Catholic dating in Pennsylvania
Catholic dating in Pennsylvania: XLT outside Scranton, Return to the Lord in Pittsburgh, twelve campus centers and the old rite. Free, no subscription.
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- Campus ministry
- Latin Mass
- Shrine
- Regular gathering
- Diocese
- Eastern Catholic
Short answer
Pennsylvania has eight Latin dioceses and the seat of a Byzantine archeparchy, and a Catholic in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh has never lacked a Mass to go to. The question this page answers is the one that comes up in the forums instead: on which evening, in which room, are the practising Catholics who are roughly my age? Twenty-four places answer it here. Three dioceses put a date on the calendar that a stranger can walk into: Scranton's XLT night on the first Thursday of every month at St Maria Goretti in Laflin, Pittsburgh's Return to the Lord on the first and third Saturdays at St Mary of Mercy downtown, Harrisburg's Get Connected Mass and cookout each September. Twelve campus centers carry the rest of the map, from Penn and Temple to Pitt, Penn State, Lehigh, West Chester, Shippensburg, Millersville, Bucknell, Duquesne and Indiana; the Fraternity of St Peter serves four Latin Mass parishes across the state and the Institute of Christ the King a fifth in Pittsburgh; the Byzantine cathedral stands in Munhall, and St Rita's shrine on South Broad Street.
Two dioceses state an age on their own sites, and the page quotes them: Allentown says its young adult ministry is for Catholics aged eighteen to thirty-eight, and Harrisburg calls all young adults eighteen to thirty-nine to its Get Connected Mass. Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia say young adults without a number, and the page does not invent one.
This page belongs to cana.love, which is free, made for people who want marriage rather than a match, and built on a form that asks what the person next to you at XLT would want to know by the end of the social: how many Sundays a month you are at Mass, which parish, what you do about fasting, whether marriage is the aim. It is not a Catholic-only site; a section below says so plainly.
Catholics in Pennsylvania
Start in the north-east, because Scranton has done the simplest thing well. The diocese's young adult ministry page names one recurring evening with an address: XLT, held on the first Thursday of every month at seven at St Maria Goretti Parish on Redwood Drive in Laflin, an evening of silent prayer, praise and worship led by local musicians, a talk, confession and a social. The same page points to campus ministry and Theology on Tap as its other two doors. The Fraternity of St Peter's parish of St Michael the Archangel keeps the old rite at St Lucy's Church on Scranton Street, with a low Mass at eight and a sung Mass at a quarter past ten on Sundays.
Pittsburgh publishes a young adult events list that reads like a week. Return to the Lord, a night of prayer, adoration and lectio divina with music, takes place on the first and third Saturday of every month at St Mary of Mercy downtown; a Thursday morning run and Mass with the Capuchin friars, followed by coffee, runs every week; the Oakland Prayer Group meets monthly, and the Catholic Alumni Club fills in the Sundays. The diocese's list of college campuses runs to twenty-six, and the Pittsburgh Oratory on Bayard Street is the Newman center for both Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, with Duquesne's Spiritan ministry on Forbes Avenue on the Bluff. The Institute of Christ the King serves Most Precious Blood of Jesus on California Avenue, low Mass at eight and sung Mass at eleven, and the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has its cathedral of St John the Baptist on Greentree Road in Munhall.
From the dioceses' and centers' own pages, opened 20 September 2026; the two ages are the only ones stated
The centre of the state is Harrisburg's, and Harrisburg's young adult ministry says of itself that most of it is parish based; what it runs itself is Get Connected, an annual Mass and cookout each September at St Margaret Mary on Paxton Church Road, for which the diocese calls all young adults aged eighteen to thirty-nine and invites the parish groups to come and recruit. St Lawrence on State Street, the Fraternity's parish in the city centre, has three Sunday Masses and Vespers and, in 2026, a young adult volleyball tournament. The campus centers are Penn State's at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center in University Park, Shippensburg's at Our Lady of the Visitation, Millersville's Newman House on North George Street and Bucknell's on St George Street in Lewisburg.
