OUR HISTORY...
Five years before the Civil War, Bishop John Neumann of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia created a Catholic parish to meet the spiritual needs of a growing Catholic population in the “Bucktown” area of northeastern Pennsylvania now known as Dunmore. He had granted mission status to the region in 1852, and visiting priests served the area, celebrating Mass in private homes, until the Catholic community secured land and built a modest wooden church. In 1856, Bishop Neumann dedicated the church and the parish to the patronage of SS. Simon and Jude, the apostles.
As the population of Dunmore increased, the parish also grew, and the parishioners worked to build a larger brick church. The cornerstone of this new church on Chestnut Street was laid in 1874, and the church and parish were consecrated at that time to St. Mary of Mount Carmel. Over the next years, the parishioners built a school and convent to provide for the Catholic education of their children. The parish continued to grow and thrive, even surviving a devastating fire in 1959.
As the diversity of Dunmore increased in the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, ethnic parishes formed to meet the spiritual needs of the immigrants who arrived in Dunmore with fervent faith and their own cultural traditions.
St. Mary’s was the sole Catholic church in Dunmore until 1891, when 30 families of Italian immigrants formed a new parish dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. For a few years, the new parish gathered for Mass in a hall and was served by priests from St. Peter’s Cathedral and St. Mary’s Church. By 1894, the community had grown to more than 250 families. The parish built a church on Smith Street and welcomed its first pastor. In 1949, St. Anthony’s was a parish of more than 1,450 families, and Bishop Hoban approved the construction of a new and larger church a few blocks from the original church. The new structure, dedicated in 1951, was built with a lower level of classrooms that served as St. Anthony’s School.
Meanwhile, in 1904, few years after the establishment of St. Anthony’s parish, a group of parish families from the Bunker Hill area who had come from the small Southern Italian town of Guardia dei Lombardi formed the “Society of the Congregation of St Rocco’s Church,” seeking to form a parish that reflected their particular heritage and traditions. This society purchased a church building on Kurtz Street from the Presbyterians, and, with the permission of Bishop Hoban, it became a mission parish of St. Anthony of Padua Parish. In1922, St. Rocco’s first resident pastor was appointed.
In 1920 a growing community of Slovak immigrants in the Dunmore area formed All Saints Parish, the last Slovak parish established in Lackawanna County, with a church located on Ward Street. In 1939 St. Casimir’s Parish was the last of the ethnic Catholic parishes formed in Dunmore. It was established by Polish immigrants, who worshipped at the church located on Prospect Street.
For more than 170 years, the Catholic faith has had a tangible presence in Dunmore and a impact on the entire community. The initial establishment of these several parishes remains as a testament to those who settled in Dunmore and kept their faith at the forefront of their lives. At their formation, each parish served the needs of its community, as those needs evolved. Each parish has been a place where faith has been nurtured and shared, a place where people have encountered God, and a place where vocations to the priesthood and to religious life have flourished. Each has served its community, the diocese, and the universal Church well by seeking to do the work of God’s Kingdom in the hills of Dunmore.
As we reflect on the history of our faith in this community, we also look to the future. We have seen the evolution of the Church of Dunmore in our own lives. Some of us may remember the period of rapid growth in our community demographics, while others of us may be more aware of the trends of recent decades. We have been part of the adaptation of our parishes and our physical footprint in order to meet the needs of our current faith community and to maximize the use of our resources in our continuing mission of discipleship.
We have seen the oldest parish in Dunmore, St. Mary of Mount Carmel, link and then consolidate with the newest, St. Casimir’s and All Saints, to form Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in 2009; we have seen St. Anthony’s and St. Rocco’s, who began as one parish, link and then consolidate to form Saints Anthony and Rocco Parish in 2010. In each of those adaptations, the most important thing that we have witnessed is the carrying forward of our faith, which binds us together in discipleship and the love of God and others.
...AND OUR FUTURE!
For 170 years, Dunmore Catholics have continually reimagined the way in which we serve God and others and live out the Gospel message.
Today we are called to a new direction as we celebrate the beginning of the Parish of Saint John Paul II. This is truly an exciting and historic time in the life of the members of this new parish. It marks the beginning of this new stage in our journey to the kingdom of God.
We celebrate this liturgy today with grateful hearts. We give thanks to God for the gifts He has given us, and we especially remember our ancestors who have gone before us and have laid the foundation of our faith. We are grateful for the faith and commitment of those who gave of their time, talents, and treasure to organize our parishes and to build our churches. We pray for our mothers and fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents, and all those who passed on our beloved traditions and worked so hard to ensure that we would be able to worship God.
As we begin this new chapter in the history of the Church in Dunmore, as one people of God sharing in the body of Christ, we are thankful for all that God continues to provide us. We are privileged to carry on the work of those who came before us, united again in one parish as they were over 170 years ago.
God, who gave us His Son so that we would have life, continues to bless us with life and all that we need. Together, we seek His kingdom. As we carry on the work of those who came before us, laying the foundation of faith for those who follow us, we commit ourselves to making the parish of Saint John Paul II a community that reflects God’s presence and helps its members to share the good news of Jesus Christ, so that, united in His love, we will share His life.