The Catholic Communities of the Olympic Peninsula (our shorthand is ‘OPCatholic‘, as you can see from our website www.opcatholic.org) consist of five churches split into three regions (listed from west to east):

West region
– Saint Anne parish (Forks)
– Saint Thomas the Apostle mission (Clallam Bay)

Central region
– Queen of Angels parish (Port Angeles)
– Saint Joseph (Sequim)

East region
– Saint Mary Star of the Sea (Port Townsend)

Clergy of the Olympic Peninsula

Our communities are served by three priests, Father Jacob Maurer (pastor) and Father Naresh Gali & Father Ed White (vicars).

Day-to-day pastoral care of our churches is divided regionally, with each priest living at a rectory within his region. Father Ed lives at Saint Anne in Forks and serves the west region (Saint Anne & Saint Thomas the Apostle). Father Maurer lives at Queen of Angels and serves the central region (Queen of Angels & Saint Joseph). Father Gali lives at Saint Mary Star of the Sea and serves the east region (Saint Mary Star of the Sea).

We also blessed to have three deacons in regular ministry. Deacon Stewart Adams, Deacon Richard Labrecque, and Deacon Dan Powers. All three deacons primarily serve in the central region, though they also assist both the west and east regions as needed. 

A broad swath of western Washington

As you can see from the map below, the territory of our parish family is fairly vast! Though the Olympic National Park itself is mostly habitated by animals rather than people, there are communities from the tip of Neah Bay down to La Push (the western coast) and throughout peninsula going east until reaching Port Townsend down to Triton (the eastern side, following the Hood Canal). The top half of our territory is around 3,300 square miles (approximately 95 miles end-to-end and 35 miles north-to-south). The bottom half is another 1,100 square miles, though mostly unoccupied by anyone other than elk and hikers!

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