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PARISH PROFILE
 Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Tabb: Everyone a minister
ByAnn Ruggaber
Special to The Catholic Virginian
The motto of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Community in Tabb is simple: “Every Family: a 5 percent tither; every confirmed member: a minister.” Father Larry Mullaney, the pastor, says that drew him to the parish as its second pastor in 2000, following founding pastor Father Thomas Quinlan.
“I am the gifted recipient of what he and the charter parishioners had in place,” he said. “I bless what is here and carry it on.”
The parish began in 1986 as new homes and economic development caused the population of the Tabb/Poquoson area to increase rapidly. It has grown to its present 400 families from the group of 11 who gathered for the first liturgy.
 Bucking national trends, the parish is predominantly households with children under 18, supports itself and its ministries with tithing and no other fund appeals, and has 65 percent of its confirmed adults involved in one or more parish ministry.
The parish is structured on the House Church model chosen by the 125 charter members and their pastor. Twenty-three neighborhood house churches gather in homes to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, participate in Adult Formation, and socialize.
New parishioners attend a registration meeting where the motto is explained. They are then assigned to a house church, which welcomes them and helps them get acquainted.
House church members often form close relationships. In one, two women were widowed in the same year, and their house church became their greatest support to help them through the loss, said Father Mullaney.
Each house church chooses an Elder who facilitates the group gatherings. The Council of Elders meets regularly with the staff to provide communication to and from the wider parish and serves as an advisory body to the pastor.
Stressing that the needs of the poor are its first priority, the parish started a thrift shop and food pantry in its first year. Now housed in the St. Kateri Ministries Building in downtown Poquoson, both are entirely volunteer operations, directed and staffed by parishioners.
 The thrift shop is self-supporting and puts all income generated back into the local community in the form of financial assistance to help people get back on their feet, and into 10 college scholarships awarded annually to two students from each of the four local public high schools and Peninsula Catholic High School, based on recipients’ service in the community.
The Community Food Pantry has the scriptural command to feed the hungry as its only mandate, says Volunteer Management Director Nadine Silcox, a charter member, who is also one of four directors of the thrift shop. Five churches and several community organizations provide the food that is distributed to 180 households a month.
In the pantry and the thrift shop, volunteers attempt to form relationships with those they serve, helping them connect with other agencies’ services.
The parish has an active relationship with a sister parish in Haiti, St. Michel, Boucan-Carre in the Diocese of Hinche. Blessed Kateri’s tithes help support the Haitian parish and the Catholic school they built.
Children and high school youth make up almost one-third of the entire parish population. Trish Giaccio is the director of religious education for over 200 children enrolled in the parish elementary religious education program.
 Pat Kovac, the youth minister, describes an active youth program which involves almost 200 teens, and includes community service, a youth band, and many social and learning events in the parish, the region, and the diocese. This summer, the parish sent 50 teens to Catholic Heart Camp in Bluffton, S.C., for a week of service. Another 21 made a mission trip to Jamaica. Parent Pam Giglio says she likes the family-oriented approach, the strong feeling of participation, and the many ways for children and youth to be active.
At a recent Sunday liturgy, the parish blessed college students at the annual Send-Off Sunday.
“We send you forth to be a blessing to the thirty-seven communities of which you will be a part,” Father Mullaney told the students. “Take the lessons you have learned here and incorporate them into your new environment.”
The college committee sends cards, “care packages”, and prayers on holidays and birthdays to over 70 college students.
“It’s a way of keeping them connected so that they feel they always belong here,” says chair Cathy Dress.
 John Grothaus, a student at Notre Dame, says the packages remind him that he is not forgotten and will be warmly welcomed home. His mother, Megan Connelly Grothaus, added, “They take that sense of parish as family wherever they go.”
In 1996 the parish moved into its first permanent building. The all-purpose building is used for worship, community gatherings, religious formation classes and parish meetings.
Administrator Elaine Riley says the next phase will include space for education and offices. As a tithing community, the parish paid off its current building in 10 years with no additional fund appeals.
When the name of the new parish was chosen in 1986, it was thought that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s canonization was imminent. To avoid future confusion, the parishioners recommended and Bishop Sullivan chose the name St. Kateri Tekakwitha.
 As one parishioner explained, “We researched her life and, in the tradition of the early Church, the people acclaimed a saint!” Blessed Kateri is the first Native American candidate for canonization.
The Native American presence in the area is apparent today as well as in its history.
The parish honors its Native American heritage by giving a tiny pair of moccasins to each newly-baptized infant and presenting departing parishioners with a totem pole fashioned in the shape of a cross.
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Copyright © 2006 The Catholic Virginian Press. Articles from Catholic News Services, including Fr. Dietzen’s column, may not be reproduced here due to copyright considerations.
The Catholic Virginian is a biweekly publication serving the people of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. This website includes some, but not all, of the articles from the print version of The Catholic Virginian.
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