What are the best [Catholic] towns to raise a family?

[DeoGratias72]

Hello!


Thank you for all of this great info.! The more the BETTER!!! ;D

What neighborhoods should I avoid in Omaha & Lincoln, where should I stay away from.
Do you know a real estate website that might have rentals as well as properties listed for sale.

I do not remember where I read this, but one of the places has a bit of hills, not sure if it was Omaha? That it was not as flat as the other city.

I hope that you do get 1 of the Priests to teach Latin & or Greek, that would be amazing!!!

What is the name of your Church & or Parish, does it have a website?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!Great input!! ;D
God bless!

DeoGratias72

Hello!

Thank you for your post!

Please elaborate more on the town, the Catholic community. The more details the better! ;D
Does the Church do anything after Mass, so the children & parents can mingle with each other (like coffee & donuts) ?
Please tell me more about homeschooling there & the families involved with it.
Also, I have read that some parishes around the country have the Priest teaching the children LATIN & or Greek . Is this
available in Omaha or Lincoln?
Also, what about safety, what is the crime situation in both places, which place is safer?
I know that this is the midwest, but which one of these has at least some hills? Or, are they both flat?
What is the summer like, temperature wise, what is the range for both places.?
Thank you for any input you can give me.
Take care,
Peace,
DeoGratias72

As far as the town is concerned, I really like Omaha.  It's true there's not much of a "night life", though the Old Market downtown has some really nice restaurants and shops.  Our zoo is one of the best in the country, and we've got a few nice museums.  Kansas City is only a 3 hour drive, so if you need the "big" city life, it's not too far away.  We do have crime in a few bad areas in Omaha, but as long as you find the neighborhoods to avoid, you'll be fine.  Lincoln is probably safer, but it's also a college town, so hard to say either way.

Omaha's only an hour away from Lincoln, so they're basically the same when regards to climate and "flatness".  Yes, it's pretty flat out here, but Denver is only 7-8 hours away.  We do have some pretty hot summers and cold winters, but it's nice to have 4 seasons.  Last winter was one of our worst with the piles of snow we had, but it could have been a lot worse.  The springs and autumns here are really nice, and almost make up for August and January.

As for the Latin Mass community in Omaha, we have our own FSSP parish with 3 Sunday Masses and at least 1-2 daily Masses.  There is also a CMRI parish, if that's your thing (my wife's uncle goes there).  We have coffee and donuts one-two times a month, and pancake breakfasts about once every 3 months.  We also have several other get-togethers in our gymnasium (welcoming new priests/seminarians, All Saints Day Party for the kids, new parishioner parties, etc.).  We've also got our own bowling alley, which I think makes us the only TLM parish in the country to have one. 

I find our TLM community to be very inviting and friendly to newcomers, especially compared to some other TLM parishes I have been to.  Our parish has a homeschooling mother's group, a KofC council, a Cub Scout pack, an Altar Society, Legion of Mary, a youth group, and a few other groups that get together frequently.  As far as I know, every family at our parish homeschools even though our parish belongs to a diocesan school with a few other parishes.  There is a Catholic Homeschool Association of Omaha (CHAO) which has a nice website you might want to look at if you're interested.

As of right now, our priests aren't teaching Latin or Greek, but I know our assistant pastor is considering starting a class in the future (not sure if or when this will happen).  I'd love to take part in that myself.

One great thing about being here is the FSSP Seminary is in Lincoln, making it an easy trip to attend ordinations (though, I'll warn you, the cathedral in Lincoln is hideous).  If you attend the Novus Ordo, Lincoln is one of the best dioceses in the country with Bishop Bruskewicz (no altar girls, etc.).  Omaha's not bad either, though some of our churches are more liberal than others.

I know this is probably too much info, but I hope this helps in your decision making.  Let me know if you've got any other questions!

[maryskey]

Hello,
I was wondering, why you mentioned, Do Not move to Maine? Could you please elaborate.
If you have any information on Maine & or New Hampshire, could you share it with us.
Thank you, Peace! 

We left Maine in July 2009 after having lived as Traditional Catholics there for the last 15 years. I'd lived there since 1982, before I converted to the Church in 1993. My husband lived there as a practicing Catholic since 1976.   Unless you live in the southern Maine area, say, Portland, you will have to drive a considerable distance to get to the TLM. It's an Indult, by the way.  We lived in central Maine, 100 miles from the TLM. Things have only slightly improved since the Motu Proprio. The Bishop granted the Diocese a designated priest to say the TLM, however, he has to say TWO of them on Sundays in two different cities. There's a TLM at 8am in Lewiston and one at noon in Portland.  I believe there is still a second Sunday of the month (diocesan) TLM in Newcastle still going on but I don't know who is saying that Mass presently.  We had stopped going there once we reached the "too many kids, no cry room" capacity. LOL  Maine is liberal. Maine is highly taxed (so is Kansas I am finding out, just in a different way! they tax food here for crying out loud!).  If you are looking for a school, Maine doesn't have any Trad associated Catholic schools. 

My children attend St John Vianney (http://stjohnv.com/index.php be sure to watch the video on the 'About Us' page) in Maple Hill, KS. We are currently renting in St Marys til we can buy a house in Maple Hill (we have put an offer on one recently, still waiting to hear back).  While we ARE glad to be here, it's been tough. The pay here is considerably reduced compared to Maine. My husband does drywall for a living. He's getting $10 less per hour here than he was in Maine and he is doing the exact SAME work.  There seems to be a lack of caring about quality out here, and that bothers my husband immensely.   In the end, it all most likely evens out but we've only been here a year and are still getting settled into a new way of life. Our current mantra is: "we didn't move here for the great pay or the great weather!"

