A Beacon on Park Road
Tucked at the corner of Park Road and Hillside Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Parish of St. Ann has stood as a Catholic presence on the south side of the city since August 15, 1955, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Founded as the fourth Catholic parish in Charlotte and home to a parish school almost from the start, St. Ann is widely recognized for two things that visitors encounter within minutes of stepping inside: a richly built sanctuary designed to teach the faith through art, and a liturgy sung in Gregorian chant, polyphony, and the English of the Roman Missal. The parish offers both the Ordinary Form of the Mass and the Extraordinary Form, the Latin Mass of the 1962 Roman Missal, on a regular weekly schedule, making it one of the few parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte with that distinction.
The current pastor, Father Timothy S. Reid, has served as the parish's chief shepherd since 2013 and is assisted by Parochial Vicar Father Brandon Jones, three deacons (Rev. Mr. Thomas Sanctis, Rev. Mr. Peter Tonon, and Rev. Mr. Artie Lekovic), and a staff that includes a Director of Faith Formation and Evangelization, a Director of Music and Choir, a Liturgical Ministries Coordinator, and a Director of Operations. The parish office is open Monday through Friday, with a midday closure for lunch, and the parish itself is fully accessible for persons with disabilities.
From Park Road School Auditorium to a House of Gold and Mosaic
St. Ann's history begins with a property purchase on August 15, 1955. For its first year the parish had no church building, so Sunday Masses were celebrated in the nearby Park Road School Auditorium. The school building was completed and dedicated in September 1956, and Masses moved into what is now the library above the original auditorium and cafeteria. The original church structure was built in 1960, when Bishop Vincent Waters dedicated it on December 18 of that year. It was designed as a crypt church with a façade on Park Road, with plans to finish the upper church later. Money for that upper church was raised by 1961, but the parish's first pastor, Msgr. Michael Begley, who would go on to become the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte, decided the funds were better spent founding a mission parish three miles south on Park Road to serve Charlotte's growing population. St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church was founded in 1961 as a result.
Plans for an upper church were revisited in the late 1980s. The parish determined, however, that an Activity Center was a greater need, so the St. Ann Activity Center was built in 1993 during the pastorate of Msgr. Richard Allen, who served St. Ann from 1988 until his retirement in 2000, after which the building was renamed the Msgr. Allen Center in his honor. Rather than adding an upper church, the parish chose to renovate the existing church entirely. The renovation was completed in 2008 and 2009, and the newly renovated church was dedicated by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, who himself had been baptized at St. Ann, on December 5, 2009. Since then the interior has been embellished with life-sized statues of saints, a massive apse wall mural, mosaics by Italian craftsmen, and gold leafing throughout, all working together to create the sanctuary visitors see now.
Mass Times, Confessions, and Adoration
The Sunday schedule at St. Ann offers an anticipated Saturday Vigil Mass at 4:30 p.m., followed by three Sunday Masses at 8:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 12:30 p.m. The 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass is celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, the Latin Mass. Daily Mass is offered Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 7:00 a.m.; Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. (a Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form); and Friday at both 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Holy Day schedules are published in the weekly bulletin.
Eucharistic Adoration runs from Tuesday morning after the 7:00 a.m. Mass continuously through Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., culminating in a Holy Hour from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. before the Wednesday evening Mass. Confessions are heard Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday afternoons from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., with additional times available by appointment through the parish office.
The Latin Mass and Why It Matters Here
St. Ann is one of the few parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte to offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form on a regular weekly basis. The Latin Mass is celebrated at 12:30 p.m. on Sundays and at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays (Low Mass), with select Feast Days added by announcement. The parish makes the experience approachable for newcomers. Red Latin-English booklets are available at the back of the church so that worshippers can follow the prayers side by side, and the readings are repeated in English before the priest preaches his homily. Communion is received kneeling at the altar rail and on the tongue. The parish quotes Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007) to frame its practice: "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too."
Father Reid has also introduced classes on the Latin Mass and on the sacred music that accompanies it. A 2016 introduction to the Latin Mass class and a 2016 class on sacred music by choir member Stefano Monaco, complete with handout and slideshow, are preserved in the parish's audio archive. Suggested reading for newcomers includes Lisa Bergman's Treasure and Tradition: The Ultimate Guide to the Latin Mass and Reverend Ronald Knox's The Mass in Slow Motion.
