Trinity House Café / Facebook
Trinity House Café, a restaurant dedicated to spreading Pope Saint John Paul II’s messages to families, has advanced significantly toward its capital campaign’s goals, offering the ministry a greater chance to help families.
Soren and Ever Johnson founded the restaurant to engage the public in their larger ministry, the Trinity House Community, which helps families embrace Christ more closely in their day-to-day lives, as CatholicVote reported in December 2024.
The restaurant is located in a leased home listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the landlord offered the couple a limited time to purchase the building. The capital campaign seeks to help the ministry acquire the property.
Soren Johnson recently told CatholicVote that their campaign has raised nearly 90% of the funds needed for a down payment on a new building, with the closing date set for June 18. In March, the Knights of Columbus’ ChurchLoan program approved Johnson’s application, enabling the fundraising effort to move forward. By May, the campaign had reached close to one-third of its goal.
“We are profoundly encouraged by how the Catholic community (and so many fellow Christians) both in northern VA and throughout the country have stepped forward to make this a reality,” Johnson said.
George Weigel, Pope Saint John Paul II’s biographer, spoke to 150 people on behalf of the campaign in March.
Weigel praised the Johnsons’ vocation to help others through the ministry and how the café witnesses Christ’s love. He also pointed out that the mission of supporting families contributes to the overall growth of the Church, fulfilling the Polish pope’s call to “the new evangelization.”
“This is a vocational enterprise,” Weigel said of the Johnsons’ work. “Not a job, not another boutique café. It’s a vocation. It’s a calling. It’s an answer to a calling. And in that sense, it really is the new evangelization in action.”