Parish

It still kind of blows my mind that I have a choice of where to go to church. When I was Mormon, I was told what building to go to, and what time, and it was severely frowned upon to go to a different ward (congregation). From what I understand, the Catholic church prefers that you register with your geographic parish, unless you prefer to go to an ethnic parish, but it doesn't matter where you go to weekly mass as long as you go. That part is between you and God.

I have two strong choices - St. Jude Chapel and the Cathedral - both of which have their benefits and drawbacks. The benefit of the Chapel is the convenience of walking half a block to church, but the drawback is that there is no other activities to participate in, unless I choose to be a lector or cantor. The benefit of the Cathedral is that it has a gorgeous liturgy and building, and it is also convenient, but the drawback is that most of the activities and programs are geared towards the Spanish-speaking congregation. I've heard that St. Thomas Aquinas is an excellent parish and has lots of programs for people, and that some of the English-speaking people in the parish of the Cathedral have started going to St. Thomas Aquinas because of the variety of programs available in English. Plus they have daily Tridentine Mass in Latin every day but Sunday.