“They love the church”
St. Stanislaus, Castle Hayne
This month thousands of visitors from North Carolina and neighboring states will head for the little town of Castle Hayne, near Wilmington, to attend the Polish Festival at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. Although the festival is in only its ninth year, St. Stan’s Polish heritage runs deep.
The Catholic community there began with three Polish immigrant families who arrived in 1907 to start vegetable farms. Those founding families and many of their descendants rest today in a small cemetery on the parish grounds. At first, Mass was celebrated in their homes by a priest who traveled from St. Mary in Wilmington. By 1916, though, with help from a development company and the Catholic Extension Society, the now 18 families in the community had acquired land and a church.
St. Stanislaus remained a mission of St. Mary until 1933, when it became a parish under the care (by 1935) of the Conventual Franciscan Friars of Immaculate Conception Province. Over the next three decades, the Franciscans and their Sisters from Syracuse, NY, cared for St. Stanislaus, bringing a rectory, parish hall, convent and school, and in 1951 an Army chapel from Camp Davis in Holly Ridge, which Bishop Vincent Waters dedicated as the new church.
The school closed in 1962, but Franciscan friars would continue as pastors for many years. Meanwhile Castle Hayne, and St. Stan’s, continued to grow as retirees and new businesses discovered the Wilmington area. By the mid-‘90s, the old church building was clearly inadequate. The building couldn’t even be sold, so it was donated to
the local fire department for a training exercise. In 1997, then-pastor Fr. Douglas Reed held two services: one as articles were removed from the church and another before the church was burned. Construction of a new church had already begun, and the building was dedicated by Bishop Gossman on December 13, 1998.
Today St. Stanislaus serves a growing, involved Catholic community of 300 families. “They are a blessing to me,” says Fr. Ryszard Kolodziej, a native of Poland and pastor since 1999, “incredibly generous with their time, talent and treasure. He especially emphasizes the contributions of the Ladies Guild and of St. Stan’s older members.” More than 200 parishioners help with the festival, for example. They have organized Bible study groups, two choirs, many potlucks, picnics and service projects, often in cooperation with other Christian churches. “We have lots of opportunities to meet with each other,” the pastor explains, and one parishioner, a transplant from the Northeast, cites the closeness of the St. Stan’s community as one of its best characteristics.
Although the Wilmington area has a reputation as a magnet for retirees, a look at the parish directory shows that St. Stan’s is also a young community, with many children involved in parish activities and events. “We’ve outgrown the parish hall [built in 1982] and our office building,” Fr. Ryszard says, “so replacing those will be one of our challenges. But our people will make it happen. They love the church.”
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Rich Reece