St. Mary, Ireland, Breaks Ground For New Church

A large crowd filled St. Mary Church in Ireland for the 10 a.m. Mass on Jan. 21, and they joined other parishioners and Pastor Father Joseph Erbacher after Mass for the ceremonial groundbreaking for a new church. Representatives of Streicher Construction and design firm Hafer also attended and participated.

“This is a spectacular moment in our history,” Father Erbacher said. “Many people in the parish have been working together in a special way (on the new church project), and they are still working together. All the years of faithfulness have brought us here to this moment.”

In reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading (Mark 1: 14-20), in which Jesus called fishermen to follow him, Father Erbacher made a point of inviting some of the youngest members of the parish to take part in the groundbreaking.

“Jesus told the fishermen that he would make them fishers of men,” he said. “Today, we break ground on a new church and ask our young people to join us. We will pass on this parish to them, and we ask them to call others to experience Jesus and this wonderful parish family moving forward.”

At the end of Mass, Father Erbacher blessed several ceremonial shovels to be used in the ceremony. He called representatives of parish groups to take part, including current Parish Council Chair Pat Gress, who also is serving as construction manager for the parish; long-range-planning committee member Marsha Shepherd; Finance Committee member Steve Buechler; Mark Schroeder of the “Building for Our Future” campaign committee; and parish staff member Dianne Gogel.

The Message will provide ongoing updates on construction in future issues, and we will share illustrations from the designers to give readers a look at the vision for the new St. Mary Church.