Catholic dating in Maryland
Catholic dating in Maryland: parishes from the 1640s, the Baltimore basilica, Emmitsburg's shrines, Latin Mass at St Alphonsus and young adult groups.
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- Shrine
- Diocese
- Latin Mass
- Campus ministry
- Young adults
- Parish
- Eastern Catholic
Short answer
Catholic Maryland can be read as a timeline. In the south, St Francis Xavier at Newtowne gives 1640 as the year it was established, and St Ignatius at Chapel Point about 1641; the Archdiocese of Washington describes Chapel Point as the oldest continuously active parish in the United States. Both still have Mass every Sunday. In Baltimore, the Basilica of the Assumption was begun in 1806, and the Maryland State Archives calls it America's first Roman Catholic cathedral. In Emmitsburg, Mount St Mary's dates its founding to 1808 and Elizabeth Ann Seton founded her order there in 1809.
The present day is in the suburbs and on campus. Young adult groups in Annapolis and Frederick welcome ages eighteen to thirty-nine; one in Towson is for twenty-one to thirty-five; in Southern Maryland, PAX Catholic runs Theology on Tap for people in their twenties and thirties.
Twenty-one places are listed below, each with an address and a link to its own page or its diocese's. They are not every parish; they are the places whose pages we could open and read.
You are reading cana.love, a free site for people who want to marry. It is not a Catholic-only site, and a section below says what that means.
Catholics in Maryland
Maryland is served by three dioceses: the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Archdiocese of Washington for the counties around the capital and in the south, and the Diocese of Wilmington for the Eastern Shore. Their parish directories, which give addresses and Mass times with their languages, were our main source where a parish's own website refused automated visitors.
The traditional Latin Mass is offered where the bishop has placed it. Since August 2024 the only authorised place in the Archdiocese of Baltimore has been the National Shrine of St Alphonsus, entrusted to the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, where every Mass is in the old rite.
From the dioceses', the parishes' and the Maryland State Archives' own pages, opened 24 September 2026
Several parishes also publish Masses in other languages. At Sacred Heart of Jesus in Highlandtown, three of the four Sunday Masses are in Spanish; St Francis de Sales in Salisbury has Spanish and Haitian Creole on Sunday and Korean twice a month; Mother Seton in Germantown has Masses in French, Vietnamese and Spanish.
Where the community gathers
The twenty-one places fall into five parts of the state: Baltimore; the suburbs of Washington; the west, from Frederick to Cumberland; Annapolis and Southern Maryland; and the Eastern Shore.
Baltimore
Baltimore holds seven. The Basilica of the Assumption and the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen are the old and the new cathedral; St Alphonsus downtown is the Fraternity of St Peter's shrine; Saints Philip and James serves Johns Hopkins; the Immaculate Conception in Towson has the Discipleship group for twenty-one to thirty-five; Sacred Heart in Highlandtown celebrates most of its Sunday Masses in Spanish; and Patronage of the Mother of God in Arbutus is a Byzantine Catholic parish.
Washington's suburbs
The suburbs of Washington hold two: the Catholic Student Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, and Mother Seton in Germantown with its Masses in several languages.
The west
The west holds five: St Katharine Drexel in Frederick, whose young adult ministry is for eighteen to thirty-nine; three places in Emmitsburg within ten minutes of each other, the chapel of Mount St Mary's University, the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Seton basilica; and the Shrine of Saints Peter and Paul in Cumberland.
Annapolis and the south
Annapolis and Southern Maryland hold four: St Mary's in Annapolis, home of the Anne Arundel young adults; St John Francis Regis in Hollywood, established in 1690 and home of PAX Catholic; and the two parishes of the 1640s at Newtowne and Chapel Point.
The Eastern Shore
The Eastern Shore holds three: St Francis de Sales and the Catholic Campus Ministry in Salisbury, and Saints Peter and Paul in Easton.
Meeting places worth knowing
Begun in 1806, completed in 1821 and designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe; the archdiocese calls it the first metropolitan cathedral in the United States. Sunday Mass at eight and at half past ten with the choir, and Adoration at any hour.
Cathedral Street at Mulberry StreetBaltimore
MD 21201
The cathedral of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with Sunday Mass at eight, a quarter past nine and eleven, and Adoration on weekday afternoons.