The Church Building as a Catechism
St. Ann's sanctuary is itself a sermon in stone, mosaic, and paint, organized along the hierarchy of spaces that descends from the Jewish Temple into Catholic tradition: porch, narthex, nave, and sanctuary, with the most sacred space reserved for the altar, tabernacle, ambo, and the priest's chair. The coffered ceiling of the nave is painted Marian blue and centers on the "Auspice," an interlocking "A" and "M" for Ave Maria, surrounded by 40 beads that recall the 40 weeks St. Ann carried the Blessed Virgin Mary in her womb. Twelve statue niches carved by Studio DeMetz in Ortisei, Italy, hold life-sized wooden saints representing every century from the second to the twentieth and every vocation in the Church: mother, father, deacon, priest, religious sister, and bishop. The saints, moving clockwise from the front right, are St. Benedict, St. Augustine, St. Lawrence, St. Thomas More, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. John Vianney, St. Lucy, St. Maria Goretti, St. Rose of Lima, St. Clare, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Rita. A stencil of flowers and vines behind each statue recalls the Garden of Eden.
The upper stained glass windows came from Holy Rosary Slovak Catholic Church in Ashley, Pennsylvania, which closed in 2007, and St. Ann's purchased them in 2008. They depict the Holy Rosary, the Annunciation, Sts. Cyril and Methodius (dedicated to the immigrants of St. Ann), the Mother of Sorrows (dedicated to victims of abortion), the Resurrection, the Ecce Homo, the Holy Family in Nazareth, the Birth of Jesus, Mary Queen of Virgins, Suffer the Children, the apparition to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Ann herself, the Assumption, St. Andrew, St. Joseph, the Baptism of Jesus, and Sts. Martha and Mary with Jesus. The round stained glass in the choir loft is of St. Cecilia, the patroness of music.
The sanctuary is floored in Jerusalem marble from a quarry in southern Israel, and the altar is Vermont marble of the same kind used throughout the United States Supreme Court Building. Set into the altar are relics of Pope St. Pius X and St. Rita of Cascia. The 18th-century French baroque crucifix above the tabernacle was purchased by Msgr. Allen in Oberammergau, Germany. The ambo, 81 inches tall and solid oak, was originally constructed in England in the mid-1700s. The lectern, hand-carved with an eagle in homage to St. John the Evangelist, was designed by parishioner Jacob Wolfe. The apse mural was painted by Mural by Jerico and depicts a scene of Heaven, with mosaics of the four Evangelists (Matthew the angel, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, John the eagle) crowning the wall. The lower apse is stenciled in red and gold with a fleur-de-lis and star motif. Statues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary flank the sanctuary in mid-20th-century Spanish style.
The chapel off the main body of the church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception. The mid-19th-century hand-carved marble altar came from Canada, and the painting above the tabernacle, by Louis Guidetti of Winston-Salem who studied in Florence for six years, carries the traditional iconography of Revelation 12: Mary clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars. The ceiling pattern is based on the ceiling of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. Among the relics housed in the chapel are those of St. Ann, St. Gregory the Great, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Lawrence, St. Martin de Porres, St. Philip Neri, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Agnes, St. Rose of Lima, St. Lucy, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Nicholas, St. Gemma Galgani, St. Maria Goretti, St. Albert the Great, St. Raymond of Capua, and St. Benedict.
The parish's theological tour guides visitors through a fountain (planned for the future, a reminder of baptism), the plaza, the porch, the narthex with its cry rooms flanking either wall, the nave with its eight-sided baptismal font mosaic by Mateo Randi of Ravenna, the choir loft, and the sanctuary, all laid out to walk a worshipper from the secular world toward the Holy of Holies.
Sacred Music: Choirs, Chant, and Polyphony
The sacred music program weaves together traditional hymns, motets, polyphony, and Gregorian chant, with several choirs in regular rotation. The SATB Choir and Schola serve the 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday Masses, with singers arriving an hour before. The Schola Cantorum sings Gregorian and some polyphony at the 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass plus special feasts and Holy Days, with rehearsals as needed on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 p.m. The (Hidden) Cantate Domino Latin Choir is open to girls who audition between the ages of 10 and 16, who rehearse on Mondays twice a month from 4:45 to 6:15 p.m., and who sing in Latin harmony and chant. CDLC sings at Extraordinary Form Masses about once a month and has a recording, Cantate Domino, featuring songs including Bonus est Dominus, Ave Maris Stella, and O Boniface.
The parish keeps an archive of recordings of the Marian antiphons sung at different points in the liturgical year: Alma redemptoris mater (Advent through February 2), Ave Regina caelorum (February 3 through Holy Week), Regina caeli (Easter through Pentecost), and Salve Regina (Post-Pentecost through the beginning of Advent). It also includes recordings of Masses VIII (De angelis), IX (Cum jubilo), XI (Orbis factor), and XVII, along with their Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Credo settings, so that anyone interested can learn the chant by ear.
