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My husband and I are planning to relocate in another year or so and we would like this move to be our last - we're looking for a place to settle down and raise our rapidly growing family.
Any leads on places to check out would be greatly appreciated. Here's our criteria:
1.) The area must have a strong, conservative Catholic community. When I say conservative, I mean the Latin Mass, mantilla wearing, FSSP kind of Catholicism.
2.) The area must be family-friendly, i.e. a good park system and lots of recreational activities (zoos, museums, ice rinks, soccer fields) for the kids.
3.) I am originally from the D.C. Metropolitan Area so I appreciate living near a decent-sized city. Not much on rural living; I'm looking for suburbia!
4.) Low cost of living - I'm guessing almost everybody has that one on their list!!!
Added plus for areas that have active autism groups. My husband's job gives us the flexible to live almost anywhere, so I am open to ideas from all over the country! Thanks - in advance - for your input!
To be honest, I don't think there are any parishes that are allowed to say mass in Latin more than once a month. And just a few parishes in a diocese are permitted to have a Latin mass. I'm not sure where super-conservative Catholics tend to live but most Catholics seem conservative to me.
Check out Front Royal, VA, in the upper Shenandoah Valley. Lots of VERY (very very) conservative Catholics there. It's not an easy commute into DC (although people do it daily), but you can get in fairly quickly when you want to do so. Lots of home schoolers, too, if you're into that. I was told that the high level of home schoolers was in part because Front Royal is a stronghold in pro-life political activism, and the home schoolers (and their parents) could easily get in and out of DC for protests and things. Not sure if that's true or not, but it certainly sounded believable. Christendom College is also located there. I think you'd have a tough time finding a more conservative Catholic community than what you'll find in Front Royal. (and the church (http://www.sjtb.org/index.cfm - broken link)there does offer Latin Mass)
It's a small city/large town (I think maybe 13,000 or so?) but it has amenities like the Shenandoah National Park, plus if you don't mind a bit of driving it's not too far from where suburban NOVA starts up (not sure of nearest ice rink; Front Royal doesn't have one, but maybe Winchester does?). And cost of living is definitely a lot lower than in DC or the main DC suburbs.
Last edited by uptown_urbanist; 04-14-2010 at 04:08 PM..
Kansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska I think have some pretty conservative Catholics.
The city thing is going to be a problem for me though. The real traditionalist-type Catholics I think are more in small cities and rural areas. Like Carthage, Missouri has some really conservative Vietnamese Catholics, but it's like a suburb of Joplin which is a small city. Lincoln, Nebraska is a pretty conservative diocese and the small suburb "Denton, Nebraska" has an FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, correct?) seminary. A suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania also seems to have an FSSP place. However these might be too small an area for you.
As I don't find much in larger areas I'm going to go with either the Lafayette, Louisiana metro; Lincoln, Nebraska metro; or Scranton, Pennsylvania metro for now. (Lafayette based on voting pattern and strong Cajun/Creole Catholic history) They may not fit all you want, but they're the closest I'm finding on the Catholic element.
St. Louis fits, except the Catholics aren't extremely conservative. More moderate-conservative. They tend to have conservative views but the parishes range from traditional (as you have described) to contemporary (lifeteen masses and stuff like that) Generally the more suburban parishes have conservative Catholics, but more contemporary masses. The opposite is true in the city.
Pittsburgh as mentioned, possibly Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg.
As for Harrisburg, there is a weekly Tridentine Mass at the Cathedral in Harrisburg: Find Masses & More...: Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg (http://www.hbgdiocese.org/Search/Detail.aspx?PageID=ffb9876f-3945-478d-8628-0297da5b6d11&MID=acdf5923-f20b-4cac-8e4d-3183c7f408d8&DID=4 - broken link) and the suburban areas are politically conservative, possibly more so than in Pgh or S/W-B. Much cheaper housing by DC area standards. Most newcomers to Harrisburg suburban areas gravitate to Mechanicsburg (17050, 17055 zip) with Wegmans and other chain stores, especially the areas within the Cumberland Valley school district; or to Hershey with spillover to Hummelstown (17033, 17036 zips)
Any city with a majority Latino population would probably work.
I second the person who said San Antonio.
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