About St. Rose · Sacramento, California
St. Rose Parish is a Roman Catholic parish in the South Sacramento neighborhood of the city, situated on Franklin Boulevard and forming part of the Diocese of Sacramento's Southern Suburbs Deanery. The parish grew up around the original chapel of what had been St. Patrick Home for Children, and it has been a bilingual English-and-Spanish community for decades, celebrating Sunday Mass in both languages and serving a large catechetical program of roughly 1,000 children. Today St. Rose is served by Rev. Jose J. Beltran as pastor and Deacon Gilberto Coss, and it shares its grounds with St. Patrick Succeed Academy, a diocesan regional preschool-through-8th-grade school.
- Established
- 1940
- Patron
- St. Rose of Lima
- Rector
- Rev. Jose J. Beltran
- Diocese
- Diocese of Sacramento (Southern Suburbs Deanery)
Why belong here
St. Rose offers a warmly bilingual Catholic home in South Sacramento, with Sunday Mass celebrated in both English and Spanish, weekday Masses in each language, and a large catechetical program serving roughly 350 students in Spanish and 650 in English. The parish shares its campus with St. Patrick Succeed Academy and continues a remarkable tradition of social ministry — a community garden that has fed refugee families since 1982, on-site child-care and youth residential programs inherited from St. Patrick's Home, and a thriving sacramental life with around 500 baptisms and 40–50 marriages celebrated each year. For Catholics moving into the South Sacramento area, it is a place with deep institutional roots, an active bilingual liturgy, and a pastorate rooted in decades of service to children and families.
Mass times at St. Rose
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Thursday 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Saturday 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Adoration times
- Thursday 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, often paired with Confession)
About St. Rose Parish
St. Rose Parish is a Roman Catholic community in the South Sacramento neighborhood, in the Diocese of Sacramento's Southern Suburbs Deanery. Worship is offered in both English and Spanish, and the parish shares its Franklin Boulevard campus with St. Patrick Succeed Academy and the long-running social-service ministries that grew out of the original St. Patrick Home for Children. The current pastor is Rev. Jose J. Beltran, with Deacon Gilberto Coss assisting; together they serve a congregation that continues the bilingual liturgical and catechetical life shaped by more than eight decades of parish history.
- Diocese: Diocese of Sacramento (Southern Suburbs Deanery)
- Pastor: Rev. Jose J. Beltran
- Deacon: Dcn. Gilberto Coss
- Founded 1940; chapel building dates to 1932
History
St. Rose began as the 1932 chapel of St. Patrick Home for Children, an orphanage moved from Grass Valley to South Sacramento and dedicated by Bishop Robert Armstrong that August. As Catholic families in the surrounding neighborhood began attending Mass there, attendance grew to about 120 families by 1940, prompting Bishop Armstrong on February 10, 1940 to formally create the new parish with St. Rose Chapel as the parish church. The founding pastor was Father Patrick J. Bennett, who simultaneously served as executive director of the orphanage.
- 1932 — St. Patrick Home for Children relocated from Grass Valley; chapel dedicated by Bishop Robert Armstrong
- Feb. 10, 1940 — Parish formally created; St. Rose Chapel becomes parish church
- 1947 — Campbell's Soup plant opens on Franklin Boulevard; South Sacramento begins to grow rapidly
- 1948 — Father Patrick J. Bennett dies suddenly; Father Edward J. Kavanagh arrives as assistant
- 1949 — Father Carroll W. Lawsen appointed second pastor
- 1954 — Father Kavanagh becomes director of St. Patrick's Home
- 1955–1961 — Five new parishes carved out of St. Rose territory
- 1962 — Monsignor Edward J. Kavanagh named third pastor; serves 44 years
- 1965 / 1977 — Monsignor Kavanagh named Chaplain of His Holiness then Honorary Prelate
- 1982 — St. Rose–Saint Patrick Social Center completed; Community Garden founded for Southeast Asian refugees
- 2006 — Monsignor Kavanagh retires; Monsignor James F. Church succeeds him
- 2011 — Bishop Jaime Soto consolidates St. Anne, All Hallows, and St. Patrick schools into St. Patrick Academy
- 2014–2015 — Series of administrators (Fr. Hernandez-Gomez, Fr. Rata, Fr. Hernandez) follow Monsignor Church
- 2016 — Monsignor Kavanagh dies on St. Patrick's Day at age 93
Architecture of the Church
The parish church was designed by Sacramento architect Harry Devine, Sr. in a Venetian Gothic style when it was built in 1932 as the chapel of St. Patrick Home for Children. Its interior appointments were donated by Mrs. C. K. McClatchy, and the altar was fashioned from two types of Italian marble. After 1940 the building continued in use as the parish church, and the Kavanagh Community Center on the same campus now hosts the larger English- and Spanish-language Sunday Masses.
- Architect: Harry Devine, Sr.