Maple Hill is small what with 450 residents or so. Housing is limited! There are all of three homes currently for sale that will fit us but only one that we can afford the mortgage for. So the smaller the family the better if you want to move there.  St Marys has a slightly higher population though we still had a hard time finding a suitable place to live.  As for the Academy in St Marys, besides the fact that tuition is higher than SJV's, I only know what other people tell me. There are positives and negatives about everything here, but the thing that tips the scale is that you have the Faith in abundance here and in the surrounding areas. You have about a 99% chance of making confession before Mass at either parish. There are numerous daily Masses to choose from and a BUNCH on Sunday. Our priests at SJV provide a TLM in Topeka on Sundays at 11am.  SJV is currently raising money to eventually built a Cathedral and a new school, and a convent for the (hopefully!) future FSSP nuns (http://stewardsofstjohnv.org/). Yes, we are busting out at the seams in the school. There were 91 students starting this yr.  This pales in comparison to the numbers at the Academy. There are several hundred there, I believe. 

[HuskerTom]

Hello!

Thank you for all of this great info.! The more the BETTER!!! ;D
What neighborhoods should I avoid in Omaha & Lincoln, where should I stay away from.
Do you know a real estate website that might have rentals as well as properties listed for sale.
I do not remember where I read this, but one of the places has a bit of hills, not sure if it was Omaha? That it was not as flat as the other city.
I hope that you do get 1 of the Priests to teach Latin & or Greek, that would be amazing!!!
What is the name of your Church & or Parish, does it have a website?
Thank you so much for all of your help!!Great input!! ;D
God bless!

DeoGratias72

I don't know a whole lot about Lincoln's crime rate, so I can't help you much there, but in Omaha, you definitely want to avoid parts of north/northeast Omaha and some pockets of south Omaha.  We've had several shootings in those areas, so I would steer clear of them if I were you.  Of course, I say this while our parish is actually in south Omaha (though it's not that bad of a neighborhood where the church sits).

The name of our parish is Immaculate Conception Church, and our website is http://www.latinmassomaha.org/.  You can look at recent bulletins and I believe our pastor has been putting homilies online that you can listen to as well.

Here are a few real estate sites that I used when we bought our house in last year - http://www.cbshome.com/       http://www.npdodge.com/       http://www.deebrealestate.com/

I will warn you, property taxes and income taxes are through the roof in Nebraska (especially Omaha).  Not sure what you are used to, but plan on at least $2000 per $100,000 per year for property taxes.  We are right on the border of Iowa, so many people live across the river and pay a lot less in taxes.  Just a thought.

Hope this helps!

[DeoGratias72]

Hello,
I was wondering, why you mentioned, Do Not move to Maine? Could you please elaborate.
If you have any information on Maine & or New Hampshire, could you share it with us.
Thank you, Peace! 

We left Maine in July 2009 after having lived as Traditional Catholics there for the last 15 years. I'd lived there since 1982, before I converted to the Church in 1993. My husband lived there as a practicing Catholic since 1976.   Unless you live in the southern Maine area, say, Portland, you will have to drive a considerable distance to get to the TLM. It's an Indult, by the way.  We lived in central Maine, 100 miles from the TLM. Things have only slightly improved since the Motu Proprio. The Bishop granted the Diocese a designated priest to say the TLM, however, he has to say TWO of them on Sundays in two different cities. There's a TLM at 8am in Lewiston and one at noon in Portland.  I believe there is still a second Sunday of the month (diocesan) TLM in Newcastle still going on but I don't know who is saying that Mass presently.  We had stopped going there once we reached the "too many kids, no cry room" capacity. LOL  Maine is liberal. Maine is highly taxed (so is Kansas I am finding out, just in a different way! they tax food here for crying out loud!).  If you are looking for a school, Maine doesn't have any Trad associated Catholic schools. 

My children attend St John Vianney (http://stjohnv.com/index.php be sure to watch the video on the 'About Us' page) in Maple Hill, KS. We are currently renting in St Marys til we can buy a house in Maple Hill (we have put an offer on one recently, still waiting to hear back).  While we ARE glad to be here, it's been tough. The pay here is considerably reduced compared to Maine. My husband does drywall for a living. He's getting $10 less per hour here than he was in Maine and he is doing the exact SAME work.  There seems to be a lack of caring about quality out here, and that bothers my husband immensely.   In the end, it all most likely evens out but we've only been here a year and are still getting settled into a new way of life. Our current mantra is: "we didn't move here for the great pay or the great weather!"

Maple Hill is small what with 450 residents or so. Housing is limited! There are all of three homes currently for sale that will fit us but only one that we can afford the mortgage for. So the smaller the family the better if you want to move there.  St Marys has a slightly higher population though we still had a hard time finding a suitable place to live.  As for the Academy in St Marys, besides the fact that tuition is higher than SJV's, I only know what other people tell me. There are positives and negatives about everything here, but the thing that tips the scale is that you have the Faith in abundance here and in the surrounding areas. You have about a 99% chance of making confession before Mass at either parish. There are numerous daily Masses to choose from and a BUNCH on Sunday. Our priests at SJV provide a TLM in Topeka on Sundays at 11am.  SJV is currently raising money to eventually built a Cathedral and a new school, and a convent for the (hopefully!) future FSSP nuns (http://stewardsofstjohnv.org/). Yes, we are busting out at the seams in the school. There were 91 students starting this yr.  This pales in comparison to the numbers at the Academy. There are several hundred there, I believe. 

Hi,


I posted another question, but it vanished....

You posted previously that you were moving to Wausau Wisconsin, did you ever go there? If so, how was it?
If not, why did you decide against it? Is there something wrong with that area?

Thanks!
God Bless