The Lord is there
Ezekiel 48:35The village is ordered toward God: church, prayer, the sacramental life and the rhythm of the Catholic year are woven naturally into ordinary life.
Catholic Villages
Beautiful Villages
for Catholic Families
Places where faith, family, beauty and community belong together again.
We are building walkable Catholic villages where children can roam, neighbors know one another, beautiful architecture surrounds everyday life, and the Church stands at the center of our common life.
Recovering a common life
We can build a better setting for family life.
Much of modern life separates the things that once belonged together.
Families spend enormous amounts of time driving between places that were never designed to form a coherent life.
For centuries, parish, home, school, workshop and market formed a common life. People inherited friendships, obligations and traditions along with the places where they lived.
We want to recover that inheritance and carry it forward with everything we have since learned about building, education and the needs of families.
The question behind Catholic Villages:Can we recover the communities that sustained Christian civilization for nearly two millennia, and make them better for our children?
Life spread apart
Separate destinations
School, church, friends and play each mean another trip in the car.
The village we envision
One walkable village
The same places, a short walk from home. Neighbors meet along the way.
Study 01 Sacred order, made visible
The architecture of belonging
We shape our places.
Then our places shape us.
Our buildings teach us what matters.
A church tower visible from home, a square where neighbors meet, a school within walking distance: the arrangement of a village gives daily life a shared direction.
That is why our villages begin with sacred order.
The church or chapel belongs at the heart of the village. Around it come the square, homes, school, gardens, workshops, places to eat, places to play, and the ordinary encounters from which community grows.
Beauty grows from sacred order.Beauty forms us.
Principles for a living place
Six foundations
for a lasting community.
The habits and forms of life we want our villages to sustain.
Thou hast ordered all things
Wisdom 11:21Beauty grows from sacred order. Traditional architecture, enduring materials, craftsmanship, gardens, art and sculpture create places worthy of being loved for generations.
Boys and girls, playing in the streets
Zechariah 8:5Children should be able to walk to friends, school, sports and the village square, and gradually encounter the world without needing to be driven everywhere.
A neighbour that is near
Proverbs 27:10Shared values create greater trust. Proximity turns acquaintances into neighbors and neighbors into a genuine community.
A city, which is compact together
Psalm 121:3 (122:3)Church, school, friends, recreation and community life should be close enough that walking is the natural choice.
Thy gates shall be open continually
Isaiah 60:11The village should be a hub for the wider community, hosting lectures, debates, feast days and gatherings where friendships deepen, ideas are tested and new work begins.
Nazareth
The hidden life matters.
Christian civilization is renewed in the home.
The life of the Holy Family at Nazareth was made of prayer, work, meals, relationships, responsibilities and ordinary days lived faithfully.
We want this ordinary life to have room to flourish.
Such a place asks something of its people: showing up for a neighbor, passing on the faith, raising children together and welcoming the stranger. The village gives these duties a home in everyday life.
Exploring our first village
Menlo Park
California
Illustrative village concept
A village rooted in faith.
Connected to Silicon Valley.
We are exploring a site in Menlo Park, California, for our first Catholic Village.
Our ambition is to bring the intimacy of village life to the heart of Silicon Valley: a place for families to put down roots while staying connected to the wider world.
The current concept places a chapel and public square at its heart, surrounded by homes and community amenities.
The current concept
The places that hold
a community together.
Chapel-centered village square
The spiritual and social heart of the community.
A Catholic classical school
The concept anticipates Chesterton Academy playing an important role in village life.
Homes and pedestrian streets
Traditional homes shaped around walkable streets, gardens and shared spaces.
Clubhouse + village hall
A place for meals, lectures, celebrations, clubs and everyday community life.
Gym + major event space
Flexible infrastructure serving residents and the wider Catholic community.
Sport and recreation
A life where children and adults walk naturally between home, friends, fields and activities.
A Catholic hub for Silicon Valley
Deep roots.
Open gates.
