by MITCHELL COTE
Staff Writer
On October 15th, groundbreaking commenced on a new church that’s to be built on Caldwell and Akers. Although there are various other churches in the area, they won’t have the accolade this church will have when it opens in 2021 – because this church is being built to the goal of being, according to officials of the project, the largest seating capacity Catholic parish church in the United States.
This church, which will be called the St. Charles Borromeo in honor of both the titular saint of bishops and the Monsignor who bought the land back in 1961, is planned to seat about 3,000 people – 800 more than the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. The idea of building a church of this size in Visalia is credited to John Thomas Steinbock (1937-2010), the fourth Bishop of Fresno. Once this new church opens, it will become home to every Sunday mass the Good Shepherd Catholic Parish hosts from now on. The parish, which was formed in 2016 out of 4 smaller parishes, which together covered most of Visalia and Goshen, has said that this new plan for the future will cut down on the number of priests needed to perform mass. Father Alex Chavez, speaking with The Sun-Gazette, said, “Eleven masses in our parish will not be sustainable. With the new church, we will be able to go down to something more sustainable.”
Even though the church doesn’t open until 2021, there has been a temporary church on the premises ever since 2011. The current St. Charles Borromeo showcases the same kind of mission-style facade the future building of the same name will showcase when it opens.