Welcome to Santa Rosa Catholic Church!


Santa Rosa parish of Cambria, as it is today, was established in the late summer of 1960. Father Thomas Morgan arrived in town surrounded by controversy. Why was Father Martin Cooney being replaced? Was Father Morgan here to build a new church? Who was he? Thomas Morgan was born in 1909 in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was serving in the British World War I and young Thomas was educated in the National School of Dublin. He continued his upper division studies at Mungret College in Limerick, Ireland. He went on to study theology at Irish College in Paris, France, before attending the Patriarchal Seminary in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1939, he was ordained and immigrated to the United States. Before his assignment in Cambria, Fr. Morgan served in the following parishes: Tulare, Hanford, Merced, Greenfield, and Cayucos. He celebrated his First Mass in Cambria as the pastor of the newly-founded and independent parish of Santa Rosa on Sunday, September 11, 1960. Between September and December of 1960, Fr. Morgan continued to also serve the Cayucos parish and lived at their rectory. In December of 1960, Fr. Laurence O’Sullivan assumed full time service of the Cayucos parish and Fr. Morgan moved into a rented stucco house on Bridge Street in Cambria. For the first time in fifty years, Cambria and Cayucos Catholic churches were completely independent of one another. Through his homilies and home visits, answers to parishioners, many questions abut Fr. Morgan’s unexpected arrival and intentions for the new parish soon became crystal clear: he was sent to raise funds for a new church at a new location. In 1961, he instituted a church building program. He set out a schedule for 156 weeks. He appointed a site selection and building committee that included: Constant Fiscalini, Peter Negranti, Sr. Ray Ross, Leo Nock, Pico Soto, and Johnny Fiscalini. He also enlisted twenty men (including the six previously mentioned) to canvass each family of the parish at their homes to obtain monetary pledges for the three year building program. Lucy M. Fiscalini, a Cambria native and member of the Green Valley Fiscalinis, generously donated a site for the new church on part of her town ranch, which at that time included what is now the CCSD yard on Rodeo Grounds Road, the Mid-State Bank located next to us and her ocean pasture now known as, East West Ranch. A few years before this generous act, Miss Fiscalini donated nearby land to the Cambria Lion’s Club for the Cambria Youth Center. Her best laid plans for the town’s young people did not come to be, the land and its building were late transferred to San Luis Obispo County and renamed the Veteran’s Memorial Building. Father Morgan engaged John R. Ross, a San Luis Obispo architect, to design the new church. Mr. Ross stated in numerous newspaper interviews that his design for the church had “absolutely nothing traditional about it.” One interview continued, “I looked at the pine trees on the town’s surrounding hills and the water tanks on local ranches and tried to fit the structure to the terrain.” His controversial hexagonal design or six concrete buttresses supporting laminated wood beams rising to gather at the top contained 4,750 square feet with a seating capacity of 400. Now, there are several versions of the history of the design of the church. They include the following: that it was modeled after Our Lady, Mary’s Crown, that it was designed with an inverted morning glory blossom in mind – the origin of this rumor can be attributed to the following observation by Mrs. Geneva Hamilton in the July 14, 1962 edition of the Telegram Tribune: “The unique positioning of the beams gives the appearance of a giant inverted morning glory flower, a structure from yesterday’s fairy tales.” To continue with other hearsay: some said that the design was copied from contemporaneous and similarly designed Catholic churches in Ireland and finally, that it was the winning design of a contest won by a group of nuns from Barboo, Wisconsin (northwest of Madison). The pine tree and the water tank design that it was quoted earlier is reflected by Mrs. Ross’ preliminary sketches in parish files and The Cambrian from 1961 to 1963. However, Fr. Morgan had a site and a design and now he needed a contractor. He hired Mr. Caspar Mandella of Paso Robles as the general contractor. The projected cost was $99,225.00. The official ground breaking ceremony for the new church was on March 19, 1962. Shortly thereafter, the Pierce Construction Company of Morro Bay was begun grading the entire site (including the parking lot) and compact the fill area (over half of the church was built on fill). On May 31, 1962, The Cambrian reported that “Mandella Construction Company was laying the foundation for Santa Rosa Church.” A few weeks later, the huge laminated arched beams were brought in by special double-header motor transport (two trucks at opposing ends with the trailer platform in the middle). The tandem arrangement was necessitated by the sharp curves on Old Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria. The collection of monies to fund the new project was very slow. Many of the parishioners were displeased with the soggy location (bear in mind that the location had previously been the manufacturing site of Rigdon’s Brickyard) and with the unusual design. However, Fr. Morgan had a vision and a goal; he was undeterred, he secured the monies to continue construction through parishioner pledges, loans from the Diocese, a grant from the church extension and an outright bequest. The final construction costs totaled $150,000.00. As for the interior, it was till unfinished in the spring of 1963. Sisters from the Sisters of Mercy Order in Arroyo Grande held weekly catechism classes in the great empty interior; the children sat on the floor. On March 31, 1963, The Cambrian reported that the pews were being carved by members of a Trappist Brotherhood in Lafayette, Oregon, and were still unfinished. On April 14th, folding chairs were brought in and Easter Sunday services were conducted in the new church. The custom pews finally arrived and were assembled and installed on May 31st, construction was deemed complete on June 1st. The first Mass was celebrated by Fr. Morgan on June 2, 1963. The first wedding was held on December 28, 1963, joining Miss Rosalyn Bassetti and Mr. Robert Gingg. The Administrators and Pastors of Santa Rosa Parish from 1960 to present day include: Rev. Msgr. Thomas Morgan (1960-1965) Rev. Lawrence McHugh (1965-1974) Rev. James Sweeney (1974-1992) Rev. Larry Kambitsch (1992-1994) Rev. Derek Hughes (1994-1997) Rev. Larry Betrozoff (1997) Rev. Dennis Gilbert (1997-2005) Rev. George Batchelder (2005-2006) Rev. Emil Robu (2006- The acquisition of the history of our parish is, like all history, an ongoing collection of oral histories and written documents, correspondence, articles and photographs. If any of you can contribute your memories, notes, photographs or copies of documents, letters or newspaper articles to enrich our history, please give our parish office a call. Thank you for your interest in our parish history. (Joyce Williams)

