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Father Mark Wiesner, the head pastor for the Catholic Community of Pleasanton, poses in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, located in the St. Augustine Church’s grotto. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
A historical image shows what the St. Augustine Church looked like shortly after it was built on Bernal Avenue in 1968. (Image courtesy of Museum on Main) 
Wiesner said he hopes to renovate much of the St. Augustine Church, which has remained largely unchanged since it opened, in the coming years. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Another historical image shows the St. Augustine Church’s original location on Rose Avenue. Parishioners attended this church for decades but as the city grew so did the congregation, which led the church to open its current location on Bernal Avenue. (Image courtesy of Museum on Main) 
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, which also operates under the Catholic Community of Pleasanton, first opened in 2000, right before the parish celebrated its centennial. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Father Mark Wiesner stands behind the St. Augustine Church pulpit where he typically delivers his sermons. (Photo by Chuck Deckert)
It’s been 125 years since the Catholic Community of Pleasanton was first established in the city, a milestone that for parish leaders and members not only represents a dedicated community of believers, but a commitment to keeping the faith alive as demographics change and skepticism grows nationally.
As the Catholic church gets ready to celebrate the anniversary through multiple events starting this week and continuing throughout the year, CCOP Rev. Mark Wiesner said he looks forward to celebrating all of God’s work in Pleasanton since the church was established.
“125 years of celebrating what God has done here and looking forward to 125 more years of knowing Christ and making Christ better known,” Wiesner told the Pleasanton Weekly during a sitdown interview last week.
The original St. Augustine Catholic Church was built on Rose Avenue in 1882. That church, Wiesner said, relied on traveling priests from Mission San Jose to conduct services.
But as Pleasanton grew, it became harder for those missionaries to make the long trips out to the Tri-Valley.
So, in 1901, St. Augustine was officially declared a parish with its own priest. Over the years the city continued to expand, as did St. Augustine’s congregation, until it outgrew that original church on Rose Avenue.
That’s when, in 1968, the current St. Augustine church was built on Bernal Avenue. More than three decades later, St. Elizabeth Seton Church – which also operates under the CCOP – opened its doors on Stoneridge Drive in 2000.
Since it opened, St. Augustine has been an integral part of the Vintage Hills neighborhood and greater Catholic community.
For Deacon Michael Gallagher, the church has been a part of his life since he was 5 years old after his family moved to Pleasanton in 1970, just a couple of years after St. Augustine was built.
Gallagher said he remembers going to mass, serving as an altar boy and now, as a deacon.
“To be ordained a deacon last October was just like an amazing icing on the cake that I’m now serving as a deacon in the parish in which I grew up in,” he said.
But he couldn’t do it without the help of his community parishioners and leaders like Father Wiesner.
Wiesner was born in Buffalo, N.Y. and moved to Concord with his family just a couple years later. He said he was raised as a Catholic but that his faith didn’t become a big part of his life until his early 20s when he joined the National Evangelization Teams to conduct retreats with high school students.
That experience, he said, helped further develop his relationship with his faith and cemented his future with the Catholic church.
After being ordained in 1995, Wiesner said his second assignment as an associate priest was coincidentally at St. Augustine from 1998 to 2000. He then left to serve three other parishes before returning to the Pleasanton church seven years ago as the main pastor.
Wiesner said the Catholic church has seen a lot of challenges over the past couple of decades.
One particular challenge that stood out, he said, was when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the church’s parishioners to shelter in place at home. But that did not stop Wiesner, who was fairly new to the role at the time, from finding creative ways to continue the church’s services.
From drive-thru confessions, which made regional news, to hosting services on webcasts and livestreams, Wiesner said CCOP really took advantage of those times to reimagine a lot of the ways it was, and is currently, able to spread their gospel and hold services for its parishioners.
Still, nothing compared to that first mass back from the lockdowns, Wiesner said.
“We started the gathering song … and suddenly after a year and a half of having nobody singing, there were 200 voices singing and I started to cry walking down the aisle because it was so beautiful,” Wiesner said.
On a larger scale, Wiesner said the church has also dealt with other challenges over the course of its history – a main one being people’s connection to Jesus Christ.
According to the Pew Research Center, 78% of adults in the U.S. in 2007 identified with some form of Christianity. However, according to a 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, that number decreased to 62%, a 16-point drop in 16 years.
Within that larger group of believers, Catholics make up 19% of the subgroups of Christian denominations. According to the study, the largest subgroup of Christians in the U.S. now are Protestants, who make up about 40% of the population.
Wiesner acknowledged the future outlook is important, especially when a lot of the congregation in Pleasanton is older adults.
One of those longtime parishioners is Pleasanton resident Jim Pease who moved to Pleasanton right before the St. Augustine church was built.
He said he remembers seeing the construction at the time with his dad. He has since been heavily involved with the church having worked as an altar boy, in the sports programs and in other programs with the ministry, like grief counseling.
For Pease, the Catholic church has meant so much to him and his family throughout his life and sees the value it brings for people of all ages.
