Our History

"It was June 30, 1990 that Bishop Fiorenza and Father John Kappe created the parish dedicated to the patronage of St. Clare of Assisi. In his wisdom and creativity, Father John wove the charisms of Clare into the fabric of the tapestry that makes us who we are. All around you, there is overwhelming evidence of those charisms, especially her commitment to the scriptures in our formation ministry, people comment on how welcome they feel as a result of our focus on hospitality, the sacraments become animated through our worship, in our unselfish spirit of sharing our gifts and treasures, and viewing the Eucharist as the source of our strength which mirrors that same vision of Clare."

 - Rev. Dominic Pistone, St. Clare of Assisi Pastor 2002-2010

On June 30, 1990, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza assigned Rev. John H. Kappe and Deacons Daniel "Dan" Quin Guerra and Wilfred "Dub" Hargraves as the founding Pastor and Deacons of St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church, the newest parish to be named in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston.

The first parish Mass was celebrated and presided over by Father John and Deacons Daniel and Dub on June 30, 1990 at 4:30 pm in the teaching theatre of Clear Lake Intermediate School with only 116 people present. For the first year, Sunday Masses were celebrated in the auditorium of Clear Lake High School and CCE was held in the commons area of the high school.

After one year, the parish moved into an interim Church space in the Star Plaza Shopping Center on Bay Area Blvd. and Space Center Blvd. where the parish family worshipped, ministered, socialized and housed the parish offices for the next four years.

In the early stages of our parish, the Pastor, Deacons and many of the members of our parish family began a visioning process to define our needs as a parish family. In those initial years, hundreds of parishioners were actively involved in committees that identified and addressed the needs of St. Clare.

After years of meetings, our Master Plan was finalized which consisted of a Church, an administrative area, ministry areas, a social area, a school, a plaza/courtyard, an education area and a parking facility to eventually be built on our 11.3 acre tract of land at 3131 El Dorado Blvd. To accommodate the pastoral needs of that time, the parish resolved that the entire Master Plan would not be completed at once but done in phases.

For Phase I, it was decided that two temporary walls would be erected in the Church to allow room for the parish administrative offices on one side and a parish hall on the opposite side of the building. In addition, a partition was installed at the back of the Church as a divider to the Narthex. The Church was built this way with the understanding that the full Master Plan would be completed in the future.

During the planning and preparations for the building of a permanent campus and facilities, Father John led a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy to study the Basilica di Santa Chiara, the Basilica and Monastery that houses the mortal remains of our patroness St. Clare, and San Damiano, the Church and Monastery where St. Clare built her community. Much of the parish facility architecture and feautures, including the facade and color scheme, is inspired and based off of the 12th century Basilica di Santa Chiara and San Damiano. Many other intentional connections were made for the worship space, including using wood imported from Assisi for the ambo, altar and tabernacle, with the latter also patterned after St. Clare's monstrance that she is often depicted with. The Byzantine-style shaped San Damiano Crucifix was also chosen as it is the Crucifix currently hanging in Basilica di Santa Chiara and famously was prayed before by a young St. Francis of Assisi when he heard God's call to work for the Church of the Lord. Our 12-foot version of San Damiano cross and Stations of the Cross were made by an artist in Assisi as well. Father John undertook immense care in weaving our patroness' heritage and charisms into not only the physical building of our parish but also the ministries and sacraments as well. 

After the turn of the century, many changes took place on both parish and diocesan levels.

Bishop Fiorenza assigned Rev. Dominic Pistone to become the second pastor of St. Clare of Assisi in August of 2002.

A couple years later in 2004, Pope St. John Paul II elevated the Diocese of Galveston-Houston to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston due to the expanding Catholic community in southeast Texas. Two years later, Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Daniel DiNardo as a coadjutor archbishop in Galveston-Houston to assist Fiorenza. When Fiorenza retired later in 2006, DiNardo automatically became archbishop. In 2007, Benedict XVI elevated DiNardo to the rank of cardinal.

On a parish level, St. Clare also experienced much growth and development during the early 2000s. To accomodate the growth of St. Clare Parish and its ministries, a temporary annex of modular buildings was installed on the southwest part of the St. Clare campus. This annex housed many multi-purpose rooms that were used for education and various ministries as well as a Mother's Day Out program, and a resource center with additional parish administrative office space.

After almost 25 years of growing together, St. Clare of Assisi took steps of "remember, renew, rebuild and recommit" as we continued to grow in faith and service. After finishing paying off all of the original debt from phase I, plans were made to remove the temporary annex of modular buildings and build a Family Life Center on the north side of campus.

The Rev. Vincent Vuong-Quoc Nguyen, current Pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church, said the new building is a beautiful sign of parishioners faith and sacrifice, and will help further the parish's mission: "Leading people to Christ by celebrating our faith."

The parish celebrated the grand opening of its new Family Life Center and completion of its updated phase II of the St. Clare Parish Facility on August 9, 2015. The celebration began at the 11:00 am Mass with His Eminence, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, presiding.

The new 33,000-square-foot Family Life Center houses a parish hall, educational and meeting/activity multi-purpose rooms, a resource center, and includes a beautiful 5,000-square-foot covered outdoor narthex. The old parish hall was then converted into a conference center.

As we look to the future of St. Clare of Assisi Parish, it is important that we all continue to grow in our mission to Love and Serve the Lord. After consulting and receiving the support of Cardinal DiNardo, the finance and pastoral councils, the clergy, and parish and school staff, St. Clare conducted a feasibility study on continuing the Master Plan for St. Clare. This process was designed to engage the parishioners of St. Clare and ensure that we, as a parish community, are committed to our continued growth and development.

At the conclusion of this feasibility study and after listening to you, our parishioners, we have decided the most prudent course of action for the parish is to conduct a capital campaign to raise funds for an Administration building and to enhance our current worship space.  

With this in mind, we want to make sure that our Worship Space builds upon what has been put in place and fulfills the vision established thirty-five years ago "to grow in community by reaching out to others and to share our faith through prayer, communion, worship and fellowship" (Rev. John H. Kappe, Founding Pastor of St. Clare of Assisi).

For more information on the next steps of our phase III process, check out the Capital Campaign page on our website.