Santa Rosa parish of Cambria, as it is today, was established in the late summer of 1960. Father Thomas Morgan arrived in town surrounded by controversy. Why was Father Martin Cooney being replaced? Was Father Morgan here to build a new church? Who was he?

Thomas Morgan was born in 1909 in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was serving in the British World War I and young Thomas was educated in the National School of Dublin. He continued his upper division studies at Mungret College in Limerick, Ireland. He went on to study theology at Irish College in Paris, France, before attending the Patriarchal Seminary in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1939, he was ordained and immigrated to the United States. Before his assignment in Cambria, Fr. Morgan served in the following parishes: Tulare, Hanford, Merced, Greenfield, and Cayucos.

He celebrated his First Mass in Cambria as the pastor of the newly-founded and independent parish of Santa Rosa on Sunday, September 11, 1960. Between September and December of 1960, Fr. Morgan continued to also serve the Cayucos parish and lived at their rectory. In December of 1960, Fr. Laurence O’Sullivan assumed full time service of the Cayucos parish and Fr. Morgan moved into a rented stucco house on Bridge Street in Cambria. For the first time in fifty years, Cambria and Cayucos Catholic churches were completely independent of one another.

Through his homilies and home visits, answers to parishioners, many questions abut Fr. Morgan’s unexpected arrival and intentions for the new parish soon became crystal clear: he was sent to raise funds for a new church at a new location.
In 1961, he instituted a church building program. He set out a schedule for 156 weeks. He appointed a site selection and building committee that included: Constant Fiscalini, Peter Negranti, Sr. Ray Ross, Leo Nock, Pico Soto, and Johnny Fiscalini. He also enlisted twenty men (including the six previously mentioned) to canvass each family of the parish at their homes to obtain monetary pledges for the three year building program.

Lucy M. Fiscalini, a Cambria native and member of the Green Valley Fiscalinis, generously donated a site for the new church on part of her town ranch, which at that time included what is now the CCSD yard on Rodeo Grounds Road, the Mid-State Bank located next to us and her ocean pasture now known as, East West Ranch.

