THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502010140
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUDITH PARKER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
THE BOOK IS a fragile, leather-covered parish registry trimmed in gold leaf. A brittle title page bears the faded-ink lettering, ``Catholic Community of Portsmouth, Va.''
Sometime in 1804, a long-forgotten priest named the Rev. William Lacey penned the congregation's earliest recorded event, the baptism of Elizabeth Scheette, daughter of William Connad Scheette and Eliza Bernadina Louisa Perrott, who was born Oct. 26, 1803.
The baptismal date is significant in that it documents St. Paul's as the second-oldest Catholic Church in the Diocese of Richmond. From St. Paul's, five other area congregrations were born.
As such, St. Paul's will host one of 14 regional celebrations of the 175th anniversary of the Diocese of Richmond, at 2 p.m. Feb. 12. The Richmond diocese is the eighth-oldest Catholic diocese in the U.S.
Other parishes within Region 3 participating in the anniversary liturgy are: St. Mary's, Bower's Hill; Holy Angels, Cradock; St. Mary's Suffolk; Church of St. Therese, Chesapeake; Church of the Resurrection; St. Jude's, Franklin; Good Shepherd, Smithfield; and Prince of Peace, Chesapeake.
Region 3 is composed of churches from Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk and Isle of Wight County. Norfolk and Virginia Beach churches are assigned to other regions and will have celebrations at different times throughout the year.
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, who also is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his ordination as bishop of the diocese, will be the principal celebrant at the Mass. A reception will follow at Church of the Resurrection, 3501 Cedar Lane.
Just after the turn of the 19th century, a small number of Catholics in Portsmouth began worshipping in a rented building on Middle Street. For about the next 25 years, the congregation would be a mission of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Norfolk, which dates to 1791. It is the oldest Catholic congregation in the diocese.
Since its beginning, St. Paul's has been located at the corner of Washington and High streets in Olde Towne. It was established as an independent parish in 1824.
The present St. Paul's, built in the gothic style of Mount Airy granite, contains interior decorations made of imported Carrara marble. It's the fifth church built on the site. Following a fire in 1897, the building was dedicated in 1905.
Not until 1789, when Virginia's infant House of Delegates decreed the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, were Catholics free to worship openly in the Commonwealth. With its passage, however, Catholic parishes quickly sprung up, stretching along the eastern boundary of the state. The Diocese of Richmond was formed in 1820 from the Archdiocese of Baltimore (1789), the nation's first Catholic diocese, and included the entire state of Virginia, including what is now West Virginia. Currently, there are 147 parishes in the diocese, covering 33,000 square miles in 74 counties in the southern three-fifths of the state. MEMO: FORMER MISSIONS
Former missions of St. Paul's:
St. Mary's, Bower's Hill, 1915
Holy Angels, Cradock, 1919
St. Mary's, Suffolk, 1927
Church of St. Therese, Chesapeake, 1954 (St. Therese's original
location was on Oregon Avenue in Portsmouth. It is now part of
Portsmouth Catholic Elementary School.)
Church of the Resurrection, Churchland, 1970
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Celebrating the 175th anniversary will be, from left, Fathers John
Boddie, James Griffin, Thomas Nee, James Dorson and Joseph Slowik,
pastor of St. Paul's, the second-oldest Catholic Church in the
Diocese of Richmond.
KEYWORDS: ST. PAUL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH HISTORY by CNB