Director Letter

Greetings and Blessings,

I am pleased to welcome you to the Office of Catholic Cemeteries at the Diocese of San Bernardino. Our office is relatively new having been in existence since 2005 and our Diocese was formed in 1978, 45 years ago!

It took 27 years to establish our first Catholic Cemetery at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Colton, California. Situated on 30 acres, we are approaching 60% built out with over 2500 interments in a combination of lawn crypts, cremation gardens, Mausoleum crypts and granite niches. The focal point of our cemetery is All Souls Chapel and Mausoleum offering glass front niches in Our Lady of Lourdes Columbarium along with granite crypts and wall mounted glass front niches.  Funeral Masses are held as well as special celebrations including All Souls Day.

We are proud to bring to fruition, the first addition into the “Columbarium Network” at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Palm Springs. This marble and granite installation was completed in September 2022 and our first inurnment took place in November 2022. We offer single, double, and family estate niches in a pristine sacred setting.

The vision for the Diocese, led by Most Rev. Gerald R. Barnes, and continuing with Most Rev. Alberto Rojas, was to provide an alternative for families that held urns at their home and needed a sacred place for permanent placement of their loved ones. Although Our Lady Queen of Peace has many options for niches, for our desert and mountain communities, is not geographically feasible for families to travel the distance. We will expand into Lake Arrowhead and Temecula Valley in the coming years.

Following the Catholic Burial Rite from vigil, funeral mass and graveside committal is promoted through our faith and teachings. Please reach out to us or tour our website to gain further information on the pre-planning process and our ministry. We are here to serve you!

Blessings and peace,

Alfred G. Martini, Director

Office of Catholic Cemeteries