Mission Statement

Growing in faith through prayer, worship, and sacraments, from humble beginnings in 1947 to a thriving community today at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Our mission is to nurture and encourage each member to grow in the knowledge and love of our Heavenly Father through prayer, scripture, worship and the sacraments. We invite you to worship with us and join our community of faithful, active Catholics.

Pastoral Reflections by Bishop McElroy

The Catholic community enfleshes in countless ways Christian discipleship lived in family, society and public life. [These] constitute a profound pathway for our pilgrimage on this earth and unto eternity. The continual recognition of these realities in the comments at the listening sessions point to the depth of faith and closeness to God that pervades our diocese on so many levels. [This recognition] places the challenges of this moment in its proper context of fruitful discipleship and service.

At the same time, our recognition that the grace of God pervades the life of the Church in so many dimensions does not free us from recognizing the sinfulness that has characterized the Church’s culture, structures and actions regarding the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. It is not enough to point out that the reforms adopted in 2002 regarding zero tolerance, reporting to police agencies, and the initiation of educational programs for children and adults have overwhelmingly improved the culture and incidence of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and laity in the life of the Church.

Catholic leadership must continue to bear a historic responsibility of shame and profound regret at this moment and moving forward because for so many decades it allowed a culture of reassignment of priests who had abused minors. [This] destroy[ed] the lives and wounded the souls of tens of thousands of boys and girls, young women, and young men.

A renewed focus on the healing of victim-survivors

Since 2002, the Diocese of San Diego has reached out to victims of clergy sexual abuse. [The diocese has] provided counseling, immediately reported to police authorities, and prompted action in following up on allegations of clergy sexual abuse. But, the listening sessions have made clear that this effort must be dramatically expanded.

The first steps to accomplish these goals have already been undertaken. To expand this level of support to victims and survivors, the diocese is moving from a part-time victim assistance coordinator to a full-time coordinator who will work with survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families. Their assignment is to form support groups, provide ongoing counseling and ensure that allegations are brought both to the appropriate law enforcement jurisdiction and investigation by the diocesan Independent Review Board. The diocese has also made a commitment to provide and pay for counseling for any victim of clergy sexual abuse no matter where that abuse took place.

Finally, in November [of 2018], the Diocese of San Diego published a list of all priests of the diocese and all priests of other dioceses or religious orders who had served in diocesan assignments, for whom we have received credible accusations of the sexual abuse of a minor. It is my hope that this publication will be both a step toward transparency, and even more importantly, a step toward healing for the victims and survivors of these priests.