“At this point in my life, I don’t know how you would make it throughout life without having a belief in something,” he said.
That’s why he said it’s been nice to see so many younger people joining the church over these past couple of years, a sentiment echoed by others like Wiesner, who said the church’s attendance, on average, has grown by about 200 people each year since COVID.
“There are more and more babies at mass,” Wiesner said. “I know that because when one starts to cry, they start to talk to each other back and forth in the church, which is fine because like I say, ‘If your church isn’t crying, it’s dying.'”
The renewed interest in the church, according to CCOP leadership, represents a lot of changes within the community.
Deacon Gallagher said Pleasanton’s demographics have shifted a lot over the years, which has brought in a lot of diverse parishioners.
“We just want to create a place that is welcoming, that is there for others, that is there to support them,” he said. “All are welcome.”
One of those newer parishioners who sought that sense of belonging was Yolanda Padillia, a Pleasanton parent who moved to the city in 2021 with her family.
She said as a born and raised Catholic, it was really important for them to find a church community once they moved – and it just so happened that she heard about St. Augustine during the pandemic when it was doing things like the drive-thru confessions and communions.
Now, she said because the church is so close by, she is able to drop her kids off at school and walk over to St. Augustine whenever she needs to pray.
“When I walk on to the church, it immediately feels like home,” Padillia said.
She said it’s where her kids go to study the faith, where she used to attend the nursery group and where she just hangs out with other parishioners after mass. And even though she said she wouldn’t mind seeing more younger families take initiatives to put together events, she appreciates everything the CCOP has to offer her and her family.
As far as what’s in store for the church’s next 125 years, Wiesner said one of the things the church is focused on is renovating the building itself. The structure has largely remained the same since 1968.
He said his predecessor began a capital improvement campaign years ago to help address those renovation needs, which include new accessible-friendly restrooms, carpet, lighting, sound systems and cushions for the church kneelers.
“There’s all this work that I want to do in the church to renovate it and just sort of freshen it up and make it more beautiful than it is,” Wiesner said.
The issue, however, is even though they have money to do most of that work — thanks to the capital campaign and ongoing collections — the money is not currently available due to the Diocese of Oakland’s ongoing bankruptcy case connected to litigation involving survivors of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.
According to the Oakland diocese’s website, multiple priests were credibly accused of sexual abuse of children. Since the accusations and legal proceedings, the Diocese of Oakland has been working on settling its bankruptcy case and has expressed willingness to pay “$200 million over a five-year period to a trust we plan to set up for survivors”.
“This represents the highest per-capita payment, over $560,000, to survivors in any diocese bankruptcy with more than 200 survivors,” the diocese website stated in a Dec. 13, 2025 bankruptcy agreement letter. “In addition to the Diocese offer, three of our insurers also committed to contribute more than $42.5 million to the trust.”
As the diocese works to resolve its financial woes, Wiesner said there are possibilities to piecemeal some of the essential facility repairs in Pleasanton, but he added that they will have to wait to really see any major improvements until the church’s money is freed up.
There’s also the question of developing housing on the plot of land right next to the St. Augustine – which, according to Wiesner, is also tied into the bankruptcy case. During the Pleasanton’s Housing Element cycle in 2023, the city identified and zoned the plot of land for future housing.
But as Wiesner explained, the church hasn’t really committed to building any housing — mostly because it can’t afford to — and that the church could likely sell that land to help cover some of the costs incurred through the bankruptcy case.
As far as social and reputational cloud from the bankruptcy and child sex abuse scandals, Wiesner said he can see how they would reinforce the beliefs for people who already have a negative opinion of the church and Catholicism.
“It’s very easy for them to take those tragic and evil incidents from decades ago and say, ‘See, I’m not going to associate with the church,'” Wiesner said. “I think for those who are Catholic and who know the church and are involved in it, they recognize that one or two guys can do a lot of damage.”
“In the meantime, you have thousands of guys who are working so hard and doing good and doing wonderful,” he added. “But, of course, it’s always the horrific that makes the news.”
He hopes that by beginning to address the wrongs, the church and those involved can begin the healing process.
For Padilla, she said it’s going to take the work of the people to also make those changes.
“We have a responsibility to do things too,” she said. “If you’re worried about something, say something. Be involved.”
Wiesner added that he wants people to just come visit the church to see all of the good it does for its parishioners and the larger community.
Father Wiesner concluded by saying that the church is very much alive and doing important work across the region – and it’s all thanks to the people who will continue to move the congregation forward in the best possible way, no matter the building or location.
“It’s always the heart of God’s people, and the way that they bring God’s love to the world, that helps make the world what it should be,” Wiesner said.
The CCOP 125th anniversary celebration will kick off on Saturday (Aug. 29) with a 5 p.m. vigil mass at the church’s grotto. Worship there will continue until midnight.
The next day, Sunday, the church will have a special celebratory mass with the Bishop of the Diocese at 10 a.m., which will be followed by a reception in St. Augustine Hall.
For more information, visit www.catholicsofpleasanton.org.
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