Holy Family Catholic Church is a parish in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. It is located about ten miles south of Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

. For many years, the monks of New Melleray Abbey

New Melleray Abbey

New Melleray Abbey is located near Dubuque, Iowa. The monks there are members of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance . The abbey is located about 15 miles southwest of Dubuque and is located in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The current Abbot is the Right Reverend Brendan...

 provided care and support for the parish.

Early history

In 1849, Trappist monks founded New Melleray at the invitation of Bishop Loras, and settled on land near the present monastery. Soon, a number of immigrants - who mainly came from Ireland - settled in the area. These settlers came to the monastery for masses.

Soon, the people living in the area felt the need to have a parish of their own. However, they lacked the financial resources needed to build a church. One of the monks, who had previously been a Count, arranged for his family to make a donation. This allowed the people to construct a small stone church.

The small church served for many years until it was destroyed by fire. The parishioners were served during this time by a number of Trappist fathers. One of these - Clement Smyth - became the second Bishop of Dubuque.

The church was rebuilt as a white frame structure by the northern edge of the parish cemetery. This structure served until the late 1880s, when it was decided that a new larger church was needed.

The present building

The pastor at the time, Father Sullivan did not like some of the methods used to raise funds that some churches used, such as picnics, raffles, or games. Father Sullivan termed these methods "church piracy" and insisted that those methods not be used. Fr. Sullivan was so opposed to these methods that he once refused a donation of funds that were raised in this manner. So both he and the building committee came upon the idea of checking the tax records of the members of the parish, and assessed according to his property tax levy. To save on costs, the construction work was mostly done by members of the parish.

Bishop Hennessy helped lay the cornerstone for the church. In April, 1889 he dedicated the church to the Holy Family when the building was complete.

When Father Sullivan died in 1910, Father Placid Magee from the monastery was appointed pastor of Holy Family parish. During that time period, priests would sometimes receive long term appointments to parishes. Father Magee served as pastor for 42 years, until his death on February 4, 1952.

The transfer of supervision to the archdiocese

With the death of Father Magee, a Father Vincent - also from the Abbey - was assigned as the interim pastor. Upon Magee's death the Archdiocese took over the administration of the parish, and beginning in 1953 subsequent priests were assigned by the Archdiocese. The parish was affiliated with Saint Joseph's Prairie Church

Saint Joseph's Prairie Church (Washington Township)

Saint Joseph's Prairie Church was a former Catholic parish of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The parish was located in Washington Township, Dubuque County, Iowa - which is about ten miles south of Dubuque, Iowa....

, which was about three miles east of Holy Family. For over 30 years, the two parishes shared pastors.

Msgr. William Roach had served the two parishes from 1984 until his death in 1986. Msgr. Roach died in an automobile accident when he was involved in a collision with a flatbed semi truck. At the time of the accident he was legally intoxicated. He also has had the unfortunate distinction of being touched by the sexual abuse crisis in the church. A man living in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 had claimed that Msgr. William Roach had abused him in 1962 while Rev. Roach was working in a Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...

 parish. This man has since filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese. Other men have also come forward and claimed that they were abused by Msgr. Roach as well.

It was decided in 1989 to close Saint Joseph's church. Most of the parishioners were absorbed into the Holy Family parish. Holy Family was then affiliated with Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Peosta, Iowa

Peosta, Iowa

Peosta is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, and an exurb of the city of Dubuque. It is part of the Dubuque, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,377 in the 2010 census, an increase of 111.5% from 651 in the 2000 census...

, and since that time the two parishes have shared pastors. Recently, it was revealed that the Archdiocese is considering making changes to that arrangement due to the priest shortage

Priest shortage

A priest shortage is the situation of a reduced number of priests in religions, especially the Roman Catholic Church.In 2008, 49,631 parishes in the world had no resident priest pastor. While the number of Catholics in the world nearly doubled between 1970 and 2008, growing from 653 Million to...

, and would probably do so once Fr. Kuhn retires.

The 1990s

In the mid-1990s, the parish decided that it was time to refurbish the interior of the church. A number of years had passed since the last refurbishment. The parish council carefully studied old photos of the church interior in order to see how the interior had changed over the years, and what would look the best.

The council then decided to use a very simple, but elegant decoratiing scheme. The interior walls and ceiling were painted white. Much of the wood was refinished. The carpet was replaced throughout the building. When the old carpet was removed, the hardwood floor around the old high altar was rediscovered. It was refinished and was allowed to remain uncovered. A new main altar was placed in the sanctuary to replace the old main altar from the early 1970s.

One hundred and fifty years

In the year 2000, Holy Family parish celebrated its 150th anniversary. A new photo directory was made. Parishioners were invited to share memories about the parish as well as old photos and documents. The celebrations culminated in a special mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Dubuque.

The future

Holy Family parish faces new challenges in the 21st century. While many parishioners still make their living in agriculture, the demographics of the parishioners have changed as more and more people move from nearby Dubuque to suburbs in the Peosta area. The Peosta area is one of the fastest growing areas. In fact, the Parish has had so much of an increase in families, as other local area parishes close, that the parish is going to add an addition onto the left side of the parish, to accommodate the overflow of families. The Holy Family Catholic Church and it's clustered parish are the only 2 parishes in the archdiocese that are currently increasing in families. For this reason, both churches have been promised by the archdiocese to remain clustered together, and to be continually supplied with a priest.

Pastors of Holy Family

Pastors of Holy Family
Dates	Pastor
1850-1883	Various Priests from New Melleray - including Fr. Clement Smyth Clement Smyth Timothy Clement Smyth, OCSO was an Irish born 19th century bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the second leader of the Diocese of Dubuque following the death of Bishop Mathias Loras.... , Fr. James O'Gorman, Fr. Patrick, Fr. Francis, and Fr. Nicholas Scallion.
1883	Fr. Bernard McCaffery, OCSO
1883-1910	Fr. David Sullivan, OCSO
1910-1952	Fr. Placid Magee
1953	Fr. Richard Krapfl
1953-1955	Fr. William C. Michael
1955-1956	Fr. Conrad R. Schallau
1956-1963	Fr. Robert V. Swift
1963-1971	Fr. J. Duane Raftis
1971-1972	Fr. Joseph V. O'Brien
1972-1980	Fr. Robert E. Moran
1980-1983	Fr. William G. McLaughlin
1983-1984	Fr. Charles Whalen
1984-1986	Msgr. William Roach
1986-1989	Fr. Robert Kalb
1989-1990	Fr. Robert Levenhagen
1990	Fr. James J. McBride
1990-1999	Fr. Carl Manternach
1999-	Fr. Richard W. Kuhn