The closing Masses at Groveport St. Mary Church, the oldest Catholic church in Franklin County outside Columbus, were celebrated this past weekend.
Bishop Earl Fernandes was the celebrant for a Mass at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. The church’s final Eucharistic celebration was its regularly scheduled Mass at 8 a.m. the following day.
As part of the Real Presence Real Future initiative of the Diocese of Columbus, the Groveport church and Canal Winchester St. John XXIII Church have been merged into a single unit known as Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish.
The Groveport church, founded in 1871, was the “mother church” for the one in Canal Winchester and for Columbus Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church and several other congregations.
The current St. Mary Church was dedicated in 1977 and was the third to serve the Groveport area. The original church was built in 1865 and was first used by a United Brethren congregation. It was replaced in 1949 by a structure built next door. The original church then became the parish hall. After the 1977 church was built, the former St. Mary buildings were joined and converted into Groveport’s municipal building.
“I know that this is a difficult moment for some of you, given the rich history of this parish, going back to 1871,” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily. “At the same time, I hope it is a moment of gratitude by which we give thanks to God for the many graces He has poured out on the people of this place.”
Mary Saum, 93, who lives close to the church, has been a member of the parish for more than 70 years and remembers when the current church was built.
“It’s sad. It really is,” she said. “We just have to go along with what happens. Can’t change things.”
Andrea Maier, director of faith formation for the new parish, has been a member of St. Mary with her family for more than 20 years.
“On one hand, it’s sad because there are a lot of memories attached to this church,” she said, “but on the other hand, there’s great hope in bringing communities together and working for the purpose of doing discipleship, God’s work, so for that I’m excited.
“So, yes, I’m sad, but I see that there’s a greater purpose in all of this.”
The church was the closest Catholic church to the former Rickenbacker Air Force Base, from which it drew many of its members. The base was opened in 1942 and served as a military facility until 1984, when control was transferred to a port authority. The site now serves as an international cargo hub with some commercial flights.
The church served southeast Franklin County and parts of Pickaway and Fairfield counties, including Groveport, Obetz, Canal Winchester, Lockbourne, Ashville, Amanda and Carroll. In 2000, it covered 90 square miles and had about 1,200 families, but both those numbers were reduced significantly in that year when the Canal Winchester church opened. A Catholic Times story in 2013 said it had about 600 families, and a Real Presence Real Future video in 2021 said that number was down to 192.
There was no resident pastor in Groveport until 1932, when the Vincentian Fathers began 50 years of service to the parish. The Philadelphia-based Vincentians also built a large house in Groveport that was used as a Midwestern base for traveling missionaries and was a site for many parish activities until 1978, when United McGill Corp. purchased the building for its headquarters. Priests of the Diocese of Columbus served the church from 1982 until its closing.
The number of parish organizations at St. Mary’s was never as large as at other parishes of comparable size, but the groups it did have, particularly the Altar Rosary and St. Vincent de Paul societies, were active in a range of areas that in other parishes were served by several organizations.
