By Jay Sorgi • Posted November 12, 2024

If you drive into the parking lot of St. Martin of Tours Parish along Oxford Circle in Northeast Philadelphia on a Sunday morning, you’ll find it packed — even when the first Mass ended a half-hour earlier and the second Mass is 90 minutes from starting.

Walk inside, and you’ll see a group of about 10 babies being baptized. Head to the lower church and you’ll hear “I Am the Bread of Life” rehearsed in multiple languages. Along the main church walls, you’ll notice flags representing 28 countries, later to be carried during the opening procession.

The liturgy begins with the ministry team sharing a trilingual reminder that for all those sitting in nearly full pews, St. Martin of Tours is “su casa” – “your house.”

Mass continues with Father Andrew Lane, parochial administrator, and various liturgical ministers adeptly pivoting between English, Greek, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish.

“If we remember that we are Catholics, it is our faith, then (in) whatever language we have the Mass … I could still partake in it, because it’s all the same,” said Zoraida Figueroa, the parish’s director of religious education and scouting chairperson.

“The diverse change of just not Anglo, but Vietnamese, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans … it’s been a blessing, because we all seem to be one family and one church,” said her husband Jose Figueroa of the parish’s Knights of Columbus council.

But while the experience uniquely meets churchgoers where they are, the liturgy never loses sight of the timeless: The truth of the Gospel and the power of after the Eucharist in holy Communion.

Not a bad way to mark the parish’s second century by celebrating the Feast of St. Martin of Tours (Nov. 11) with a special Mass, as the vibrant parish community did Sunday, Nov. 10 to showcase resilience and growth over 101 years of changing times and a changing neighborhood.

“Being all things to all people – St. Paul gives us those words in the Word of God, and how as Christians, we have to be willing and ready to adapt,” said Father Lane.

“The call for us as Christians is to preach the Gospel in season and out of season. Right now, there is so much need to witness to our Lord and really just to empower people to do it themselves.”

The mission for parishioners, according to Father Lane,  is “to care for the poor and the needy, and to announce the gospel of Jesus to others. That is what we see in the life of St. Martin’s,” he said.

That life is evident in  people like the Figueroas, from cooking food for the parish celebration banquet, to fixing something within the church building or welcoming newcomers to the parish and to Philadelphia.

“We’re willing to help,” Zoraida Figueroa said. “If someone sees something that needs to be done, it’s like, ‘Can you help?’ And everybody’s willing to help.”

“The brotherhood in this parish, your feel it in the air,” added Gustavo Cordova, the parish’s youth coordinator. “We are willing to drop what we’re doing and come over to help … what Jesus did when he was walking down here with us. He was leaving whatever he was doing to help with the person who was in need.”

Responding to Christ’s call to service  at the parish extends to a list of outreach ministries that’s almost too long to mention.

“We can brag about that,” said Cordova. “We are the busiest parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.”

And one of the most diverse, with weekly Masses in English, Portuguese and Spanish – a language that Jose Figueroa said was the spawn of an unlikely result in their first attempt at such a Mass.

Twenty years ago, he recalled, parish leadership offered a permanent Spanish liturgy if 35 people came.

“The first Mass was six inches of snow outside, and we had 460 people come to that Mass,” Jose said.

That growth reflects a parish that has seen incredible change in the demographics of the neighborhood, but not in the quantity of churchgoers or the devotion to their faith in worship or in action – something Father Lane suggests that former parish members who relocated should come back and check out.

“So many people have the experience of moving away from the city … and then looking back and seeing their parish get closed (or) just dwindle to maybe just one or two weekend Masses. I just would love for people to be able to see and hear that St. Martin’s is alive,” said Father Lane. “There’s a lot of people here. It’s not going anywhere.”

As parish minister Carlos Orozco added, “It’s a vibrant community. Jesus is the only one that can make all this happen.”