Our History

Dear Friends and Members of St. Mary's Parish,

What a delightful privilege it is to stand in the line of pastors who have ministered here at St. Mary's, beginning, of course, with the great Fr. Raymond Bell, the founding pastor. How daunting it must have been to be asked by the Archbishop to start a parish at the outset of the Great Depression in 1929! What sacrifices the Dominican Sisters made when they arrived to open the first school rooms and then lived in the school as so many others of their

generation did! But Fr. Bell and the parish members persevered with their dream through the impact of the Second World War to eventually see the parish continue to add critically needed space for its people. What a marvelous piece of church architecture arose on the comer of 39th and 73rd! Of course, Fr. Raymond

Leng, Fr. John Michael Murphy, Fr. Jerry Brittain and Fr. Howard Haase shepherded the parish through the new challenges of the Second Vatican Council and of greater cooperation both with

our neighboring Catholic churches and congregations of other traditions.

With the merger with St. Thomas Aquinas Church still a living memory for so many of our members, we opened the 21st century with renewed faith and hope for the future. We recognize the influence of the new St. Anne's Parish to our west. Ever greater cooperation and planning will become part of our lives as a

parish aiming at its next major anniversary.

We thank the Lord for the 75 years of Catholic faith celebrated, proclaimed and lived within and beyond these walls we know as St. Mary's. May the good Lord and the Blessed Mother Mary walk with us each step of the way, day by day.