We see Silicon Valley as the Rome of our time. The tools and ideas made here reach into homes across the world, and people with the ambition to shape the future keep arriving. We believe that makes it the best place to begin. A Catholic village here can give families deep roots while bringing the Church’s intellectual and artistic inheritance into the work of building the future.
We want the village to be a meeting place for founders, scholars, artists, teachers and friends from across the Bay Area. Lectures, serious debate, shared meals, concerts and feast days would give the wider community reasons to return, and give new friendships and undertakings a place to begin.
LecturesFeast daysDinnersRetreatsStartupsArtEducationConversationsHospitality
Site exploration · 2026
Building patiently,
with a long horizon.
We are exploring the Menlo Park site and developing the concept. Site arrangements and the plans are still being worked through.
If the project proceeds, we anticipate approximately three years of planning, organization, architecture and permitting, followed by roughly two to three years of construction.
Our hope is that the first families could begin moving in around 2031.
A community to last generations
What would life
actually feel like?
Imagine leaving your front door and walking to Mass.
Your children disappear down the street to find their friends. You know the families living three doors away. School is around the corner.
Someone is baking bread for tonight’s gathering. There is a lecture in the village hall after dinner. Tomorrow there is football on the field. Next week the whole village celebrates a feast day.
The architecture is beautiful enough that people want to preserve it. The community is small enough that people know when someone needs help.
Children come to know the adults around them: the teacher who lives nearby, the craftsman at work, the elderly neighbor with time for a story. They see the faith lived through different vocations and stages of life.
For generations, communities like these passed on the knowledge of how to live together. We want our children to inherit that knowledge and add something of their own.
We can recover this way of life and leave it stronger than we found it.
Build it with us
A village requires
many kinds of builders.
Catholic Villages is still early enough that the people who join now can meaningfully shape what it becomes.
Future Residents
Interested in eventually living in a Catholic Village?
Architects & Builders
Traditional architects, developers, engineers, contractors and craftspeople who want to build places that endure.
Artists & Sculptors
Sacred artists, painters, sculptors, landscape designers, stoneworkers and makers who believe beauty belongs in public life.
Educators & Community Builders
People drawn to schools, children’s activities, formation, hospitality and the institutions that make a village alive.
Donors & Fundraisers
People who want to help make ambitious Catholic institutions possible.
Investors
Long-term partners interested in a new model of faith-centered residential communities.
Volunteers
Good things often begin with people simply deciding to help.
Why we began
Built by Catholic families who wanted this for their own children.
Catholic Villages began with a simple frustration.
We wanted our children to experience the kind of childhood that has become unnecessarily difficult to create: one in which they can walk out the door, find friends, explore, play outside, know their neighbors and grow up surrounded by a community that shares the things we consider most important.
We wanted to remain connected to dynamic cities and meaningful work without accepting that family life therefore had to take place inside sprawling, anonymous suburbs.
If the place we wish existed does not exist, why don’t we build it?
That became Catholic Villages.
A few practical questions
The vision is clear.
The work is beginning.
Here is where things stand today.
What is a Catholic village?
Our vision of a Catholic village brings homes, a church, a school, gardens and gathering places within walking distance of one another. Faith shapes the rhythm of daily life, children grow up among neighbors who know them, and shared meals, feast days and conversations draw the wider community into village life.
Where will the first village be?
We are exploring a site in Menlo Park, California. The concept is in an early stage, and site arrangements and plans are still being developed. The images on this page illustrate the vision.
When might families move in?
Our early hope is around 2031. The timing depends on securing a site, planning, permits and construction. We will share more concrete milestones as the project progresses.
Can I express interest in living there?
Yes. Tell us a little about your family and what draws you to village life. Home types, pricing and ownership arrangements will become clearer as the plans develop.
How can I help build it?
We welcome people with experience in architecture, construction, education, art, community building, philanthropy and investing, as well as people willing to contribute time and care.
Find your way to contribute →Perhaps you’ve wished
for this too.
A home near the church. Friends your children can reach on foot. A table with room for guests, a calendar full of shared feasts, and neighbors who become part of your family’s story. A place your grandchildren might one day call home.
Help us build it.