St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles celebrates 50 years

Bishop Michael Mulvey said the church families at St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, have been on a pilgrimage for 50 years. “There have been many ups and downs, joys and sorrows. As families go through life, things happen that are unexpected–when we take all of that as a pilgrim the one word that resounds in our hearts is thank you, because the Lord tries and tests those he loves, those that the Lord God is trying to form,” the bishop said. 

The bishop’s homily at the Jubilee Mass of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles on June 25 hit close to home with members of the congregation who were in attendance that day; those who remember celebrating baptisms, confirmations, marriages and the jovial parties afterwards. It touched a chord, especially with those who had to face the greatest hardship of all–losing a child or loved one– and found comfort and solace in the arms of the parish community. 

Parishioner Gracie Garcia donated the Processional Cross in honor of her daughter, Mari, who died of double kidney failure last year. 

Charter parish members, Dan and Claudia Menn and Allen and Royce Poche, remember a time before their church was built when Msgr. William Kelly did house calls for baptisms. He celebrated Mass in the chapel at Clifford-Jackson Funeral Home, then in a county building and later in the cafeteria at Annaville Elementary School. Afterwards, they built a temporary building called St. William Hall, which served as a CCD building, a parish hall and a sanctuary. They had a New Year’s Eve dance and set-up the chairs for Mass the next day. 

“It’s been a lot of good for 50 years. What I remember most was, every year we had the church bazaars, cook-offs and barbecues and we always had a hayride. Oh man, we had so much fun,” Claudia Menn said. 

“For the first 10 years everybody knew everybody and all of our kids went to the same schools,” Claudia Menn said. “We’ve watched a lot of them go up to the Lord, but we’re hanging in here.”

Other charter members who were present for the Jubilee celebration on Sunday were Dan Menn’s sister, Joella Menn, George and Anna Pesek, Margaret Mikush, Evelyn Martini, John and Margaret Matocha, Paul Hickey, Dan Byerly and Louis Hoelscher.

The idea for another parish in the Annaville area had its beginnings in 1965 with a discussion between the late Bishop Adolph Marx, then Vicar-Capitular of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, and Father Patrick Higgins who was pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in Violet on the need for another church in the Annaville area. 

Negotiations were initiated with the Kocurek family for the purchase of 10 acres for the future site of the parish. After the purchase was finalized, plans began to be made with the community for the building of a church.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 29, 1967 on the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul, universal patrons of the Church. Mass was held in the Annaville school cafeteria with the groundbreaking immediately following and Bishop Thomas Drury blessing the site. Bishop Drury appointed Msgr. Kelly to be the first pastor of the parish on September 1967. The pastors who followed in his stead were Father John Killeen, Father Matthew Lyng, Father Louis Joseph, Father Morgan Rowsome, Msgr. Michael Heras and now Father Emilio Jimenez.

After the Mass Father Jimenez thanked Bishop Mulvey for celebrating with the parish family and for assigning him to St. Peter’s. 

“It’s a beautiful community–people who are deeply in love with their church, a faith-filled community, humble, sincere and hardworking,” Father Jimenez said.

Father Jimenez spoke of renewal and St. Peter’s new mission statement which reads, “St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church is a welcoming community dedicated to promoting a devout life of prayer and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ through living the sacraments in a spirit of generous service.” 

“We will put up a banner for everyone to see as they come into the church. It is to renew our identity as being a community that is open and welcoming to receive people from the outside and welcome them in the life of the church,” he said. “We asked input from the community on what our most positive qualities are–and we have developed a parish prayer.”

Marianne Tajchman, president of the pastoral council who headed the committee for this year’s celebration, said Judy Griffin designed t-shirts for the jubilee. The parish held a design contest and one of the criteria was to base the design on the new parish mission statement. 

“She (Griffin) incorporated everyone who is in our parish. That’s who we are. She put kids, she put a wheel chair, the elderly–out of all the designs it seemed to be the homey one,” Tajchman said. “It was the one that seemed to fit.”

The Tajchman family has been parishioners for 40 years. Tajchman thanked the pastoral council and Diana Cantu, and Paul Hickey, who helped make the Jubilee year memorable. “We’ve always been friends, but this has really brought us together and we really worked hard,” she said. 

“There were only 80 families when the parish began 50 years ago–now we have grown to 1,700 families and we’re not through celebrating,” Tajchman said. “We are going to end with our Ministries Day celebration in October.”

Parishioners have seen many changes over the past 50 years: new buildings have been erected; people have come and gone; but the one constant has remained–God is forming them in their journey as pilgrims at St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles.