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October
Volume
1 1
NEWS
12, 2001
Number
t
5
Serving Catholics
in
By JOANITA
M.N ELLEN BACH
Foundation supports evangelization LICA
WAYNESVILLE
—
"I
and Rollman moved into the heated rectory during the winters. She remembers that people in Waynesville were very kind and
Mass honoring
the
the oldest North Caro-
west of Asheville. Concelebrating were former St John's pastors Father Gabriel Meehan and Father Thomas Walsh; Augustinian Father Den-
Charlotte parish
Rollman
ing the parish's year-long celebration of its
Bishop William G. Curlin celebrated
Page 4
she met and married Walter Rollman.
nis
McGowan,
current pastor; Augustinian
said, "so
I
lived with a
The
family occupied an unheated house
Waynesville during the summer, but they
that those
who
couldn't
name called her "Ann
last
Catholic."
After eight years at
went back north
remember her St.
work
John, Rollman
NorthEventually she returned to Waynesville, where to
in the
western University business
arrived
in
Waynesville, 1939, was also the year that the
Catholic family."
in
The year Rollman
couldn't live at the rectory with the
priest"
75th anniversary.
projects
first
nuns, Sisters of
St.
Milwaukee, Wise, opened
Francis of St.
John's
School in the Victorian-era house that
now
St.
ret Catholic
Church
in
Maggie
ters of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio, taught at
the school, followed by Daughters of Charity.
Eventually the church built a separate
school building that accommodated grades K through 12; it closed in 1980. The current St. John die Evangelist
office.
See
WAYNESVILLE,
page
new path
AuMar-
Valley;
gustinian Brother William Harkin, St
garet pastoral associate; and Augustinian
Page 5
celebratory year include a
News
St.
the
John's School
reunion Thanksgiving weekend, and
"Come Home for Christmas" Dec.
16,
with
a parish dinner,
and an evening of lessons
The
year will close with a par-
and
CCHD
carols.
on Pentecost May 19. According to a St. John's Church history prepared by parishioner Ann Rollman, 'Long before 1900, Mass was offered in private homes by priests from Asheville, often traveling on horseback. By 1920, Mass was offered in the ballroom of the Gordon Hotel located on Main Street where Main Street Square is today. Outish picnic
official visits
Charlotte
Diocese ...
Church dedicated
Father Terrance Hyland, director of Living
Waters Catholic Reflection Center. Other events planned for
Page 9
side the tourist season, early parishioners
took the train to Asheville to attend Mass."
By
Deacon, wife provide
through faith ...
1925, the need for a parish west of
become clear. Bishop William Joseph Hafey of Raleigh established the parish in 1926 and appointed Father Bernard McDevitt as the first pastor. In her history, Rollman says that, "Miss Sally McDowell's home on Church
Asheville had
mutual support Page
16
Street (site of the present church parking
was purchased and converted into a and meeting place. The first Mass was offered in May of 1926 with 27 persons present. The parish embraced the eight western counties of North Carolina lot)
chapel, rectory
Every Week
— an
Entertainment .Pages Editorials
Half the parish's Catholics attended that first Mass. Rollman says there were only 50 Catholics in all of western North
12-13
Carolina at the time. Later, other parishes
& Columns ...Pages
area of 3,47 1 square miles."
10-11
would spring up in Murphy, Sylva, Maggie Valley and elsewhere in the eight "Take care, then, that the not become darkness.
If
light in
you
your whole
counties.
late
body is full of light, and no part of it is in
darkness, then
of light as a
with
its
it
will
be as full
lamp illuminating you
brightness."
-Luke 11:35-36
Now
households;
St.
its
Conception
John has 234 registered
mission church, Immacuin
Canton, has 34.
Ann Roflman was
23-year-old
Ann
Kramer when she journeyed from Jordan College in Menominee, Mich., in 1939 to work as secretary and housekeeper for Father Ambrose Rorhbacher, who was pastor at the time. He had met her at Jordan College and wrote asking her to
fill
is
John's rectory, she said. Later Sis-
Father Francis Doyle, pastor of St Marga-
celebrates history,
Local
the Diocese of Charlotte
John the Evangelist Catholic Church and church hall were packed on the evening of Oct. 6 for the special Mass and dinner highlightSt.
lina Catholic parish
forges
in
the dual position.
Correspondent
...
Western North Carolina
Waynesville parish celebrates 75th anniversary
Inside
« CM
HERALD
&
Photo by Jimmy Rostar
Singing
in
praise and thanksgiving
"El Coro de Nifios Hispanos" (the Hispanic children's choir) of St. Joseph Church in Kannapolis sings the offertory hymn during the dedication of the new church building Oct. 6. See story, page 7.
8