Our History

In the summer of 1985, a small band of pilgrims (plus a large sprinkling of shakers and movers!) banded together and held its first formal meeting on September 9, 1985 for organizing a mission church in Middletown. On the Feast of the Epiphany (January 5, 1986) Mass was held in the Middletown High School auditorium for the first time. The crowd was large and enthusiastic. Msgr. Edward Echle, Pastor of St. John's, was the celebrant.

An independent mission status was approved by the Archdiocese and we became known as the Catholic Community of Middletown. A community residence and base of operations was purchased in February 1986 and settlement on the parish complex took place on March 25, 1986. Fr. John Charles Moore arrived as the coordinator of the mission on April 3, 1986.

The establishing of committees and ministries took up the following two years. A Land Acquisition Committee, organized in May of 1986, prepared a feasibility study for our future church site. Settlement on 20 acres of land took place on July 15, 1988. It took a year of self-study and we became a full-fledged parish on January 4, 1989. On April 2, 1989, then-Archbishop William Borders came to Middletown to officially name us Holy Family Catholic Community (a name we ourselves chose) and to install Fr. John as the first Pastor.

Our first Faith Promise Campaign got underway with a dinner celebration on April 16, 1989. A Second Faith Promise Campaign began in April 1992.

A Strategic Planning Committee, headed by Mr. Bill Fantone, spent more than a year studying our present and future finances to assess the feasibility of when to build our "House of the Church." A Building Design and Development Committee, chaired by Dr. Greg Rausch, was established in April 1992 to see to the actual “House of the Church.”

Our Strategic Planning Committee made its presentation to the Building Design and Development Committee on Wednesday, December 9, 1992. The BDDC gave its approval to the Strategic Planning Committee feasibility study. A presentation was made to the Pastoral Council on January 26, 1993. The Council approved the plan for funding the future “House of the Church.”

Matters moved rapidly from that point. Monsignor G. Michael Schleupner, Secretary for the Department of Development for the Archdiocese and Mr. Lou Baird, Director of Facilities Management for the Archdiocese came to Middletown on May 19, 1993 to see our land parcel and to hear Mr. Bill Fantone present our Strategic Planning Committee report. Preliminary approval was given and the Archdiocese offered us a loan of $860,000.00 toward the future “House of the Church.” That loan grew to $1,288,000.00.

We began contacting architects to see if they would be interested in our future building. Some 22 responded. The list was pared down to 6 architects who were interviewed by the BDDC on September 18 and 25, 1993 at Zion Lutheran Church. Final architect selection was made on September 28, 1993 and the name was presented for approval to the BDDC on October 5, 1993 and to the Pastoral Council on October 12, 1993. The Archdiocese also gave approval to our choice of Noelker and Hull Architects of Chambersburg, PA. Mr. Michael Hull is our architect.

Brother William Woeger, F.S.C. was hired as our liturgical consultant on November 8, 1993. During 1994 the BDDC spent countless hours on liturgical norms, documents and visits to new churches. Schematic drawings were presented in August 1994. We met with the Archdiocesan Building Commission on October 25, 1994 and with Cardinal William Keeler on November 2, 1994. Over 160 people attended a very successful Town Meeting on December 4, 1994. The BDDC gave approval to hiring Klepper, Marshall, and King Associates from White Plains as our acoustical consultants. A contract was signed with them on December 8, 1994. We met for a second time with Cardinal William Keeler January 20, 1995 on the design and layout of the church house. The Cardinal gave his approval at this meeting.

The kick off dinner for our Third Faith Promise Campaign was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Hagerstown on Sunday, April 2, 1995. Over 200 community members were present for this evening of celebration. The Faith Promise Campaign was officially underway on April 25, 1995. $425,000.00 was pledged.

On June 6, 1995 invitations to bid for the church house construction were sent out. Bids were opened at the parish office complex on July 13, 1995. Mr. George Bruchey of Bruchey Builders Inc., was the low bidder. He presented a bid of $1,956,850.00. Value engineering reduced this figure to $1,896,700.00. This figure did not include the daily Mass chapel and office complex. The Bruchey bid was accepted by the BDDC on July 18, 1995. On August 8, 1995 Cardinal Keeler signed the contract for the construction of the church house.