Philadelphia is the largest see and the thinnest page. The archdiocese's Office of Faith Formation with Youth and Young Adults publishes its purpose and its staff, not a calendar; what it does publish is the campus map. Penn's Newman Center on South 38th Street, which Drexel shares, and Temple's on North Broad Street are the two in the city, and West Chester's Ram Catholic and Lehigh's Newman Center in Bethlehem are the two beyond it. The Fraternity of St Peter's St Mary in Conshohocken has a solemn Mass at eleven and a Juventutem group for young adults with a campfire night on its calendar; Our Lady of Lourdes in Overbrook sings the old rite at half past nine; and the National Shrine of St Rita of Cascia on South Broad Street is the city's place of pilgrimage. Allentown's diocese, whose young adult ministry is for Catholics aged eighteen to thirty-eight by its own definition, publishes a disc golf tournament and a women's hiking club for the autumn and a bishop's commission for young adults; its Fraternity oratory of St Stephen of Hungary on West Union Street has a low Mass at seven every day.
Three things the page could not confirm are said here rather than hidden. Philadelphia has no young adult network with a schedule that this page could find; the Byzantine archeparchy's own site could not be read, so only the cathedral's own page is cited; and three shrines that Catholics in the state would expect, Padre Pio in Barto, Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown and St John Neumann in the city, were unreachable on the day and are not on the map.
Where the community gathers
Pennsylvania's practising Catholic singles gather in four places: Philadelphia and the east, Scranton and the north-east, Harrisburg and the centre, Pittsburgh and the west.
Philadelphia and the east
Philadelphia and the east hold eight of the twenty-four places: the Newman centers at Penn and Temple, Our Lady of Lourdes in Overbrook, the Shrine of St Rita on South Broad Street, St Mary in Conshohocken, the Newman center at West Chester, the Fraternity's oratory in Allentown and the Newman center at Lehigh in Bethlehem.
Scranton and the north-east
Scranton and the north-east are two: XLT at St Maria Goretti in Laflin, ten minutes from Wilkes-Barre, and the Fraternity's parish at St Lucy's on the west side of Scranton.
Harrisburg and the centre
Harrisburg and the centre are six: St Lawrence on State Street and Get Connected at St Margaret Mary, then the campus centers at Penn State, Shippensburg, Millersville and Bucknell.
Pittsburgh and the west
Pittsburgh and the west are eight: the diocesan office on Noblestown Road, Return to the Lord at St Mary of Mercy, the Oratory on Bayard Street, Duquesne on Forbes Avenue, Most Precious Blood on California Avenue, the Byzantine cathedral in Munhall, the Catholic Student Association at Indiana an hour east, and the Latin Mass community at St Hedwig in Erie, two hours north.
Meeting places worth knowing
The Newman center of the University of Pennsylvania, shared with Drexel, with Mass, confession, adoration and a calendar of its own; FOCUS missionaries on both campuses.
111 S 38th StreetPhiladelphia
PA 19104
The Catholic center on Temple's campus in North Philadelphia.
2129 N Broad StreetPhiladelphia
PA 19122
A parish of the archdiocese with a sung Latin Mass on Sundays at half past nine.
6315 Lancaster AvenuePhiladelphia
PA 19151
The shrine on South Broad Street, with Mass times and news on its own site.
1166 S Broad StreetPhiladelphia
PA 19146
The Fraternity of St Peter's parish: low Mass at half past eight and solemn Mass at eleven on Sundays, low Mass on weekdays, a Juventutem group for young adults and a teen group.
140 W Hector StreetConshohocken
PA 19428
Ram Catholic, the Newman center of West Chester University, with FOCUS missionaries.
409 Trinity DriveWest Chester
PA 19382
The Fraternity of St Peter's oratory in the Diocese of Allentown: low Mass at seven on Sundays and every weekday.
510 W Union StreetAllentown
PA 18101
Lehigh University's Catholic center on the South Side, with FOCUS missionaries.
417 Carlton AvenueBethlehem
PA 18015
The Diocese of Scranton's young adult night on the first Thursday of every month at seven: silent prayer, praise and worship, a talk, confession and a social.
42 Redwood DriveLaflin
PA 18702
The Fraternity of St Peter's parish on the west side: low Mass at eight and sung Mass at a quarter past ten on Sundays.
949 Scranton StreetScranton
PA 18504
The Fraternity of St Peter's parish on State Street: low Masses at half past seven and nine, sung Mass at half past ten, Vespers at five; a young adult volleyball tournament this year.
110 State StreetHarrisburg
PA 17101
The Diocese of Harrisburg's annual young adult Mass and cookout in September, for all young adults aged eighteen to thirty-nine, where the parish groups come to show what they do.
