Café Catholicism: Parishes Are Upping Their Coffee Game
Coffeehouses aren’t a nice added extra for a Catholic parish, but rather an essential, one priest told the Register.
Inset: The Little Way Café sign at St. Louis Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
The parish joins others in offering good coffee and good company. (photo: Inset sign: Courtesy of St. Louis Catholic Church, Alexandria, Virginia; background: Shutterstock)
Matthew McDonald
Features
July 12, 2026
Salvation through coffee?
Not quite.
But at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, making a coffeehouse out of the first floor of a former convent in 2016 was one of many decisions that helped turn it around.
Known at the time as “the rich church on the hill,” the parish had a reputation for being unfriendly and transactional, said Julie Sheehan, a parishioner for 35 years and the current parish administrator.
“Just extremely cold,” said the pastor (then and now), Father Mark Begly.
He had in mind a church that was more welcoming, more giving to the needy, and more of a community.
Fellowship is strong at Holy Grounds at Our Mother of Sorrows Church.
(Photo: Julie Sheehan, Our Mother of Sorrows)
Holy Grounds, as the coffee shop is called, is far from the only change during the past dozen years or so. Sheehan ticked off a long list of improvements in charity, evangelizing, catechesis, and the spiritual life. Nor is coffee anywhere near as important as the sacraments and the teachings of the Church, Father Begly said.
But the free high-quality, fresh-ground coffee, baked goods, and conversation on Sundays and after the 8 a.m. Mass on most weekdays helps.
“Holy Grounds has been a place where people can gather, and they share life stories with each other,” Sheehan told the Register. “They pray for each other down there. They laugh with each other. They cry with each other. It really has offered a place of community for us — family.”
Coffee and doughnuts in the parish hall after Sunday Mass has been commonplace at Catholic churches in America since at least the 1940s, but in recent years some parishes have stepped up their approach, offering a cut-above coffee in a dedicated space with regular hours.
Drawing Them In
That describes yet another Holy Grounds, a café at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California, which is open seven days a week, beginning on weekdays after the 7 a.m. Mass. Among its workers are young people just starting out in their careers—and many who aren’t Christian.
“We have one barista who’s an atheist,” said Father David O’Connell, pastor of St. Monica. “He tells me, ‘I didn’t realize there was such a vibrant faith community here. I thought Catholic churches were just old ladies sitting around talking about the Pope.’”