Cost of new church bathrooms, in post-pandemic era, reaches biblical proportions

The grounds of Saint Joachim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa are modest but well-maintained and fully equipped to meet the spiritual needs of parishioners. The bathrooms, however? Not so much.

Church leaders for years had been grappling over how to accommodate a robust church membership with just two unisex, single-stall restrooms built at the Orange Avenue campus in 1965.

“In 1965, the world was very different than it is today,” Fr. Mike Hanifin said, explaining how the Catholic faith urged churchgoers to fast each Sunday until receiving communion at Mass. “You had to go to church first, and then afterward you could eat or drink. So, bathrooms weren’t that important.”

But nearly 60 years later, as habits and needs shifted, the restrooms began to underperform.

St. Joachim Catholic Church, pictured during a May 2020 virtual Mass, can seat up to 750 parishioners but, for decades, accommodated crowds with just two unisex bathroom stalls. Plans for a new facility are in the works.

(File Photo)

“They were not attractive or useful and were constantly breaking down,” Hanifin said Tuesday.

Intent on serving the needs of the community, officials set out to build new ADA-compliant bathrooms with enough stalls to meet the needs of a church with a seating capacity of 750 people. Leaders worked with the city of Costa Mesa and an architect to ensure the new construction complied with all the modern requirements.

When construction estimates for the proposed facilities in early 2020 put the project’s price tag at $600,000, members rallied. Officials kickstarted a capital campaign called “75 for 75,” encouraging parishioners to donate at least $75 in honor of Saint Joachim’s 75th anniversary in 2022.

Many chipped in larger amounts, and plans for the renovation were on track until the COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause on the project.

Members of a local mariachi band perform Sunday during a groundbreaking ceremony at Costa Mesa’s Saint Joachim Church.

(Courtesy of Steven Georges, Diocese of Orange)

When St. Joachim leaders returned to the Diocese of Orange in February 2022 to rebid the work, they were stunned to learn the cost had skyrocketed — the new bathrooms were going to cost $1.2 million.

Undaunted, they got to work. The collection plate began circulating among the pews twice each week during Mass, and members of the largely Latino parish began selling tacos and pozole outside on Sundays, contributing all proceeds to the church.

Despite their best efforts, church officials were still about $200,000 shy of what was needed and so reached out to neighboring parishes of Our Lady Queen of Angels and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Newport Beach and Saint John Vianney Chapel on Balboa Island, who helped bridge the gap.

On Sunday morning, in between services, a group of leaders and parishioners celebrated the enormous accomplishment in a groundbreaking ceremony. Hanifin said once the ground dries up from the recent rains, the real work can begin.

“We’re tremendously grateful, and we’ve expressed our gratitude for our members and their creativity in coming up with ways to raise money,” he added. “All those families who have come to our church and tried to use those bathrooms know this has been a long overdue project.”

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