2800 Paxton Church RoadHarrisburg
PA 17110
Penn State's Catholic campus ministry, with FOCUS missionaries.
205C Pasquerilla Spiritual CenterUniversity Park
PA 16802
Based at Our Lady of the Visitation parish, with FOCUS missionaries on campus.
305 N Prince StreetShippensburg
PA 17257
The Newman House of Millersville University.
227 N George StreetMillersville
PA 17551
Bucknell's Catholic chaplaincy in the Diocese of Harrisburg.
610 St George StreetLewisburg
PA 17837
The office that keeps the diocese's young adult events list: Return to the Lord, the Thursday run and Mass with the Capuchins, the Oakland Prayer Group, and a text-and-email list.
2900 Noblestown RoadPittsburgh
PA 15205
A night of prayer, adoration and lectio divina with music on the first and third Saturday of every month at half past six, in the church at Gateway Center downtown.
202 Stanwix StreetPittsburgh
PA 15222
The Oratorians' Newman center for the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, with FOCUS missionaries on both campuses.
4450 Bayard StreetPittsburgh
PA 15213
The campus ministry of the Spiritan university on the Bluff.
600 Forbes AvenuePittsburgh
PA 15282
The Institute of Christ the King's parish on the North Side: low Mass at eight and sung Mass at eleven on Sundays; the Institute's page lists a young adults' silent retreat in August.
3250 California AvenuePittsburgh
PA 15212
The cathedral of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh.
210 Greentree RoadMunhall
PA 15120
The Catholic students' association of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Greensburg.
1200 Oakland AvenueIndiana
PA 15701
The Diocese of Erie's Latin Mass community: sung Mass on Sundays at half past nine and on Tuesday evenings.
521 E 3rd StreetErie
PA 16507
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Driving times as given in the text.
Pennsylvania is a wide state with its two cities at opposite ends. Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is five hours on the Turnpike, and nobody on this page drives it for a Wednesday. Harrisburg sits in the middle, two hours from Philadelphia and three and a half from Pittsburgh; Scranton is two hours north of Philadelphia and an hour and a half from Allentown; State College is three hours from anywhere.
The distances that matter are inside each quarter. Conshohocken is half an hour from Center City and West Chester an hour; Laflin is ten minutes from Wilkes-Barre and twenty from Scranton; Munhall is twenty minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, Indiana an hour, Erie two. A Catholic in Bethlehem can be at the Fraternity's oratory in Allentown in fifteen minutes and at Conshohocken in an hour; a Catholic in Pittsburgh can be at Return to the Lord on a Saturday evening from any suburb.
The Catholic year in Pennsylvania
First Thursdays
XLT at St Maria Goretti in Laflin at seven, every month of the year: the one evening in the north-east with an address that a stranger can walk into.
First and third Saturdays
Return to the Lord at St Mary of Mercy in downtown Pittsburgh at half past six: prayer, adoration, lectio divina and music, twice a month.
Thursday mornings
The run and Mass with the Capuchin friars in Pittsburgh, every week at half past six, coffee after; the diocese's list gives the day and the hour, and the friars give the place.
Sundays
The sung Masses at half past ten in Harrisburg, a quarter past ten in Scranton, eleven in Conshohocken and Pittsburgh, half past nine in Overbrook and Erie; the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral in Munhall; Vespers at five at St Lawrence.
September
Get Connected in Harrisburg, the diocese's annual young adult Mass and cookout at St Margaret Mary, where the parish groups recruit; the campus centers' welcome weeks from Penn to Penn State.
The autumn calendar
Allentown's disc golf tournament and women's hiking club in October, St Lawrence's volleyball tournament, Conshohocken's Juventutem campfire night: the season when the parish groups do their most visible things.
Dating as a practising Catholic in Pennsylvania
The rooms on this page each admit by their own rule, eighteen to thirty-eight in Allentown, eighteen to thirty-nine in Harrisburg, students at the Newman centers, anyone at the oratories and the shrine, and none of them can see what the cana.love form asks. Four things the form sees, and four things it cannot.
Cannot see your face; sees your Sundays
The form cannot see your face until you decide; it can see how often you attend church services, with five answers from every Sunday to rarely, and you choose who sees yours. On the forums that question is the one people wish they could ask first; here it has been answered by everyone you see.