Children, Youth, and the Family
The parish's Faith Formation program is designed for children from kindergarten through eighth grade who are registered parishioners, using the Sophia Institute Spirit of Truth Series in grades K-7 to teach prayer, scripture, the lives of the saints, the sacraments, and the traditions of the Church. Sacramental preparation is offered for Reconciliation and First Eucharist in second grade and Confirmation in eighth grade; St. Ann parishioners are not allowed to prepare for Confirmation solely through homeschooling. First Holy Communion usually takes place the first weekend of May and may be received at either the Ordinary or the Latin Mass.
Older children and teens have a strong program of their own. Our Lady's Handmaidens gathers young ladies ages 11 to 18 on Wednesdays during the school year from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. in the library for games, a talk, and prayer, modeling themselves after Our Lady as the Handmaid of the Lord. Fraternus, affiliated with fraternus.net, mentors boys into virtuous Catholic men, meeting on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in the gym and open to middle-school and high school boys and to adult men of the parish. Fidelis, affiliated with fidelisonline.org, mentors girls into virtuous Catholic women, meeting on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. in the cafe and open to middle-school and high school girls and to young women of the parish. Summer Catechesis, a themed week of formation for children age 4 through rising 5th grade (with teen helpers from 6th grade up), runs each summer in mid-July.
The Home School Ministry is a parish-wide community of home-schooling Catholic families, with annual dues, social events, dances, and graduations, all under the guidance of the pastor and in fidelity to the Magisterium. St. Gerard's Club prays for women who are pregnant or seeking to become pregnant and provides free meals to mothers who have recently given birth, cooked by parish volunteers. The Catholic Grandparents Association exists to support, encourage, and celebrate the role of grandparents in passing on the faith, and to walk with them through family difficulties.
Adult Faith Formation, Mary's Women of Joy, and the Men's Club
Adult Faith Formation at St. Ann centers on the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), which meets every Monday at 7:00 p.m. in the Allen Center from September through Easter. Catholic Scriptures Studies, a 28-week course on a selected book of the Bible, is offered in addition to shorter classes on a variety of subjects, each lasting six to ten weeks.
Mary's Women of Joy is a sisterhood of more than 400 women from North and South Carolina, founded in 1997 by Jean Whelan. It meets weekly during the semester at the parish for prayer, study from the Diary of St. Faustina, small-group table time, and sharing, with three emphases: prayer and Eucharistic Adoration, study anchored in Our Lady, the Holy Spirit, and St. Faustina, and service in three areas (pro-life work, Eucharistic Adoration, and spiritual motherhood for priests). The fall semester typically features an 11-week course; recent offerings have included "The Temperaments: Grace Builds on Nature" with parishioner Kathleen Lewis and a study on a deeper relationship with God featuring Dr. Edward Sri, Fr. Jacques Philippe, Fr. Josh Johnson, Fr. Gregory Pine, and others.
The St. Ann Men's Club is a men's ministry for those 18 and up, raising funds through the Carnival, a Lenten Fish Fry, a Super Bowl Ribs and Wings event, and an annual Charity Christmas Tree Sale. In one recent year, the Club contributed over $25,000 to charities including Be Not Afraid, Daughters of the Virgin Mother, Loaves and Fishes, Matthew J. Scheible Endowment, MiraVia, St. Vincent de Paul, the St. Ann Fraternus Chapter, and the Vigilant Retreat. The Club meets on the first Sunday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the Chapel for the Rosary, then moves to the Allen Center at 6:30 p.m. for dinner and a meeting.
The Catholic Grandparents Association hosts a monthly gathering (Valentine's Day luncheons have been a recent tradition), and St. Raphael's Fellowship offers a monthly prayer and potluck evening for Catholic singles 40 and older on the third Sunday of each month from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Allen Center.
Service to the Poor, the Homeless, and Life
The parish's community ministries are woven into its regular rhythm. On the first and third Sundays of each month, non-perishable food and paper products are collected at Mass and delivered to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. The Homeless Ministry partners year-round with Center of Hope, the Women and Children's Shelter on Spratt Street near Graham Avenue and Statesville Road, bringing Sunday dinner, Monday lunches, and after-school snack bags to the more than 250 residents, about 40% of whom are children aged 12 or younger. Donations to the quarterly "Home Missions" collection help fund this outreach.
