“Many Parts Work Together in Christ”
St. Catherine of Siena, Tarboro
The Catholic parish in the beautiful, rural town of Tarboro, N.C., is named for the patron saint of a saint. The town was incorporated in 1760, but the first Catholics didn’t arrive until 1844 and their number grew only slowly. Father Thomas Price recognized mission territory when he saw it, though, and in 1892 he accepted a gift of $500 from Sister Katharine Drexel (now Saint Katharine Drexel) for a mission church. The town donated land, and the frame church built on it was blessed in 1898 and named in honor of the benefactress’ patron, St Catherine of Siena.
In 1929 a new church and rectory were dedicated by Bishop William J. Hafey, and in 1934 St. Catherine became a parish with its first resident pastor, Father Richard E. Barret. The official parish history describes this second church as “charming but extremely small. A parishioner once commented that ‘We could not have a funeral or a wedding in the church because neither the casket nor the wedding party could get down the aisle.’”
The current church began as the funeral chapel of Carlisle Funeral Home. When the funeral home relocated in 1979, the chapel was trucked through downtown to the church property. Sister Mary Ann Czaja, of the Sisters of St. Agnes, had come to Tarboro in the ‘60s to work with the poor, and she secured the altar for the new church from her convent in Wisconsin.
In the ensuing years St. Catherine was served by Passionist and Redemptorist priests, as well as priests of the Diocese. The current pastor, Father Mac Raffo, began his priestly training in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey. He traveled to North Carolina in 1996 to be near his mother (who has since passed away) and because he recognized the growing need for priests in the South. The Diocese of Raleigh sent him to Mexico to learn Spanish, and after his ordination in 1998 he became especially involved in Hispanic ministry.
Today more than half of the 120 families registered at St. Catherine are Latino, but, Father Raffo explains, “We also have a solid core of Anglos and African Americans, without whose support we couldn’t exist.” Edgecombe County has experienced more prosperous times; many of the businesses that were bringing growth and jobs in the ‘80s have closed or relocated.
Still a look at the parish directory shows a lively, diverse and faith-filled community. “The Church is broader than any single person, nation, race or parish,” Father Raffo says. “Yet it is the parish where the Church as the Body of Christ becomes visible. Many parts work together centered in Christ.”