El Paso Catholic Diocese celebrates 100 years

“We’re marking the day when we got our own bishop when we were organized as a local church for the first time,” said Bishop Mark Seitz.
Worshipers gathered Saturday evening at the Ysleta Mission to enjoy music and prayer.
Sietz said that over the past 100 years the Diocese has provided a unique service for the region dating back to the Mexican revolution.
“One thing that we can be very proud of is that we’ve always been a place of welcome or a place of refuge for people from across the border when they were being persecuted at various times after the Mexican revolution and the Cristero War. People opened their arms wide. We still have some religious communities here to this day that came during that time,” said Seitz.
Seitz said the El Paso Diocese has had a huge influence in the community.
El Paso was the first city in Texas to have a mission.
It was the first to have a Catholic hospital. It even has patron saints from our own community.
But the Diocese admits it’s struggling.
“The biggest struggle we are facing right now is to encourage young men to pursue the priesthood more women to pursue religious life,” said Bishop Seitz.
The purpose of the mass was to reinvigorate the the faithful and reach out to invite non-practicing Catholics.
“It shows me that when we are proud of our history, we can also be proud as we head into the future. There’s a great vitality here. At an age when not many people believe in faith, faith is here in El Paso,” said Seitz.