HISTORY OF HOLY TRINITY PARISH
Our parish was canonically established on June 1, 1987. On the first weekend of June, I preached at the Masses at the mother church, St. Mark, inviting parishioners living in the northern area of the parish to come together the following weekend as a new parish. We met on Saturday evening at 5:30 pm at St. Thomas Episcopal Church (Hwy 281 and Loop 1604) and on Sunday at 9:30 and 11:00 am in the cafeteria of the Alzafar Shrine Temple (Blanco Road and Loop 1604). Some 85 family-households came together that first weekend. It was the feast of the Holy Trinity, and later that summer the people selected and the Archbishop approved that name as the patron of our parish.
From the beginning I set three distinguishing qualities for Holy Trinity Parish: good preaching, good liturgy, and Bible-based religious education. My reasoning was quite simple: credible surveys show that Catholics know very little about the Bible, and at this time in the United States many Catholics are leaving the Church and joining fundamentalist groups where they hear a good sermon and "feel" something. God blessed me as a priest with a good seminary training in Scripture, preaching, and liturgy. I truly believed that God was calling me to use these skills to the utmost for the good and trusting people of this parish.
In the autumn of 1987 the bottom fell out of the economy in this area! Real estate companies shut their offices, model homes closed, building projects never started, investors declared bankruptcy, and unemployment followed. It is a testimony to the faith of the people of this new parish that during these dark economic times they did not hold back on their tithe, on their faith-filled stewardship. We stayed together as parish and even began to grow because we kept our focus of good preaching, good liturgy, and Bible-centered religious education! We developed into a community of people who "believe and belong."
That first autumn I also realized the inadequacy of the facility at Alzafar for worship. It was, after all, only a cafeteria. The neighboring Catholic church had spectacular facilities, not only for worship but also for meetings and for large group gatherings. Of course it had taken those parishes a decade or two to build those facilities. However, I judged that we in this new parish needed to build something within three years on our land to give us a sense of geographic identity and a place "of our own." Later the parishioners would express "a church" as their greatest need, and I set the year 1990 as the goal for us being in "our church."
In the spring of 1989 our finances indicated that we should start the process of building our new church. Our Building Committee diligently interviewed six architects, so that we could make an objective choice rather than simply opt for a personal favorite. As pastor I realized that according to Archdiocesan policy I serve at this parish for only a limited period of time. In conscience, therefore, personal preference would yield to the specific guidelines of the Church today. Therefore, I did two things: 1) I bought copies of the Church's 1968 document "on Art and Environment" and gave a copy to the architect and to each member of the building Committee to study; 2) I employed Father Ken Hannon, the Chairman of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, to take part in every Building Committee meeting to make sure that we built the kind of church that contemporary Church teaching requires! With my whole heart I thank the members of this committee for their long and tedious hours of service to our parish family.
In the autumn of 1990 we dedicated our new 600 seat church. We were a parish family of some 300 households reaching into six zip code areas. Eighty-five percent of our parish was involved in the Archdiocesan RENEW process. Our main focus was not the new building but our growing community of faith. We were afraid of growing too big too fast. We might become impersonal and routine. So we, recommitted to good preaching, good liturgy, and Bible-centered religious education. Our mission is to be a parish of "people who believe and belong."
Once we had moved into our new church, we realized our need not only for additional facilities but also for additional land on which to build in the future. In 1991 we acquired the eight residential lots adjoining our northern property along Autumn Knoll for the sum of $88,000. At the same time we sought to buy the lot at the corner of Autumn Knoll and Huebner Road. We could not come to an agreement on the price. We tried again in 1993 and in 1995. Each time we reached an agreement with the owner and submitted an Earnest Money Contract - only to have the owner return the contract with an inflated purchase price. In the autumn of 1999 we sought once again to buy that lot. By now the price, although expensive at $400,000, was more in line with current real estate prices in the area. So we paid cash for the land as a future sight for our parish offices, meeting rooms and banquet hall. Likewise, in 1998-99 we sought to buy some of the land west of our property (between the flood plane and Stone Hue). Not only the high price but also the fact that 40% of that land could not be built on according to recent code restrictions led us to abandon that venture.
On September 9, 1991 our parish was blessed with the Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate of Jerry Micek. His inspiring ministry of preaching, baptizing, and working for the poor on the west side of San Antonio has endeared him to our parishioners. On November 22, 1998 our pastor was elevated to the rank of Monsignor in the Church. In gratitude for this honor the parish determined to name our future construction the "Monsignor Douglas Fater Religious Education Center." On September 12, 1999 our parish was again blessed with Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate of Norbert "Chris" Laskowski. His enthusiasm for prayer, preaching, and reaching out has made him an immediate grace for our parishioners.
On February 7, 1999 Archbishop Patrick Flores "broke ground" for the expansion of our church and for the two-story religious education center. On that occasion the Archbishop announced that on June 1st he would reappoint Msgr. Fater to an indefinite term as our pastor. Later the Construction Company of Keller-Martin would win the bid-contract, and construction began in late April. The target date for completion is June 2, 2000.
At Thanksgiving 1998 Msgr. Fater sent a letter to all parishioners asking that each family contribute $1,000 as a Christmas / End-of-Year donation (along with their regular contributions). Ultimately, some 500 parishioners responded! At the beginning of 1999 we started a Capital Campaign with a professional fund-raiser, John Fink from Houston, to obtain the additional funds ($1,500,000) to finance 50% of the projected cost for the expansion of our church to its full design and the construction of a 2-story Religious Education Center. The campaign was successful, and Archbishop Flores blessed the new facilities September 22, 2000! The church seats 1,000 people. The new building is named the Monsignor Douglas Fater Faith Formation Center.
Stewardship remains the vision and goal of our parish because that is the biblical mandate! We urge the Stewardship and Sacrificial Giving of Time, Talent, and Treasure. In this way we will grow as "a people who believe and belong" and build the Kingdom of God where we are! We confidently embrace the millennium with all its challenges and with all its possibilities!
As a result of this faith-filled commitment to Stewardship, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Flanagan broke ground on November 23, 2003 for the construction of our new banquet hall and office wing. The projected cost is $4,000,000. Our parishioner, Bob Crittenden of Project Control, donated his services to oversee the architectural design and construction of the facilities. RKV was chosen as the architectural firm. Hooker Construction was chosen to build the facility. Our newly installed archbishop, Jose Gomez, blessed and dedicated the new facility on April 1, 2005. The blessing was followed by a Starlight Gala Dinner and Dance attended by some 535 parishioners!
All that remains to do is the construction of a new parking area for 65 cars that will be completed in the summer of 2005.