- Style: Venetian Gothic
- Interior appointments: Mrs. C. K. McClatchy
- Altar: two types of Italian marble
Clergy and Staff
St. Rose is led by Rev. Jose J. Beltran as pastor, with the assistance of Deacon Gilberto Coss. The parish is part of the Diocese of Sacramento and falls within the Southern Suburbs Deanery. Parish and school office contact information is available through the diocesan directory and the parish website.
- Pastor — Rev. Jose J. Beltran
- Deacon — Dcn. Gilberto Coss
- Diocese — Diocese of Sacramento
- Deanery — Sacramento County, Southern Suburbs
St. Patrick Succeed Academy
The parish school on the St. Rose campus is St. Patrick Succeed Academy, a culturally diverse diocesan regional school serving preschool through 8th grade. It was formed in 2011 when Bishop Jaime Soto consolidated three South Sacramento parish schools — St. Anne, All Hallows, and St. Patrick — into a single regional school. The principal is Julie Nguyen, and the school shares the parish campus at 5945 Franklin Blvd.
- Grades: Preschool – 8
- Principal: Julie Nguyen
- Formed: 2011 (consolidation of St. Anne, All Hallows, and St. Patrick schools)
- Address: 5945 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95824
- Phone: (916) 421-4963
St. Patrick Community Garden
The St. Patrick Community Garden, on parish land since 1982, is one of the more distinctive ministries of St. Rose. In response to the needs of the Southeast Asian refugee community — many of whom live in the Mira Mar Apartments on the south edge of the parish grounds — the parish set aside several acres and provided irrigation so that refugees from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and China could grow fresh vegetables to feed their families. It remains an active outreach of the parish today.
- Founded: 1982
- Population served: Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Chinese refugee families
- Location: parish grounds, adjacent to Mira Mar Apartments
Social Services and the Legacy of St. Patrick's Home
For nearly a century, the St. Rose campus has been a center of child-care and youth services in South Sacramento. St. Patrick's Home for Children was originally an orphanage; today its successor programs include infant/toddler and preschool day care, before- and after-school extended-day programs, and a network of community-based group homes serving dependent youth. These services — and the 1982 Saint Rose–Saint Patrick Social Center, with its 1,000-seat auditorium and commercial kitchen — remain part of the parish's ministry fabric.
- St. Patrick's Home for Children (1932–)
- Infant/toddler and preschool day care (since 1972)
- Second day-care center at former St. Paul site on Florin Road (since 1977)
- Community group homes: Kassis (21st St.), McMahon (Florin Rd.), Farley (El Terraza), Ford (47th Ave.), Lo Presti (Lemon Hill Ave.), Arata (Lang Ave.)
- Saint Rose–Saint Patrick Social Center (1982, 1,000-seat auditorium)
- Thrift Shop
Catechetical and Sacramental Life
St. Rose has long been a busy sacramental parish. Under Monsignor Kavanagh's pastorate the parish catechetical program was reported to serve about 350 students in the Spanish track and 650 in the English track, with roughly 500 baptisms and 40–50 marriages each year. Confession is currently scheduled on Thursday and Saturday, and preparation for the other sacraments is handled through the parish office.
- Religious education in English and Spanish tracks (~1,000 students total)
- Baptism: ~500 per year (historical figure)
- Marriage: 40–50 per year (historical figure)
- Confession: Thursday 6:00–7:00 PM; Saturday 6:00–6:30 PM
Visit, Contact, and Accessibility
The parish is located at 5961 Franklin Boulevard in Sacramento, with the school next door at 5945 Franklin Boulevard. The mailing address is P.O. Box 246070, Sacramento, CA 95824. Telephone is (916) 421-1414, and the parish email listed in third-party directories is [email protected]. The campus is reported to be wheelchair accessible, with an accessible entrance, restroom, and parking lot.
- Address: 5961 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95824
- Mailing: P.O. Box 246070, Sacramento, CA 95824
- Phone: (916) 421-1414
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://stroseinsacramento.com/
- Accessibility: wheelchair-accessible entrance, restroom, and parking
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Father Patrick J. Bennett1940–1948
Founding pastor; also served as executive director of St. Patrick's Home. Died of a heart attack on Dec. 21, 1948, two weeks after his new assistant arrived.
- Father Carroll W. Lawsen1949–1962
Appointed by Bishop Armstrong; also director of St. Patrick's Home until 1954. Died in office June 21, 1962.
- Monsignor Edward J. Kavanagh1962–2006
Irish-born priest, arrived Dec. 1948 from St. Kieran Seminary. Named Chaplain of His Holiness 1965 and Honorary Prelate 1977. Served 44 years as pastor; later died on St. Patrick's Day 2016 at age 93.
- Monsignor James F. Church2006–2014
Asked by Bishop Weigand to take over after Monsignor Kavanagh's retirement at age 75; retired from active ministry in 2014.
- Father Francisco Hernandez-Gomez2014 (ad pro tem)
Ad pro tem administrator.
- Father Jovito Rata2014–2015
Administrator.
- Father Guillermo Hernandez2015–present (as of diocesan history)
Administrator as of the published diocesan history; later succeeded by the current pastor.
- Rev. Jose J. Beltrancurrent
Current pastor per the Diocese of Sacramento directory.