5200 North Charles StreetBaltimore
MD 21210
A parish established in 1845 and entrusted to the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in 2017, where every Mass is the traditional Latin Mass; a sung Mass on Sunday at half past eleven.
114 West Saratoga StreetBaltimore
MD 21201
The university parish beside the Homewood campus, in the care of the Dominicans since 2010, with Newman Nights on Wednesdays and a student supper after the five o'clock Mass on Sunday.
2801 North Charles StreetBaltimore
MD 21218
A parish whose young adult group, for ages twenty-one to thirty-five, holds a Bible study every Tuesday and a worship night on the second Saturday of the month.
200 Ware AvenueTowson
MD 21204
A Highlandtown parish served by the Redemptorists, with three of its four Sunday Masses in Spanish.
600 South Conkling StreetBaltimore
MD 21224
A Byzantine Catholic parish founded by families who came together in 1967, with the Divine Liturgy on Sunday at nine.
1265 Linden AvenueBaltimore
MD 21227
A chaplaincy since 1933 and a centre since 1965, with Mass on Wednesday at half past five followed by a free dinner, and a Sunday evening Mass at eight in Memorial Chapel.
4141 Guilford DriveCollege Park
MD 20740
A parish established in 1974, with Sunday Masses in French most weeks and in Vietnamese twice a month, and a Spanish Mass on Saturday evening.
19951 Father Hurley BoulevardGermantown
MD 20874
A parish whose young adult ministry, for ages eighteen to thirty-nine, gathers people both within the parish and across the region.
8428 Opossumtown PikeFrederick
MD 21702
The university's chapel, with Sunday Mass at eleven and at seven in term, and Frassati Nights of Adoration, a talk and a social on Wednesdays.
16300 Old Emmitsburg RoadEmmitsburg
MD 21727
A Lourdes grotto on the Mount's campus, built seventeen years after the apparitions of 1858, with a Sunday Mass in English at noon and in Spanish at two.
16330 Grotto RoadEmmitsburg
MD 21727
The shrine of a wife and mother, widowed at twenty-nine, whom the shrine calls the first American-born saint; Mass on Sunday at eleven and half past one.
339 South Seton AvenueEmmitsburg
MD 21727
A church founded in 1848, by its own account, by John Neumann, later canonised, and served by Capuchin friars since 1875; weekday Masses here, Sunday at St Patrick nearby.
125 Fayette StreetCumberland
MD 21502
A Redemptorist parish in the old town, and home of a county-wide young adult group for ages eighteen to thirty-nine; its mission church of St John Neumann has Mass in Spanish.
109 Duke of Gloucester StreetAnnapolis
MD 21401
A parish established in 1690, whose young adult ministry and the regional PAX Catholic, both for people in their twenties and thirties, run Theology on Tap in local pubs.
43950 Saint John's RoadHollywood
MD 20636
A parish the Archdiocese of Washington dates to 1640, with Sunday Mass at eight and at eleven.
21370 Newtowne Neck RoadNewtowne
MD 20650
A Jesuit parish founded about 1641 by Fr Andrew White, in a church built in 1798, with Sunday Mass at half past seven, half past nine and six.
8855 Chapel Point RoadPort Tobacco
MD 20677
One parish with two churches, with Masses in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Korean.
535 Riverside DriveSalisbury
MD 21801
A Newman Center supported by the Diocese of Wilmington, with a Sunday Mass at five in term and Theology on Tap for young adults.
211 West College AvenueSalisbury
MD 21801
A parish and school on the Eastern Shore, with Sunday Mass at half past eight and half past ten and a Spanish Mass on Saturday evening.
1210 South Washington StreetEaston
MD 21601
Some places appear without a card. The Latin Mass Directory lists a Sunday Latin Mass at the historic St John the Evangelist church in Forest Glen, hosted for over a quarter of a century by the Polish parish there, but the sources disagree on its details. Historic St Mary's City, on the site of Maryland's first capital, is a museum rather than a parish; its Brick Chapel dates from about 1667. The Church of the Nativity in Timonium has a young adult group for people in their twenties and thirties.
Distances that decide everything
A diagram, not a map. Driving times without traffic.
Baltimore to Towson is twenty minutes, to Annapolis three quarters of an hour and to College Park about the same. Frederick is a little over an hour west and Emmitsburg an hour and a half; Cumberland is more than two and a half hours away. Salisbury is over two and a half hours from Baltimore across the Bay Bridge, and the old parishes of Southern Maryland are about two hours to the south.
