Parish History
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Parish HistoryIn 1980, a group of men and women from Allen, Fairview and Lucas came together to explore the possibility of establishing a Catholic Church in the city of Allen. For years, families in Allen had been attending Catholic churches in either Plano or McKinney. To gauge the interest of local residents, John and Julia Evans held a mass in their home celebrated by Bishop Thomas Tschoepe. Sixty people attended that mass. With interest established, a group of men met with Bishop Tschoepe to request the formation of a Catholic parish in Allen. The Bishop asked that they research the demographics of the area first and find a facility they could meet in. Returning home, the men met with the pastor of the First Baptist church in Allen, Dick Senter, who kept a log of every family that moved into the area. He presented them with a list of over 200 Catholic
families in the Allen, Fairview, and Lucas area. The next step was to find a location to celebrate mass. After several meetings with city and school leaders, Rountree Elementary was suggested as a location. Mike Nichols secured the location by cutting a personal check and signing a three-year lease with the school district. On July 4, 1981, after countless hours of legwork and mounds of paperwork, Bishop Tshoepe granted permission for St Jude to be established. What had begun as a casual conversation amongst friends about the need of our local children to have a home church, was finally coming to fruition.
The first public mass of the newly formed St. Jude Catholic Mission was offered at Rountree Elementary in Allen (fondly dubbed St. Rountree) on Sunday, July 5, 1981. For this first Mass, chairs were set up for 60 people. When Mass began there were 200 people in attendance!
Sunday Masses were served each week by two alternating priests: Reverend Davis E. Fellhauer and Reverend Glenn Duff Gardner, (affectionately known as Fr. Duffy).
Reverend Fellhauer was later named the Bishop of Victoria, Texas and retired in 2015. Reverend Gardner was later named Monsignor Gardner and passed away in 2016.
St. Jude was originally established as a mission chapel of St. Michael's in McKinney and later, was reassigned to St. Mark's in Plano.
The original church office was located above the Allen Feed Store in downtown and business was conducted for 2 hours each weekday. Other church activities were held in this space as well, including daily Mass, Bible studies and Youth Group activities.
A leading benefactor for the cause
of building St Jude was Monsignor Claude Smythe of St. Mark's in Plano. Through his parish, he donated $60,000 for the purchase of 10 acres of land in Allen for the project. In 1982, after Diocesan approval, Architect Paul Deeley was hired to design a temporary parish facility. In August of 1983, the groundbreaking was held and construction was underway. Unfortunately, a series of setbacks, including a tornado blowing off the north tilt wall of the building in mid-construction, delayed the move-in until the fall of 1984.
Reverend Tom Cloherty was assigned as the first pastor of St. Jude in May 1983. The parish boundaries were created to include all of Allen, Fairview and Lucas. The growth of St. Jude's has closely paralleled the growth of the Allen area.
By 1989, Allen was experiencing rapid growth and the Parish was outgrowing its existing facilities, needing more room to accommodate its expanding ministries. After plans were drawn up, and financing was secured, construction began on the Education Building.
Also in 1989, Fr. Tom was transferred to another parish, and St. Jude's second pastor, Reverend Bruce Bradley, was appointed. Fr. Bruce was the pastor for 10 years. In his time at St. Jude, he oversaw the completion of the Education Building, increased parish staff, and worked hard to pay down the building debt.In 1999 Reverend TimothyThrough Fr. Tim's efforts, the original debt was paid off in 2001, and the parish celebrated with a mortgage burning party. Fr. Tim then began plans to build a permanent sanctuary. With parishioner support, and a successful building campaign, construction of the new church began in 2004.
A. Church was appointed Priest in Charge. A former Episcopalian Priest, Fr. Tim, was ordained a Catholic Priest in 1995. Married to Linda, they had 3 children and 6 grandchildren. In 2011, Bishop Kevin Farrell petitioned the Vatican for Fr. Tim to be designated Pastor of St. Jude. This is an extraordinary exception to the Pastoral Provision for a married priest. In August 2012, Fr. Tim officially became the Pastor of St. Jude Fr. Tim served the St. Jude community for 18 years and retired as Pastor Emeritus in 2016. Sadly, he passed away in August of 2018.
On November 12, 2005, a Dedication Mass was held in the brand new sanctuary. In attendance for the blessing were Bishop Charles V. Graham, Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, Fr. Tim Church, Fr. Anthony Moonjanattu, Parochial Vicar, along with Fr. Bruce and Fr. Tom.
During the dedication, relics from several saints were buried under the altar
St. Jude Thaddeus, Apostle and Martyr
St. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604)
St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1775-1821)
St Thérèse of Lisieux "The Little Flower" (1873-1897)
St Maria Gorretti 'the child' (1890-1902)
In 2007, St. Jude purchased the adjacent 7.2 acres to the south to provide for future expansion of our campus bringing the total acreage amount for the campus to 20 acres. In 2008, a columbarium was added between the church and the chapel on the eastern transept. In 2012, the east and west transepts were expanded to add an additional 300+ seats, making the distance of each transept equal to the distance of the nave. This feature was designed into the original building to support the future growth of the parish. The increased seating required additional parking, so another 88 parking spaces were added off Greenville Avenue along with a circle drive. In addition, the 2012 expansion included building the Pastoral Center to house the growing staff. Besides parish offices, it includes a reception hall, a lecture hall, and a choir room.
Upon Fr. Tim’s retirement in 2016, Reverend Andrew Semler was named the 4th Pastor of St. Jude and, by 2018 another Capital Campaign was launched to keep up with the needs of our growing parish. Included in this building phase was a renovation and expansion of the Education Building to include more meeting spaces, a covered walkway (Loggia) to connect campus buildings and Father Tim's long held dream of a bell tower. The project broke ground on May 19, 2019. The completed project was dedicated in November 2019.
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