Hundreds of Catholics gather in Carmel Valley for multicultural Pentecost Mass
Hundreds of Catholics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds came together to worship and celebrate the festival of Pentecost in the gymnasium in Carmel Valley, Saturday morning.
The gathering filled the gymnasium of Cathedral Catholic High School with music, chanting and the scent of white sage as worshippers processed and sang. It was a celebration Christians recognize as the birth of the church community, when the Holy Spirit descended upon believers.
Participants represented communities including Mexican, Italian, Samoan, Chinese, and Indian Catholics among the believers that filled the bleachers.
Jeeva Abraham, who attended with her two young daughters, said the event’s message resonated deeply.
“The peace and joy, that’s what we need in this world right now for sure given the current situations,” Abraham said.
Bishop Michael Pham, leader of the Diocese of San Diego, presided over the multicultural Mass, which featured elaborate ceremony and intentional pageantry designed to reflect unity across cultures.
“I see beauty, so colorful and so vibrant,” said Claire Silke, who immigrated from Ireland decades ago. San Diego is her spirtual home. “We’re all like working together just being on fire together. We see what the Holy Spirit has in store for us all,” Silke told NBC 7.
Bishop Pham began the annual multicultural celebration nine years ago when he was still pastor at Good Shepherd Parish in Mira Mesa.
The event took four months of planning that included large screens with translations in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. There was also a choir of members who collaborated on gospel music that is not often shared in a traditional Catholic church.
The message of the mass focused on a universal hope for peace in light of last Monday’s shootings at the Islamic Center of San Diego where three victims were killed and the two gunmen died by suicide.
“We are just praying for each other and for that peace with one another to see the dignity of the human person no matter who they are,” said the Very Reverend Chris Bongato, the Bishop’s vicar for intercultural and ethnic communities.