In practice, then, Baltimore, Annapolis and the Washington suburbs lie within about an hour of each other, and someone in Towson and someone in Annapolis can meet on a weeknight. The mountains, the Shore and Southern Maryland are weekend trips.
Where you live and whether you would move are both questions on the cana.love form, so the distance is known before the first message.
The Catholic year in Maryland
Bible study in Towson
Discipleship meets at seven in the evening, for ages twenty-one to thirty-five.
Discipleship's evening of worship
Held each month in Towson by the same young adult group.
Mass and dinner on campus
At the University of Maryland, Mass at half past five and a free dinner at six; at Hopkins, Newman Nights.
Frassati Nights at the Mount
Adoration at ten to seven, then a talk and a social at eight.
Supper at Hopkins
After the five o'clock Mass, a meal cooked by students for students.
Mass in Spanish at the Grotto
At two in the afternoon in Emmitsburg.
Dating as a practising Catholic in Maryland
A Jesuit parish from the 1640s, a Byzantine Liturgy in Arbutus, the old rite at St Alphonsus and Haitian Creole in Salisbury: Catholics in Maryland pray in many ways. cana.love asks which is yours instead of assuming.
Mass, fasting and Scripture, each asked
How often you go to Mass is asked on the form, with five answers from every Sunday to rarely, and fasting and Scripture are asked about separately. So is what you are hoping to find. You decide who can see each answer.
Parish and meaning, in your own words
Your parish, and what gives your life meaning, are written in your own words. A list could not hold a state where one person's parish was founded in 1640 and another's is a Newman Center in Salisbury.
Spanish is one of five languages
The site works in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, which matters in parishes where the Sunday Mass is in Spanish.
Checked first, free, no password
No profile and no photograph is shown until it has been checked, automatically first and then by a person if the automatic check is unsure. Asking members for money is against the rules, and fraud leads to permanent removal without warning. It costs nothing, there is no subscription, and there is no password: you sign in with a one-time link or code sent by email.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not a Catholic-only platform.
Orthodox Christians, Protestants and people still finding their church are members too, as long as they want the same kind of marriage; your settings decide who can see you. Maryland passed a law of religious toleration in 1649, its archives record, and a site that turned everyone else away would be narrower than that. What the site does promise can be checked: faith, practice and intentions are on the form, there to read before you answer. It is run by Cana SpA, a company in Chile; the About page says more.
Meeting safely
- For a first meeting, pick daylight, a public place and a time to leave: coffee after Mass, a café in Fells Point or on Main Street in Annapolis. Tell a friend where you will be and, if it means I-95 or the Bay Bridge after dark, when you expect to be back. Keep your address to yourself for now.
- On money there is one rule. Until you have met in person, send none, lend none and pay for no one's journey, whatever the reason given. One report is enough for us to look into it.
The community guidelines say how reports are handled and how to appeal a decision.
Common questions
Are there young adult groups for my age?
Several name one: Anne Arundel Catholic Young Adults and St Katharine Drexel in Frederick eighteen to thirty-nine, Discipleship in Towson twenty-one to thirty-five, and St John's and PAX Catholic in Southern Maryland the twenties and thirties.
Where is the traditional Latin Mass?
In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, at the National Shrine of St Alphonsus, where every Mass is in the old rite.
Which parishes are the oldest?
St Francis Xavier at Newtowne, dated to 1640, and St Ignatius at Chapel Point, about 1641, which the Archdiocese of Washington calls the oldest continuously active parish in the United States.
Is there an Eastern Catholic church?
Patronage of the Mother of God in Arbutus, a Byzantine Catholic parish with the Divine Liturgy on Sunday at nine.
Is there anything on the Eastern Shore?
Yes: St Francis de Sales and the campus ministry in Salisbury, and Saints Peter and Paul in Easton.
Can I use cana.love anywhere in Maryland?
Yes, from the age of eighteen. It is a website, so there is nothing to install.
Next steps
Find a group that names your age and go once: Towson on a Tuesday, the Anne Arundel young adults in Annapolis, or Theology on Tap in Southern Maryland. Spend a Sunday in Emmitsburg, where the Mount, the Grotto and the Seton shrine are ten minutes apart. And if you would like to know how someone lives the faith before the first coffee rather than after, make a free profile on cana.love and read theirs.
Reviewed on September 24, 2026.