Groundbreaking was held the afternoon of August 20, 1995 at 4:00 p.m. Skies were sunny and 200 people attended the celebration. By the middle of September the Building Permit was in hand and earth was being moved at the site. Job conference #1 was held on September 20, 1995. Our Memorial Campaign to furnish the church house began in mid October 1995. A goal of $200,000.00 was set.

When we first bid our construction project, we were concerned with our finances and therefore asked the contractor to submit a separate bid for the office complex and daily Mass chapel. Bruchey Builders' bid was $273,500.00 for this alternative and we regretfully decided that we could not afford it. However, a member of our community then offered us a $100,000.00 challenge-matching grant. We decided to proceed with the office and daily Mass complex but would do the interior finishing ourselves.

1996 saw a bitter cold winter with much snow. Even our Tenth Anniversary celebration with Bishop P. Francis Murphy had to be postponed because of a blizzard on the weekend of January 6-7, 1996. Notes from the Job Site Conference (February 28, 1996) read as follows: Job shut down due to snow and cold for approximately 96 days. The remainder of 1996 was spent on the building process.

On September 29, 1996 Dr. Greg Rausch and Fr. John met with a donor from outside the parish who was interested in seeing to the completion (including furnishings and artwork) of the daily Mass chapel. The donor pledged $100,000.00 toward the chapel. Other donors gave monies for the completion of the outside gathering area in the front of the church and for the church bell.

Volunteers from the parish worked to build the office complex. January and February of 1997 saw the final work being done on the building.

Dedication took place on Friday, March 14, 1997 with a standing room only crowd. Cardinal William Keeler was the main celebrant. Bishop P. Francis Murphy, our late Vicar, was also in attendance along with members of the Middletown Ministerium and many guest priests. God's people of Holy Family Catholic Community had finally come home to a majestic building after eleven years of renting space for worship in Middletown United Methodist Church, Christ Reformed United Church of Christ and at Middletown High School Auditorium. We celebrated our first Holy Week and Easter in the new building.

During 1998, additional families joined our pilgrimage of faith. In October 1998, Holy Family Catholic Community received from Faith and Forum an award for excellence in liturgical design for our worship space.

Sculptures for the Mary shrine and the Christ shrine were installed on Wednesday, December 1, 1999. Work on the panorama of icons surrounding the baptismal font continued during the year. Saints added were Peter and Paul, Ignatius Loyola, John Baptist de La Salle, Francis of Assisi and Kateri Tekakwitha.

The year 2000 was designated a Year of Jubilee in the Roman Catholic Church. March 2000 saw the completion of the panorama of icons surrounding the baptismal font. The final figures were Elizabeth Ann Seton, Vincent dePaul and the Archangels Gabriel and Michael. In late April 2000, Fr. John asked Dr. Gregory Rausch to re-establish the Building Design and Development Committee (to be known hence as BDDC II) for the express purpose of looking into the feasibility of adding a social hall complex to our existing building. The committee held its first meeting on May 24, 2000.

Bishop W. Francis Malooly was ordained a Bishop and Vicar for Western Maryland on March 1, 2001. Our Faith Promise Campaign to pay the existing church mortgage and look to the future social hall complex began May 1, 2001. The goal of $700,000.00 was reached. On June 9, 2002, we dedicated the Book of Memorials with Mr. Stephen Court, our calligrapher, present for the celebrations.

The community continues to grow. As of December 2003, we numbered 640 families.

Fr. John Moore retired in July 2004 and moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On September 12, 2004 Fr. Kevin Farmer was installed as our second pastor. During the last few years of Fr. John’s ministry he and members of the BDDC II worked tirelessly to design a Social Hall Complex to serve our growing parish. Fr. Kevin continued to embrace this dream upon his arrival. In September of 2005, as we were ready to make our final fundraising push for the Social Hall complex we decided, as a parish community, to suspend our fundraising efforts to assist the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina.

During the last months of 2005 Fr. John Moore, our founding pastor, moved home to Maryland. On January 8, 2006, Fr. John Moore returned to Holy Family on our anniversary weekend to officially begin our Twentieth year. We have officially resumed our fundraising efforts for the Faith Promise Campaign and were able to break ground in August of 2006 to begin building the Fr. John Charles Moore Center. What began as a small group of dedicated pilgrims in 1985 is now a parish of over 800 families. Today we strive to build upon the vision and dream shared with us by every family that has made this community holy!