Cache Valley Catholics welcome all to new church

HYDE PARK — The location of the new St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, in Hyde Park, just outside Logan, is a perfect setting. Parishioner Marilyn Grover spotted the location eight years ago while walking her dog.

Today, the new church with its classrooms and office spaces rise out of a meadow. There is farmland on two sides of the new parish complex, its bell tower sitting away from the church in a parking lot the likes of which these parishioners have never seen or enjoyed outside their church.

Pastors and parishioners past and present were drawn to the June 24 dedication of the church, the dream of which can be traced back to the parish’s second pastor, the late Msgr. Jerome Stoffel, who, in the early 1960s, bought a piece of land, investing in the future of the faith community he would serve for 30 years. Pastors to come after him, Father (now Msgr.) Robert J. Bussen, Fathers Colin Bircumshaw, David Van Massenhove, Frank Voelmecke, and the current Pastor Father Clarence Sandoval, carefully nurtured the dream, each one bringing it closer to fruition.

In his homily at the dedication, Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, said he sensed Msgr. Stoffel and the parish’s founding pastor, Dominican Father Joseph Valine, and numerous pioneers of faith from this Valley... looking down on this beautiful new church and all of us gathered. They must be saying: ‘Tonight, Cache Valley is a bit like heaven.’ So it is, my friends.

The bi-lingual Mass of Dedication began outside the front door of the church, with parish representatives presenting the key to the church to Msgr. Fitzgerald, who passed it on to Fr. Sandoval. The celebrants and the congregation were ushered into the church with music. Water was blessed, then sprinkled on all present in blessing.

The opening prayers and the readings led to the homily, a moving touch on the memories shared by Cache Valley Catholics. Msgr. Fitzgerald delivered the homily in English, then Father Omar Ontiveros related it in Spanish. It drew applause both times.

The blessing and dedication of the church included the anointing of the altar and walls with Sacred Chrism, censing of the altar, celebrants, and participants with incense by Master of Ceremonies Diocesan Chancellor Deacon Silvio Mayo.

The Mass concluded with the placing of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle in a rear chapel.