The Little Chapel That Could
St. Mary, Mt. Olive
The church of St. Mary in Mt. Olive will likely inspire a first-time visitor to use diminutives: it’s “charming” or “cute” or “a doll house.” True, the church seats only 85 people. But its small size belies the strength of Mt. Olive’s Catholic community: the tenacity in its past, the powerful potential in its future.
St. Mary was formed in 1916 as a mission of St. Mary in Goldsboro. Its little wooden chapel looked like many others in North Carolina towns of the time. In 1947 it was burned, allegedly by the Ku Klux Klan to protest the recent wedding there of two African-Americans. Parishioners immediately rebuilt their church, in brick this time, but underneath the brick some charred timbers from the original structure remain.
Over the years responsibility for the mission was switched to Newton Grove and then to Clinton. In 1998, St. Mary became a parish in its own right, reflecting the recognition by the diocese of a profound demographic change in the area. Migrant workers, who had populated the area seasonally for many years (Migrant ministry was thriving in Mt. Olive in the ’70 and 80s.) were more and more becoming immigrants, settling permanently with their families in the counties of Duplin, Wayne, Sampson and Lenoir.
The administrators and pastors of St. Mary saw the evangelization of this new population as an urgent necessity. Through their efforts, the parish eventually supported three missions of its own -- Posada Guadalupana, Pink Hill and Kenansville -- in three counties. Now the current pastor, Fr. James F. Garneau, along with parochial vicar (and administrator of Posada Guadalupana) Fr. Edgar Sepulveda and St. Mary parishioners, is facing the latest challenge: the need for a new church.
Fr. Jim, who ministered to migrants in the area as a seminarian in 1982 and later served as diocesan Vicar for Hispanics, is also canonically appointed as “Chaplain to the Hispanics of Central Duplin County.” He estimates that there are 5000-6000 Hispanics in the area. In one year, the membership at St. Mary has grown from 120 to 250 registered households, three North Americans were received into the Catholic Church, and more than 35 First Communions were celebrated. The parish offers six Masses on Sunday, three in Mount Olive, where attendance at the little church is often at 150% of capacity, and three at the missions; five of the six are in Spanish.
An historian and, in addition to his pastoral duties, an adjunct professor of History and Religion at Mount Olive College, Fr. Jim has watched the changes in the area and is acutely aware of their implications for the church. “Unlike in the Triangle,” he explains, “where the new population financially supports the new construction, here we need to return to the historic missionary model of our diocesan experience: build more parishes and missions first in order to establish a Catholic presence. ‘If you build it, they will come.’ But there’s no money. Our people are working, but they are the working poor. Meanwhile we face intense competition from large numbers of small, independent, Protestant churches.”
The Catholic impact on this population has to happen now, with the current generation of immigrants, Fr. Jim believes. If the church reaches the parents, the children will remain Catholic, as the exploding Latino population rivals and, perhaps, exceeds anything in the Triangle or on the coast. If not, the immigrant population in this area will be lost.
As an important piece in this strategy, St. Mary envisions a new church with a seating capacity of 300-500 in northern Duplin County. Reflecting on the success of Mother Angelica in Alabama, where EWTN, her national television network, was established and a magnificent Shrine to the Blessed Sacrament was constructed, Fr. Jim recalls praying, “Lord, if You can do all this for a nun in Alabama, couldn’t you do something nice for a priest in North Carolina?” It was right after that prayer that he received a letter with a check for $100, the first week’s pay from a woman who had prayed for and gotten a job. “Having been told that we can’t expect to build this church for under $1 million,” Fr. Jim says, “I prayed again, ‘Lord, this is nice, but we’re going to need a lot more.’ Not long afterwards, I opened my mail to find an unsolicited pledge from someone outside the parish for $50,000.”
The dream seems to be coming together in bits and pieces. The diocesan land trust helped the parish to acquire 14 acres of land on Hwy. 117. A dozen stained glass windows have been recovered from the old St. Thomas More church in Chapel Hill. An important feature of the new church will be that it is entirely devoted to worship space. “Our people are in love with the sacred ambience of their little chapel,” Fr. Jim says. “They don’t want a multi-purpose building.”
“We haven’t begun a formal capital campaign as yet. We’re forming a site plan; the diocese has given us $4500 to help clear the land and build a soccer field, for which we’re very grateful, and,” the pastor says with a smile, “I open my mail with hope.” Besides the critical need for evangelization and catechesis, Fr. Jim cites other challenges that spring from poverty, such as increased gang and drug activity in the area. “The best response,” he says, “is the strong, clear presence of Jesus Christ in the community; and a beautiful, traditional, Catholic church where people can receive Jesus and take Him home and proclaim Him.”
- Rich Reece