River Rouge parish marks 100 years
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published December 15, 2006
River Rouge – In looking for the real story of Our Lady of Lourdes' 100 years as a parish, pastor Fr. James Wieging said he found it not in the remarkable fact it has had only three pastors in all that time or in its buildings, but in the lives of the people who have made it their church home.
"I found the books of baptisms that were done here and the lists of godparents. I found the records of all those who were confirmed here by bishops over the years, and the names of people who got married here, and then the book of deaths. And, I thought, that's where the real history is – in the lives of those folks," Fr. Wieging said in his homily last Friday at a special Mass celebrating the parish's centennial.
He urged the approximately 300 parishioners and former parishioners who gathered to celebrate the milestone to "tell stories to each other, because some of you don't remember things that others do" about the parish's history.
The great constant throughout the decades has been the faith of the people, Fr. Wieging continued.
"A lot of things were tackled and got done because of faith. A lot of scary things were faced and got through because of faith. We're here today because of faith," he said, recalling how the parish faced the threat of closing in the 1980s.
Actually, the history of Our Lady of Lourdes goes back even further than 100 years – to 1893, when it was established as a mission, but Fr. Wieging said, "In 1993, we were too occupied with just trying to survive to celebrate our centennial, so we're celebrating our centennial as a parish this year."
Genevieve Beaudrie grew up in the parish and attended its former high school. She later served as its director of religious education for 18 years. "I left the job because I thought I was going to meet my Maker. I was diagnosed with cancer and given two to three years, but here it will be 12 years in May that I have been cancer-free," she said.
But Beaudrie has always been a member of the parish. "I was baptized here 69 years ago, and I can't imagine myself anywhere else. It's the people here – they're warm, they're friendly, and they come through in a pinch," she said.
Nancy Eluskie can claim that six generations of her family have belonged to the parish, beginning with her great-grandparents and including one of her sons and his two children.
Joe Enright is another life-long parishioner. "I was born March 27, 1927, and I've been a member ever since," he said.
Enright can remember the parish's heyday back in the 1940s: "It was really a wonderful experience. At Christmas midnight Mass you had to be here at 11 o'clock to get a seat — and our old church (demolished in 1992) sat somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200."
 Our Lady of Lourdes Parish
Address: 1440 Coolidge Highway, River Rouge
Telephone: (313) 842-3320
Current pastor: Fr. James Wieging
Founding pastor: Fr. Raymond Champion (as mission); Fr. Emmanuel Glemet (as parish)
Families: 325
Outreach: Parishioners operate food pantry at parish, and volunteer at All Saints’ soup kitchen in Detroit. | For Fr. Ed Prus, a diocesan senior priest who grew up in the parish, returning for the centennial Mass provided a chance to reminisce about old times with Milt Patten, who was a childhood friend. "We played football and baseball together, and we used to play in his basement after school," Fr. Prus recalled.
Patten was one year ahead of Fr. Prus at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, graduating in 1946.
Rita Vozniak said she was away from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish for a couple of years, but was drawn back because she missed the people there. "This is my community. It's people that you grew up with, and you want to have the good life that they have, because they're always so very happy," she said.
Our Lady of Lourdes was founded in 1893 as a mission of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Ecorse, whose pastor, Fr. Raymond Champion, used to travel back and forth between the two sites by bicycle.
In 1903, Fr. Champion's newly ordained nephew, Fr. Emmanuel Glemet, was sent to be his assistant, and Fr. Champion gave him the bicycle and told him how to get to River Rouge.
When the mission was raised to parish status in 1906, Fr. Glemet was made its pastor – and he continued in that position for 60 years, retiring in 1966.
His associate pastor, Fr. Gerald LaVasseur, was named his successor, but only served for five years. Fr. LaVasseur won the Archdiocese of Detroit annual John Farrell Award, which allows one priest a year to go to Rome to study for three months. But while there he became sick and died in 1972.
Fr. Marvin Rybinski, who had been named administrator to fill in for Fr. LaVasseur while he was in Rome, continued in that role until the appointment of Fr. Wieging in 1973.
"I've enjoyed the spirit of family and the spirit of community here. In the downriver area, there's a willingness of people to pull their sleeves up and do what needs to be done," he says of his 33 years as the parish's third pastor.
|
