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Feature News | Friday, July 28, 2017

A place for God in the Grand Canyon

Unique Catholic chapel ministers to souls who visit, live among splendor of national park

Father Rafael Bercasio speaks to tourists gathered for Sunday Mass at El Cristo Rey Chapel in the Grand Canyon, the only Catholic parish located inside a national park.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Father Rafael Bercasio speaks to tourists gathered for Sunday Mass at El Cristo Rey Chapel in the Grand Canyon, the only Catholic parish located inside a national park.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK | Father Rafael Bercasio pastors perhaps the smallest parish in America — and the most uniquely situated.

A short walk away from the south rim of the Grand Canyon sits El Cristo Rey Chapel, a small wooden building that serves as the spiritual home of the Catholic families who work at the national park.

El Cristo Rey has 26 registered families, who are “always outnumbered by the tourists,” Father Bercasio said.

Signs point to El Cristo Rey Chapel, the parish for 26 Catholic families who live and work in Grand Canyon National Park - along with the hundreds of Catholic tourists who visit yearly.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Signs point to El Cristo Rey Chapel, the parish for 26 Catholic families who live and work in Grand Canyon National Park - along with the hundreds of Catholic tourists who visit yearly.

Stained glass window displays the name of El Cristo Rey Chapel, located in Grand Canyon Village, within the national park.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Stained glass window displays the name of El Cristo Rey Chapel, located in Grand Canyon Village, within the national park.

An artificial fireplace and Native American sand art decorate a corner of El Cristo Rey Chapel, located inside Grand Canyon National Park.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

An artificial fireplace and Native American sand art decorate a corner of El Cristo Rey Chapel, located inside Grand Canyon National Park.

Father Rafael Bercasio, administrator of El Cristo Rey Chapel inside Grand Canyon National Park, pastors one of the smallest and most uniquely located churches in the U.S.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Father Rafael Bercasio, administrator of El Cristo Rey Chapel inside Grand Canyon National Park, pastors one of the smallest and most uniquely located churches in the U.S.

The chapel is located within the boundaries of Grand Canyon Village, a residential neighborhood of around 1,500 households that includes a school, a grocery store and a post office. Residents are employed as park rangers and naturalists, maintenance workers, and hotel, restaurant and retail staff. Some live there only six months out of the year, although the park is open year-round.

“You cannot live here if you’re not working in the Grand Canyon,” the priest explained.

Grand Canyon Village is perhaps more familiar to park visitors as the site of historic hotels such as El Tovar and the stopping point for the most photographed views of the canyon. Visitors can catch glimpses of the village’s less visited residential areas as they ride on the shuttle — a free bus that moves the park’s vast quantities of tourists throughout the south rim’s hotels and restaurants.  

El Cristo Rey Chapel is not on the park’s shuttle route. But its Mass schedule — along with directions for walking there — were posted near the registration desk of El Tovar when I visited the park at the end of March. It was not my first visit to the Grand Canyon, but never before had I noted the presence of a Catholic church.

Father Bercasio, a native of the Philippines, is just completing his first year as pastor. He was appointed last July by the Diocese of Phoenix, which took over responsibility for the church in 1974. He is the first priest to be assigned fulltime to the chapel.

“We are the only Catholic church within a national park of America,” he told a standing-room only crowd of tourists who had gathered for Sunday Mass.

Actually, Grand Teton’s Chapel of the Sacred Heart is also located within the national park and is open daily to visitors, although it does not have a resident priest. Priests from nearby parishes celebrate weekend Masses there during the busy summer season. Sunday Mass is also celebrated during peak seasons at many other national parks.

From his base at Cristo Rey, Father Bercasio also ministers to a mostly Hispanic community founded five years ago about 30 miles outside the entrance to the park.

El Cristo Rey Chapel was officially established in 1960, although priests from the Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico began coming to celebrate Mass for El Tovar’s workers around 1919-1920.

Father Bercasio celebrates a daily Mass at 8 a.m., and most of the time, he said, he is the only one in attendance. He celebrates two Masses on Sundays, plus a vigil on Saturdays in summer.

Attendance averages seven or eight people in winter. The standing-room crowd in March was highly unusual, he said, but the congregation swells in summer to the point where chairs need to be placed outside.

“Every Sunday is new because I get to meet a lot of people from different states and every country. That’s the one thing I don’t experience in a regular parish,” Father Bercasio told me at the conclusion of the Mass.

This is his fourth assignment in his 13 years in the Phoenix diocese.

Father Bercasio added that he finds inspiration not only in his surroundings, but in the people who visit.

“I always commend the tourists for fulfilling their obligation,” he said. “You are in the midst of your gallivanting and still you are here. It is a testimony that your faith does not take a vacation. It’s very inspiring.”

 

Sign outside Hermit's Rest extols the Creator of the beauty below, in Grand Canyon National Park.

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Sign outside Hermit's Rest extols the Creator of the beauty below, in Grand Canyon National Park.

Comments from readers

Bernardo Garcia-Granda - 08/03/2017 12:49 PM
What a surprise to read this article while we are planning out trip to the Grand Canyon this coming October. I was trying to figure out where to go to Mass on Sunday while we are there. Now we know. We always take time to visit different churches in our trips away from home. God willing we will be there on Sunday October 8th.
Margaret Norris - 08/02/2017 02:07 PM
Having visited the Grand Canyon twice, I never knew about this small church, otherwise we would have gone to Holy Mass there. Thank you Father Rafael Bercasio for your services!!!
George Dewey - 08/02/2017 09:32 AM
Thank you. Your article brought back found memories of our visits to the Canyon and to the Chapel. What a wonderful resource for prayer to have in such a beautiful location.
Toni Pallatto - 07/28/2017 10:15 AM
Beautiful story, Ana. It adds a great perspective.

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