Toni Flynn. The parish office can put parishioners in touch with any of them.
Bible Studies. Three Bible study groups run during the week: a general Bible Study on Mondays from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in Meeting Room 3, a Women's Bible Study on Thursdays from 10:00 to 11:30 am in Meeting Room 3, and a Men's Bible Study on Saturdays from 7:30 to 8:30 am in the Chapel.
Care and Support
St. Patrick's wraps around its members through several ministries of presence.
The Senior Adult Ministry, S.A.M., meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 10:00 am in Meeting Room 3 for discussion and refreshments. The Martha Ministry and Hospitality volunteers set up, serve and provide a light buffet at funeral receptions in the Parish Hall, free to families with donations encouraged. The same group organizes the monthly coffee-and-donuts Sunday and refreshments during retreats and other parish events.
Ministries to the Shut-ins bring communion and visits to parishioners who cannot come to Mass because of mobility problems or illness, at home, in the hospital or in local care centers.
Outreach and Service to the Community
St. Patrick's Outreach, started by Sister Eva more than twenty years ago, reaches beyond the parish into the Five Cities and Nipomo areas. The Food Pantry distributes groceries to about four hundred families each month and operates from 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. At Christmas, four hundred food baskets are prepared and distributed the week before Christmas; the Giving Tree project supplements those baskets with gifts for children up to age twelve. The Outreach ministry also provides emergency financial assistance to families in crisis, helping more than three hundred families in the past year. Four leaders, Lynnette Borgman, Nita Dolan, Patricia Fairbanks and Bernadine Judson, coordinate daily operations alongside a large group of volunteers.
The parish is one of more than twenty local church groups that make up South County's People's Kitchen, a nondenominational organization serving hot meals to the needy in the community 365 days a year. Six food-preparation teams of about fifteen volunteers each prepare food for one hundred people once a month.
Respect Life & ALPHA supports San Luis Obispo ALPHA, a nonprofit that provides education on pregnancy, early parenting and practical help during a child's first year. Each year the parish runs the Crib Project between Mother's Day and Father's Day, filling baby bottles with change and collecting baby items for ALPHA's clients.
Get on the Bus, an annual program, offers free transportation for children to visit their mothers or fathers in prison throughout California. St. Patrick's sponsors multiple buses each year, providing volunteers and donations.
The Maryknoll Affiliates, who share their vocation through the pillars of spirituality, global vision, community and action, support Maryknoll missioners in Africa, Asia and the Americas and work for peace and justice locally.
Catholic Prison Ministry at the California Men's Colony in nearby San Luis Obispo provides spiritual guidance, sacraments and faith-based education to incarcerated men. The parish sees prison ministry as essential work, saying: "through the love of Christ and the sacraments, we help them find forgiveness, healing and purpose in their lives."
Partner Organizations
Three independent Catholic organizations are closely tied to the parish and use its facilities.
Italian Catholic Federation Branch 291 is a family-oriented, non-profit fraternal organization open to Catholics or those married to Catholics, regardless of Italian heritage. The branch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month in the Parish Hall.
Knights of Columbus Council 1375, founded originally in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 by Fr. Michael J. McGivney, remains true to its founding principles of charity, unity and fraternity. The council meets Wednesday evenings in the Parish Hall and is active across many parish activities.
Quilting Angels, Central Coast Quilters and Sewing & Crafts meet in the Parish Hall and Annex on Tuesday mornings, producing quilts and crafts that are sold at the Annual Holiday Bazaar and Craft Fair, with proceeds supporting altar needs and related ministries.
Parish School, Music, Building and Beyond
St. Patrick's Parish School, located on the same campus, is part of the wider St. Patrick's community and serves as the gathering place for Tuesday faith formation classes and sacramental preparation.
Music Ministry provides musical leadership for weekend and weekday Masses and for special liturgical events; those interested in joining can contact the parish office.
Parish buildings host activities beyond Sunday worship. The Parish Hall serves as the gathering place for hospitality, fundraisers and parish meetings. The Chapel hosts weekday Adoration, prayer groups and Bible studies. Several rooms, including Meeting Room 3, the Parish Hall and the Annex, are reservable through the parish office's facility reservation process. Single events require at least two weeks' notice; multi-day events require one month; recurring events require two months.
The parish calendar includes both St. Patrick's events and events at San Francisco sites, reflecting the broader network of Catholic life on the Central Coast.
Stewardship, Giving and Pastoral Governance
St. Patrick's frames its financial life around the biblical principle that "The Lord's are the earth and its fullness." The parish operates under the policies of the Diocese of Monterey and reports to the bishop on its finances. Donations are the parish's primary income source.
Electronic giving is available through the parish's online payment portal. The parish also participates in eScrip, a program that returns a percentage of purchases at Vons and other participating retailers to the parish; the St. Patrick's eScrip ID is 137331028.
A Pastoral Advisory Council, whose members include Marites Diong, Jim DeJohn, Richard Benson, Joan McKenna, Cynthia Owen and Jim Souza, supports the pastor and the parish leadership. The Finance Council, chaired by Amanda Santos and including Elizabeth O'Donnell, Sandra Golonka, Paul Knupp and Clarence Cabreros, oversees the parish's financial life.
A Parish Tied to the Central Coast
St. Patrick's reaches out across the region in addition to its internal ministries. The parish is a member of the Diocese of Monterey, currently led by Bishop Ramón Bejarano, and is actively engaging in the Diocese's community survey on the future of the former Notre Dame High School campus in Salinas.
Parishioners travel: a recent Camino Santiago pilgrimage, "lovingly dubbed "St. Patrick's: Season 2," sent forty-seven pilgrims walking from Porto and Vigo to Santiago de Compostela, leaving a permanent icon at the cathedral that links the missions of California with the Basilica of Santiago. The parish has also organized a pilgrimage to St. Paul the Apostle in Pismo Beach for the Franciscan Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV for the eight hundredth anniversary of the Transit of St. Francis. World Youth Day Seoul 2027 is the next pilgrimage on the horizon, with St. Patrick's youth preparing to travel.
St. Patrick's Catholic Church remains, at its core, a parish family: bilingual, traditional, deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition, and committed to welcoming, loving and serving all who pass through its doors on Fair Oaks Avenue.