Cannot see the register; asks your parish
The form cannot see your parish register; it asks which parish you attend, in your own words, and what you do for a living and what the meaning of life is for you, all free text. Someone who writes St Lawrence, Harrisburg has said more than a photograph.
Cannot see your fasting; asks it
The form cannot see your fasting; it asks your attitude to it, from strict to learning, and how often you read Scripture, beside the question of faith, where Catholic is one answer among Orthodox Christian, Protestant and others, and where the list of Orthodox jurisdictions further down is for Orthodox members and a Catholic leaves it blank.
Cannot make you honest; checks
The form cannot make you honest, so the site is built as if you might not be: one purpose of registration, looking for marriage; every profile and photograph checked before it is visible, with anything doubtful going to a person; a permanent ban for anyone who asks another member for money; no subscription and no paid tier; sign-in by a one-time link to your email, with no password to keep.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not a Catholic-only platform.
Orthodox Christians, Protestants and people of no confession who want the same kind of marriage are members too, and whom each member sees is set by that member's own filters. In a state whose dioceses invite people just returning to the faith to their young adult nights, a narrower promise would be false. What the site promises is exact: faith, practice and intention are questions on the form, and everyone you meet has answered them, as you did. The company behind it is Cana SpA of Santiago, Chile; the About page says the rest.
Meeting safely
- Meet first in a room with other people in it, an XLT social or the coffee after a sung Mass, and let a friend know where; keep the conversation on the site until you, not the other person, choose to move it.
- No money changes hands before you have met in person, and on cana.love the asking is grounds for a report and the asker is removed for good.
The guidelines page explains reviews, reports and appeals.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Pennsylvania?
It is: adults join from anywhere, Pennsylvania included, and there is nothing to install, because the site opens in the browser of a phone or a computer, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German or Russian.
I am over 35. Is there anything on this page for me?
Two dioceses draw their line just above you, Allentown at thirty-eight and Harrisburg at thirty-nine, and both say so on their own pages; the campus centers are for students. What has no ceiling is on the page too: XLT in Laflin and Return to the Lord in Pittsburgh name no age, nor do the five Latin Mass parishes, the Byzantine cathedral or the shrine. No diocese in Pennsylvania publishes a group for people over forty that this page could find.
The young adult group takes people up to a certain age. Then what?
Then the parish, which never ages anyone out, and the places here that run without a ceiling; and a profile on cana.love, where the question is not how old you are but how many Sundays a month you are at Mass.
Where is the Traditional Latin Mass in Pennsylvania?
At the Fraternity of St Peter's parishes in Harrisburg, Scranton and Conshohocken and its oratory in Allentown, every day; at the Institute of Christ the King's Most Precious Blood in Pittsburgh; and on Sundays at Our Lady of Lourdes in Overbrook and St Hedwig in Erie. Several more diocesan churches in the state offer it on one Sunday a month and are not on this page.
Are there Eastern Catholic parishes in Pennsylvania?
The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is seated here, with its cathedral in Munhall; its own site could not be read on the day, so only the cathedral is on the page. Both liturgies are in full communion with Rome, and a Latin-rite Catholic may marry in either.
Which groups say what age they are for?
Two dioceses: Allentown, eighteen to thirty-eight, and Harrisburg, eighteen to thirty-nine. Scranton, Pittsburgh and every campus center say young adults or students without a number, and this page quotes them exactly.
Why is Philadelphia so short on this page?
Because its archdiocese publishes an office and a staff list for young adults, not a calendar, and this page lists only what a source states. The Newman centers, the Fraternity's parish in Conshohocken with its Juventutem group, Our Lady of Lourdes and the Shrine of St Rita are what could be confirmed.
How far should I search in Pennsylvania?
By quarter: Philadelphia with the Lehigh Valley, Scranton with Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg with Lancaster and State College, Pittsburgh with everything west of the mountains. The Turnpike is five hours end to end; say on your profile which quarter you call home.
Next steps
Go to XLT on the first Thursday, or to Return to the Lord on the first Saturday, or to the sung Mass at whichever Fraternity parish is nearest, and stay for the social. Then, if you would rather know how many Sundays a month someone is at Mass before you know their face, create a profile on cana.love: it is free, and the form asks the questions this page cannot.
Reviewed on September 20, 2026.
Photographs, all Wikimedia Commons: St Mary of Mercy Church on Stanwix Street in downtown Pittsburgh — Cbaile19, CC0 · St Lawrence Chapel on State Street, Harrisburg — Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0