Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish

WHO WE ARE

WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE!

Mission Statement

We bring together a new parish family
to worship God, to evangelize the
community, to encourage participation
of youth and young adults in parish life,
to pass on our faith to the next
generation, to respect life,
and be good stewards of God’s gifts.

  HISTORY OF ST. MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH.

The actual founding of St. Mary’s Parish began in 1950 when Fr. McCabe was appointed administrator of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Stowell with a mission at St. Francis Church in Cummiskey. He was commissioned by Bishop Hafey to form a mission parish in Wyalusing with the name of the new parish being St. Mary of the Assumption, in honor of the dogma newly proclaimed by Pope Pius XI1 in Rome. Prior to 1950 Catholic families were served by a priest coming to Wyalusing where Mass was celebrated in private homes.

Sunday Mass was first celebrated in the Wyalusing Theater. The James Andrew’s home on Route 6 was purchased as a new base for the parish community. Mass was offered in the parlor of the home which also served as a residence for the pastor. St. Anthony of Padua in Stowell was made a mission with St. Mary of the Assumption. St. Francis Church in Cummiskey then became a mission with St. Basil’s in Dushore. At this time, the rectory would be moved to Wyalusing. Mass was held in the parlor of the Route 6 home for the next 3 years. An addition was built onto the rectory to accommodate a larger congregation. In 1953 a hall was acquired from St. Francis Church in Cummiskey. It was cut in sections and brought to Wyalusing. Parishioners and local contractors put up the hall. All parish functions were held in the hall.

St. Luke’s Church in Warren Center was a mission church that had been closed and Father McCabe was granted permission by Bishop to dismantle the church and move it to Wyalusing. A group of parishioners and local contractors moved the church to Wyalusing and it was rebuilt at the Route 6 site. The first Mass celebrated at St. Mary of the Assumption was the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1953.

An addition of 33 feet was added to St. Mary’s Church and finished in 1981. This was necessary due to the increase in the number of Catholics to our area.

In March 2000, when oil was being delivered to the rectory, the oil tank ruptured and 300 plus gallons ran into the unfinished basement and the fuel oil seeped into the ground. Due to the strong fumes from the fuel oil the rectory was considered unhealthy for the pastor to live in, therefore, was deemed uninhabitable. It became necessary to rent an apartment on Front Street for the pastor to live in. In 2005 St. Mary’s purchased the McCarty home for a new rectory. In 2006 the necessary renovations were made to the McCarty home and the pastor moved to the new rectory. With the six years from the time of the oil spill the fumes had diminished; the process that the recovery crew used with the pipes and pumping the spilled oil from under the old basement was successful; therefore, the old rectory was considered habitable again and it was remodeled and the old rectory became the parish office.

In 2008, due to the shortage of priests and also decline in Mass attendance in the Scranton Diocese, many parishes were joined with one another. In 2008 the Diocese decided to begin the process of joining St. Mary of the Assumption with St. Joachim’s parish in Meshoppen and this became official July 19, 2009. St. Anthony of Padua in Stowell and St. Bonaventure’s in Auburn, mission churches, were officially closed in July, 2009.

In 2022, St. Joachim’s Church was transferred to Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tunkhannock, and St. Mary’s was linked to SS Peter & Paul in Towanda.  While remaining a separate parish, the two churches share a common priest.