The Respect Life Committee works with the USCCB's Secretariat for Respect Life through the Diocese of Charlotte and with CPLAN, the Carolina Pro-Life Action Network, and maintains a blog with periodic emails. A St. Vincent de Paul conference meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. to serve the distressed, aged, lonely, and homebound through quiet works of charity. H.O.P.E., Helping Other People Endure, visits the sick, elderly, and shut-ins of the parish and brings them Holy Communion. The Bereavement Committee helps families with funeral Masses and meals, and the Hospitality Committee sets up and tears down receptions for First Communion, Confirmation, the Easter Vigil, the Parish Mission, and the parish feast day.
Pilgrimages, Novenas, and Devotions
Father Reid leads an annual parish pilgrimage, alternating destinations and themes. A 2026 pilgrimage focused on the Divine Mercy devotion, beginning in Vilnius, Lithuania, and ending at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland. The 2027 Men's Pilgrimage to Medjugorje and the Croatian Coast runs from May 31 through June 10, with six days in Medjugorje under the guidance of Ann Vucic, an eyewitness to the 1981 apparitions, followed by three days along the Adriatic in Split, Primošten, Trogir, and Dubrovnik. A 2027 pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey in the footsteps of St. Paul is in the early planning stages.
The parish's prayers and devotions page carries nine novenas and a wide selection of prayers: novenas to St. Ann, the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (for Pentecost), Mary Undoer of Knots, Our Lady of Sorrows, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Joseph, and a Christmas novena, plus a Novena for Families and Life. Devotional prayers include the Prayer for Religious Liberty, the Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas Before Mass, the Litany of Humility, the Prayer for Forgiveness, the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and prayers for fortitude, patience, and purity. The parish also supports Mass intentions to a needy congregation served by Fr. Augustine in India.
Other devotional communities include the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Secular Discalced Carmelites, who follow the evangelical counsels in a lay setting; the World Rosary Group, which prays every Monday night at 5:30 p.m. in the chapel for parish intentions and those of the whole world; the Legion of Mary, with a weekly praesidium meeting; the St. Joseph Prayer Group; and the Association of the Holy Souls, whose members hear Mass weekly for the holy souls in purgatory and contribute once a year to the Mass fund.
The Annual Carnival and Parish Life
The St. Ann Carnival, now in its 30th year, is held annually on the parish grounds with rides and games for children and adults alike, a bake sale, a Classic Raffle with top prizes, and a Silent Auction online and in person. The Men's Club Grill serves burgers and hot dogs, while the broader food court offers cotton candy, funnel cakes, Hispanic food delights, soda, beer, and wine. The day includes a Children's Dress-Up as a Saint Parade at 10:30 a.m., Church Tours with Father Reid at noon and 1:00 p.m., Bingo in the cafeteria at 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., a live bluegrass band at 5:00 p.m., and the raffle drawing at 6:00 p.m.
Young Adults: CASA and the Vigilant Retreat
The Courtyard at Saint Ann's (CASA) is the parish's young adult community for Catholics in their twenties and thirties, both single and married. CASA hosts events throughout the year, including an annual Vigilant Retreat, a locally created, weekend-long, overnight conference for Catholic young adults (ages 21-39) from across the Diocese of Charlotte, held at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, North Carolina. The retreat aims to inspire young adults in the pursuit of holiness.
School, Giving, and Practical Information
St. Ann Catholic School has been part of the parish since 1956 and shares the campus with the church and the Allen Center. The school has its own site at stanncatholic.org, and the parish hosts "Lasting Legacy" events in support of the school each year.
Parishioners and visitors can give online through a secure giving portal, request Mass intentions (parishioner families are permitted 10 Mass intentions per year, non-parishioners 3, with a customary donation of $15 per Mass), and remember the parish in their estate plans through the St. Ann Legacy Society. The annual Diocesan Support Appeal supports Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, vocations, and multicultural and educational ministries. Memorials to the parish and to the school are arranged through the parish office.
The parish bulletin is published weekly and archived online. Homilies are recorded and made available through the parish's homilies archive, and the parish maintains an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X, where Mass and other liturgies are livestreamed. Volunteer ministry at St. Ann is governed by the Diocese of Charlotte's safe environment policies, including the Protecting God's Children workshop through Virtus.
Parishioners at St. Ann describe the community in terms their pastor uses on the parish's pastor's corner: a family-oriented, thriving parish just south of Uptown Charlotte, filled with people committed to worshiping God through the fullness of the Catholic tradition and serving the poor and needy with charity and compassion. The parish seeks the salvation of souls through the redemption of Jesus Christ as revealed in and through the divinely instituted Holy Catholic Church, and invites all to receive God's love as parishioners give of themselves in compassionate service.