When St. James Church in Mount Rainier, Maryland, opened its doors in 1926, Ford Model T cars chugged along the streets in that growing neighborhood near Washington, D.C.
On Oct. 25, 2026, people riding in Metro buses, SUVs and other modern cars passing by that sturdy brick church on Rhode Island Avenue saw streamers decorated with yellow and white flags stretching on lines strung above its entranceway and over its parking lot for its 100th anniversary.
Celebrating the centennial Mass for St. James Church, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said, “It’s wonderful to be here to celebrate this great anniversary, because it represents the hopes and the prayers and the faith of people who for 100 years have come to the parish to encounter Christ.”
Through the years, the parish included families from the Washington area who settled in that neighborhood, joined in recent decades by immigrant families from Mexico and Central and South America.
“What unifies it is the story of faith in the hearts and souls of families, of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who have come here to St. James and found Christ’s presence,” the cardinal said as the Mass began.
In 1908, St. James was established as a mission of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Washington. Two decades after the church was built, St. James was canonically established as a parish in 1946.
Hundreds of people filled the church for the 100th anniversary Mass, standing along the walls and crowding the vestibule for the bilingual Mass that included Scripture readings and prayers in English and Spanish, and music led by a Spanish choir.
Concelebrating the Mass with the cardinal was Father Pablo Bonello, a native of Argentina who has served as the pastor of St. James for the past 10 years. Father Bonello is a priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, the religious community that has staffed the parish since 2004. He earlier served as a parochial vicar at St. James from 2007 to 2013.
In his closing remarks at the Mass, Cardinal McElroy thanked Father Bonello “for being a shepherd of this wonderful parish,” and then the cardinal offered praise to Christ the King; to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas; and to the parish, saying, “Viva Cristo Rey! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Viva Parroquia San James!”
After the Mass, Cardinal McElroy and Father Bonello greeted people before joining a 100th anniversary luncheon in the parish hall, the Hughes Room, named for a beloved former pastor, Father E. Albert Hughes, who died in 1980.
In an interview, Father Bonello praised the spirit of St. James Parish, saying, “It’s a family community.” The people there, he said, are “full of gratitude. They show their gratitude through their volunteer work.”
The pastor noted the longtime parishioners who grew up there, and the Hispanic immigrant parishioners who “help with their talents,” including construction and landscape workers who “do what they can, and they are very interested in the religious education of their children.”
St. James offers daily Masses in English, and a Saturday vigil Mass and Sunday morning Mass in English, along with two Sunday Masses in Spanish. The parish includes about 500 households. This past year, there were 180 Baptisms at St. James, and 432 children and youth attended religious education classes there. A special highlight of the year is an all-day celebration on Dec. 12 honoring the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Among those attending the 100th anniversary Mass for St. James Church was Mary Cavanagh, a parishioner for the past 65 years. “I love the church. I live down the street there, and I walk up here,” said Cavanagh, who noted that all five of her children were baptized and married in the church.
Before the Mass, other longtime St. James parishioners reflected on what has continued to draw them back to that church over the years.
Celia Wendel, a St. James parishioner for the past 50 years who sings in the choir at the 9:30 a.m. Sunday Mass, said, “No matter where people come from, we all love each other.”
That point was echoed by Maria Cordone, a retired director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who noted that she was baptized there 76 years ago. Cordone, who attended the now-closed St. James School and who continues to be active in the parish’s Holy Name Society, said that even as St. James Parish has become more diverse in recent decades, its family and community spirit have continued. “The people are very caring and loving and giving,” she said.
Parishioners interviewed after the Mass also praised the spirit of St. James Parish.
Napoleon Lopez, an immigrant from El Salvador who is a retired meat cutter, has attended St. James with his family since the 1980s. He and his wife Margarita were married at St. James Church, and their three children were baptized there.
“We got to know the community… I got involved in different activities, got to know people. That’s what kept us here. I like the people,” said Lopez, who serves as the president of the parish’s Holy Name Society, which promotes reverence for the names of God and Jesus.
Lopez noted how the parish’s priests visited him in the hospital after he had surgery for an aneurysm. “In my sickness, the priests always supported and prayed for me,” he said.
Leading the Spanish choir at the anniversary Mass was Felipe Urquilla, an immigrant from El Salvador who works in home improvement. “It’s nice to be part of the family… This is like my home,” said Urquilla, who is active in a prayer group there.
Ruth Hicks – a St. James parishioner for the past six decades who is retired after working as an administrative assistant at Catholic University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering – has been active in the Sodality and Ladies of Charity at the parish. “It’s a family,” she said.
Nieva Armstrong joined St. James Parish in 2007, and she married her husband in St. James Church in 2010. She praised the warmth of the community. “They welcome new faces all the time, and we make everyone feel at home,” said Armstrong, who works as a teacher at a Montessori school in Washington.
Archdiocesan chancellor comes home to St. James
Returning home to St. James Parish on Oct. 9 to speak at a dinner for the Holy Name Society there, Terry Farrell – the chancellor for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington – spoke about how the parish has shaped his life and work. Farrell, who is the fifth of seven children of the late Jack and Esther Farrell, noted how his parents bought a house on nearby Quincy Street so their children could walk to St. James School and to Mass at St. James Church.
“The way I grew up, St. James wasn’t just a parish. St. James was a Catholic family,” Farrell said, noting the generations of families there including parents and grandparents, children who grew up together, and neighbors. “You’re talking about people who showed up when somebody needed help. That’s what a parish family is supposed to be. And that’s what St. James was to me, and still is.”
St. James parishioners, he said, came to St. James Church to receive the sacraments for themselves and their families, “and to pray when life was difficult… (and) to give thanks when life was good.”
In his talk, Farrell also noted, and named, “the countless wonderful priests” who served at St. James over the years. The parishioners knew “the priest was there when you needed him,” he said.
As he concluded his talk, Farrell said, “St. James is my home parish. But after all these years, I think I can say something even more important. St. James is part of who I am. It helped raise me. It helped form my faith. It introduced me to people who became lifelong friends. It gave me memories that I will carry with me forever. And it taught me that the Catholic Church isn’t just a place you go on Sunday. It’s a family. It’s a community. It’s a responsibility. It’s a way of life.”
The archdiocese’s chancellor said that 118 years after St. James began as a mission, “That is still what St. James does. It brings Jesus Christ to the people.”