A few years before this generous act, Miss Fiscalini donated nearby land to the Cambria Lion’s Club for the Cambria Youth Center. Her best laid plans for the town’s young people did not come to be, the land and its building were late transferred to San Luis Obispo County and renamed the Veteran’s Memorial Building.

Father Morgan engaged John R. Ross, a San Luis Obispo architect, to design the new church. Mr. Ross stated in numerous newspaper interviews that his design for the church had “absolutely nothing traditional about it.” One interview continued, “I looked at the pine trees on the town’s surrounding hills and the water tanks on local ranches and tried to fit the structure to the terrain.” His controversial hexagonal design or six concrete buttresses supporting laminated wood beams rising to gather at the top contained 4,750 square feet with a seating capacity of 400.

Now, there are several versions of the history of the design of the church. They include the following: that it was modeled after Our Lady, Mary’s Crown, that it was designed with an inverted morning glory blossom in mind – the origin of this rumor can be attributed to the following observation by Mrs. Geneva Hamilton in the July 14, 1962 edition of the Telegram Tribune: “The unique positioning of the beams gives the appearance of a giant inverted morning glory flower, a structure from yesterday’s fairy tales.”
To continue with other hearsay: some said that the design was copied from contemporaneous and similarly designed Catholic churches in Ireland and finally, that it was the winning design of a contest won by a group of nuns from Barboo, Wisconsin (northwest of Madison).
The pine tree and the water tank design that it was quoted earlier is reflected by Mrs. Ross’ preliminary sketches in parish files and The Cambrian from 1961 to 1963.

However, Fr. Morgan had a site and a design and now he needed a contractor. He hired Mr. Caspar Mandella of Paso Robles as the general contractor. The projected cost was $99,225.00. The official ground breaking ceremony for the new church was on March 19, 1962. Shortly thereafter, the Pierce Construction Company of Morro Bay was begun grading the entire site (including the parking lot) and compact the fill area (over half of the church was built on fill).

On May 31, 1962, The Cambrian reported that “Mandella Construction Company was laying the foundation for Santa Rosa Church.” A few weeks later, the huge laminated arched beams were brought in by special double-header motor transport (two trucks at opposing ends with the trailer platform in the middle). The tandem arrangement was necessitated by the sharp curves on Old Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria.

The collection of monies to fund the new project was very slow. Many of the parishioners were displeased with the soggy location (bear in mind that the location had previously been the manufacturing site of Rigdon’s Brickyard) and with the unusual design. However, Fr. Morgan had a vision and a goal; he was undeterred, he secured the monies to continue construction through parishioner pledges, loans from the Diocese, a grant from the church extension and an outright bequest. The final construction costs totaled $150,000.00.

As for the interior, it was till unfinished in the spring of 1963. Sisters from the Sisters of Mercy Order in Arroyo Grande held weekly catechism classes in the great empty interior; the children sat on the floor. On March 31, 1963, The Cambrian reported that the pews were being carved by members of a Trappist Brotherhood in Lafayette, Oregon, and were still unfinished. On April 14th, folding chairs were brought in and Easter Sunday services were conducted in the new church.

The custom pews finally arrived and were assembled and installed on May 31st, construction was deemed complete on June 1st. The first Mass was celebrated by Fr. Morgan on June 2, 1963. The first wedding was held on December 28, 1963, joining Miss Rosalyn Bassetti and Mr. Robert Gingg.

The Administrators and Pastors of Santa Rosa Parish from 1960 to present day include:
Rev. Msgr. Thomas Morgan (1960-1965)
Rev. Lawrence McHugh (1965-1974)
Rev. James Sweeney (1974-1992)
Rev. Larry Kambitsch (1992-1994)
Rev. Derek Hughes (1994-1997)
Rev. Larry Betrozoff (1997)
Rev. Dennis Gilbert (1997-2005)
Rev. George Batchelder (2005-2006)
Rev. Emil Robu (2006-

The acquisition of the history of our parish is, like all history, an ongoing collection of oral histories and written documents, correspondence, articles and photographs. If any of you can contribute your memories, notes, photographs or copies of documents, letters or newspaper articles to enrich our history, please give our parish office a call.

Thank you for your interest in our parish history. (Joyce Williams)