St. Peter's Catholic Church on Capitol Hill

Wanted: a new church to become a member of. A successful candidate will possess the following characteristics:

• Roman Catholic. Minimum requirement.  Yes, the pope and I have issues, but I’m going to be around longer than he is. I can wait. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
• A choir that I could potentially join
• A pipe organ
• Decent homilies
• A critical mass of people: big enough that there are enough people to do the critical jobs, the head of the finance committee, the social services director.
• Not too far from my home.

I’ve been to St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill twice now: once to the folk mass (not my favorite liturgical music genre, even though 30 years ago I sang Abraham, Martin and John with a folk group every week at Queen of Angels in Fort Wayne) and once to the traditional mass with organ, choir and an American Sign Language interpreter. Both times the pastor, Fr. William Byrne, a red-haired Irish-American (I’m guessing here, but feel I’m on solid ground), gave the sermon, which was thought-provoking and amusing. The choir was small but strong, although they stuck to the not-very-challenging hymnal. It’s a 20-minute walk from my home, or two Metro stops. The walk takes me past Eastern Market. The church has about 1,000 families and was only $2,000 in debt last year. That never happens! OK, so A-.

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