St James Roman Catholic Church

My family suffered the loss of our mother in spring of 2025. We have been raised Catholics our entire life and educated through the Catholic school system all the way through college as a family. My mother was a deeply religious woman. We came to Saint James to lay our mom to rest. We had two very upsetting encounters here in this parish. The first one was with Father Robert. Unfortunately, my family also suffers from celiac disease. As a result, we cannot consume gluten. We asked the church to provide gluten-free hosts for my sisters and I at my mother's funeral mass. Father Robert actually asked us "how sick do we really get"? Then he proceeded to tell us that in the Bible, it says there must be wheat in the host for it to be considered a sacrament and that the church has rules. You can imagine how upsetting it was to hear this. Ultimately, they did provide the gluten-free hosts, but we were left very stressed and saddened by that encounter.
In addition, there was confusion regarding the placement of my mother's headstone. After my mother's burial when we returned to the cemetery to visit and pray we were kneeling in front of her temporary grave marker. Her headstone had not been installed as this takes approximately six months. Once the headstone was installed, we were horrified to see that it was one grave to the right. Now we were quite upset and confused as to where the remains of both my parents were buried and concerned the headstone wasn't in the right spot. When we spoke with Todd the business manager in the rectory, explaining how upset we were about the headstone he chuckled through the entire phone call and was very nasty. I'm going to quote some of the things he said. He told us that "he wasn't going to lose any sleep over it." He told us "he was putting it to bed." He told us that removing the flowers that we planted on the grave to the left "was on us" to remove. He told us that he had "no way of checking into what happened and wasn't going to bother looking anything up." These are just a few of the nasty comments he made on the phone during this very upsetting, stressful time. There was no compassion, no willingness to help. There was certainly nothing Christian about how he treated us. We believe we determined what happened. From the information we gathered the excavation company that Saint James contracts with removed our mother's temporary grave marker when they were excavating for the grave beside her and put it back in the wrong place one grave to the left of where she should be. We have been kneeling, crying, praying, planting flowers, and visiting one grave to the left of where my mother and father actually are because of their carelessness. I know this doesn't sound like it may matter, but it does and we are deeply upset. Thank goodness the memorial company that installed my mother's headstone knew what they were doing and put her official headstone in the right spot, not where the temporary grave marker was, for this could've been a terrible situation not only for my family, but for the family beside my mother's grave as well because everything would have been confused. A family should not have to go through these things when they are navigating through grief. They certainly shouldn't have to be treated with such disrespect by Todd an employee of a Roman Catholic Church who should know better. At a bare minimum Todd should've treated us with respect and concern, and he should have spoken to the excavation company asking them to take more care when working on the property. Nothing was offered but a chuckle and a bunch of nasty comments. I do want to end on a positive. The only reason I gave this church two stars instead of one is because of Father Bob. Father Bob gave the small eulogy and prayer at my mother's wake. Father Bob was kind, compassionate and supportive, and gave the most beautiful eulogy that touched the hearts of all of us. It was down to earth and real. He was a breath of fresh air. I am glad this is not my home parish.

This was my first time at St James Roman Catholic Church. The church is welcoming and the atmosphere is calm and peaceful. The priests are very friendly. I would recommend attending mass at this church.

A beautiful church indeed with lovely parishioners, staff and priests. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

St. James RC is a beautiful place physically and spiritually. The blessed sacrament area has kneelers and chairs to spend some time with Our Lord- very peaceful and special. The beautiful baptismal font with the water flowing reminds us that God is our living water. The music ministry is beautiful. The priests, Father Jim, Father Jerry, and Father Fitz are so caring, kind, and most importantly help us grow in faith.

St James has many beautiful ministries including Our Daily Bread, Ministry of Consolation, Outreach, Youth mass at 6pm Sundays and a very active Knights of Columbus council and a talented music ministry.It's a very large parish so please forgive us if we don't recognize you as a new face but everyone is welcomed. Give us a chance plus all the beautiful Sacraments are here. God loves you.