St. Patrick Parish Is 'Home, Sweet Home'

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 9/19/02)

Down Route 610, tucked in Spotsylvania County’s rolling hills, sits St. Patrick Church and School in Fredericksburg. Next to the Chancellorsville Battlefield, it’s not unusual to see deer in the nearby woods.

St. Patrick Parish was established on March 17, 1983 — St. Patrick’s Day — by founding Arlington Bishop Thomas J. Welsh on his last day as bishop of the diocese.

The parish grew under the leadership of then Father R. Roy Cosby, founding pastor. Arlington Bishop John R. Keating dedicated St. Patrick Church on December 14, 1985. The life of St. Patrick is depicted in six stained glass windows inside the church.

St. Patrick School was built in 1995 under the direction of Father William Schopps, the parish’s second pastor.

The mission parish of St. Matthew was established under Father Cosby. In 1996, Father Philip S. Majka became pastor of St. Patrick. In 1999, he prepared the mission parish to be separated from St. Patrick as an independent parish with Father David Meng as its first full-time pastor.

"When I first got here, the parking lot wasn’t paved," Father Majka said. "So, I immediately paved the parking lot. And I got the most compliments of my whole priesthood for paving the parking lot."

The plaque, "Home, Sweet Home," which Father Majka placed over the church entrance, makes it clear there is a warm welcome at St. Patrick.

"There is a good mixture of people in the parish, which is a blessing," Father Majka said. "The older, retired people serve as mentors for the others. This parish has a lot of people, good workers, from Northern Virginia who moved down here. …I knew a number of them ... It was like old home week. My first Sunday here, there was a line of people waiting to say ‘hello, we haven’t seen you in awhile.’"

Not only the people of Northern Virginia followed Father Majka south, "but also the organ from Good Shepherd Church and the sanctuary furniture from the original St. Mark Church, which Father [Kevin] Walsh and I built, wound up here," he said.

In 1990, with Pat Marcus as principal, St. Patrick School began with one kindergarten class in the parish hall, adding a class each year. There are now 235 students from pre-K through eighth grade.

George Elliott is in his fourth year as principal of the school. "This is a very small, traditional Catholic school," Elliott said. Ten students were scheduled to compete in the diocesan science fair and another in the diocesan spelling bee. PTO fundraisers, such as an auction and dinner that raised $40,000, enabled the school to upgrade computers and add to library holdings.

St. Patrick’s middle school students attend class in trailers behind the school. After construction of the parish rectory is completed this September, the focus will turn to building permanent classrooms for the middle school, Elliott said.

The Knights of Columbus Battlefield Council No. 10246 is very active in the parish. Vocations support, essay contests, Special Olympics, Birthright, a parish picnic, Pat’s Thrift Shop and a charity golf tournament are some of the Knights’ activities.

As part-time youth minister, Cindy Martin directs a full array of activities for parish youth. One week there is a retreat or ski trip and the next a fundraising event for World Youth Day in Toronto, which eight St. Patrick teens attended, or for national WorkCamp, which 19 youths attended this summer. The youth group served homemade soup at parish Lenten Suppers to raise money for WorkCamp. Each team member needed to raise $500 to attend WorkCamp that sends youths, under adult supervision, to renovate homes of those in need. John Martin coordinates WorkCamp planning.

But Martin says she "doesn’t just plan projects to fill a calendar. I get to know the kids and find out what they like to do." This includes inviting them to her home for "prayer and pool." Martin ministers to teens without judging them. "What I see, is all the potential," she said.

Martin noted that Father Scalia, who was assigned parochial vicar at St. Patrick in June 2000, traveled to World Youth Day with the teens. Although the youth group meets informally on Sunday afternoons to learn about their faith, Father Scalia also presents a rotating six-week lecture series, "8th Period Theology," in a classroom setting on Tuesday evenings.

According to Philip Camill, director of religious education, there are 508 students in the parish CCD program, including outreach to 72 home-schooled students. CCD students take part in community service projects, Camill said, including visiting Beverly Nursing Home, playing bingo with residents of Carriage Hill Nursing Home, holding Birthright showers and giving "unbirthday parties" for residents of Thurman Brisben Homeless Shelter.

Father Majka said the parish needs a new church in the not too distant future, because, "We get tighter and tighter as the months go on. Last night there were three meetings going on at once in the parish hall." The new rectory will include a meeting room for parish use.

Once a week, St. Patrick School students have hot lunch in the parish hall. "I sit down with the kids and I have some company for lunch," Father Majka said. As he waited for lunch, Father Majka was joined by a friend, three-year-old Tommy Szymkowiak, who presented Father Majka with a picture he had drawn.

 At a Glance

540/785-5299

Pastor: Father Philip S. Majka

Parochial Vicar: Father Paul Scalia

Mass Schedule:

Mon.-Sat.: 9 a.m., 12 Noon (First Friday)

Sat.: 6 p.m. Vigil

Sun.: 7:30, 9, 10:30 a.m. and 12 Noon and 5 p.m.

School:

9151 Ely’s Ford Rd.

540/786-2277

Principal: George Elliott

DRE: Philip Camill

Parish Founded: 1983

Parishioners: 5,621

Deanery: V

Parish Boundaries: Beginning at Orange County line, east on north side of West Catharpin Road (Rt. 608) to Shady Grove Corner (Rt. 612), east on Catharpin Road (Rt. 612) to Todd’s Corner (Rts. 612 & 613), south on Brock Road (Rt. 613) to Goshen (Rt. 627), north on Gordon Road (Rt. 627) to Smith’s Station Road (Rt. 628) to Courthouse Road (Rt. 208), east on Courthouse to Leavells Road (Rt. 639), south on Rt. 639 to Courthouse Road (Rt. 208), east to Leavell’s Road (Rt. 639), north on Leavells Road (Rt. 639) to Plank Road (Rt. 3), east on Plank Road (Rt. 3) to Brag Road (Rt. 639), east to Rt. 95, north to Rappahannock River, west to Rapidan River to Orange County line (Taylor Gordon Voting District 5).

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