Posted on Jul 10, 2007

Newly installed Bishop Richard Garcia will make his first official Pastoral Visit to the parishioners of Old Mission San Miguel on the weekend of July 21 and 22. Saturday, July 21, he will preside at the Confirmation ceremony of ten candidates at Our Lady of Ransom Church in San Ardo, in southern Monterey County, which is part of San Miguel parish. Following the Confirmation Mass, the community will honor him and those confirmed at a dinner reception. Sunday, July 22, at 10 am, he will preside at the groundbreaking for the San Miguel Mission Community Center, which, when completed, will serve the parish as a place for services until the main church can be restored. At 11 am, the entire parish and Friends of the Mission will join Bishop Garcia in an outdoor Mass, followed by a barbecue dinner in his honor. Parishioners of Mission San Miguel began the Parish Center project nearly 12 years ago. Following the earthquake, it became even more important to build the Center due to damage to the Mission church. Use of the center will also be available to the community of San Miguel. The project is totally separate from the Mission Restoration project. The restoration of Mission San Miguel is planned in seven stages. Stages one and two have been completed. Stage one was repair of the southern portion of the museum and Gift Shop. On Thanksgiving Day, 2005, the large museum room reopened as a chapel for parish services. Stage two was completed this spring, with the remaining museum rooms, a small meeting room, and the old ~offices reopening on Easter Sunday, April 8. The front colonnade was restored and repainted. Stage three is repair and reopening of the rooms in the old part of the Mission that are used as part of the Retreat Center. This stage will cost approximately one million dollars.