News

St. Pius X has golden jubilee

By Amanda Lauer
Compass Correspondent

APPLETON -- St. Pius X Parish will celebrate its 50th birthday on Sept. 15, with a 5 p.m. Mass with Bp. David Zubik. It will be one of the last public appearances by the bishop before he leaves to become Bishop of Pittsburgh.

While it may be among the younger churches in the area, St. Pius is the largest Catholic parish in the Fox Cities.

Fr. Tim Shillcox, O. Praem., has special ties to St. Pius X. He and his twin sister, Deb, plus their parents, Wayne and Germaine Shillcox, were charter members of the parish.

"We were there when the parish started in 1957," said Fr. Shillcox, who is pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in De Pere. "I remember going to Sunday Mass in the parlor of Valley Funeral Home and thinking Fr. Richard Keller was the tallest man in the world. He was 6'1" and bald."

The parish met at the funeral home until Dec. 21, 1958, when they were able to move into their own building which housed a school as well as a church, housed in what was to be future classroom space.

Fr. Shillcox is the only parish son to become a priest. He credits Fr. John Van Deuren, who was associate pastor X from 1959 to 1965 as a great role model.

Leroy and Theresa Kohlbeck have been parish members since they moved to Appleton 46 years ago. Their three children attended school at St. Pius and graduated from Xavier High School.

"The church we had actually was a part of the school building," said Leroy. "There was room for 600 people at the very most."

Leroy has always been an active member. "I've been an usher ever since we've been here. I've been the president of the St. Pius X Men's Society for the last 13 years."

Fellow parishioners are friendly, he said. "As many people as there are, they all seem to enjoy you and listen to you. As I do get up and talk once in a while - well, they listen!"

Fr. Don Zuleger, currently pastor of St. Bernadette in Appleton, was a priest in residence at St. Pius from 1985 to 1996 while chaplain at Xavier High. From 1997 until 2005, he was the pastor for St. Pius.

"When I came in 1985, they had about 1,300 families," Fr. Zuleger said. "They started the ACES school system about the time that they were paying off the mortgage of St. Pius and they moved right into building a church structure. They also were doing some remodeling. I was with Fr. Ron Columbo (who was pastor from 1980 to 1990), watching and observing. I learned from him how to do building projects."

The church was completed in December of 1988.

Fr. Zuleger says he saw tremendous growth in the parish community because of the expansion of the Appleton city limits to the northwest. "Now, during the course of a year, they probably have 2,300 or 2,400 families. People don't realize it because it's kind of tucked away off a main street but we figured there's 6,000 or 7,000 souls."

While there wasn't a lot of ethnic diversity at St. Pius X, they did have diversity in spiritualities, Fr. Zuleger said. He encouraged parish leaders to accommodate that diversity.

"For instance," he said, "they now have the adoration chapel, they have rosary people, they have Bible studies, they have Life in the Spirit seminars now. They've really tried to expand that and some of the guest speakers that they have reflect the theological and spiritual spectrum that we find in the Catholic Church. They have a tremendous outreach to the poor and needy, particularly with Dcn. Rick Simon. They've got the St. Vincent De Paul outreach program going again."

Fr. Tom Farrell was named the current pastor in July of 2005 and Fr. Quinn Mann became associate pastor this past April. Fr. Farrell found the parishioners of St. Pius X were very welcoming. "I found the people were very good, very kind, very loving - so we're very lucky."

When he first arrived, he surprised at the extent of the parish. "We have almost 300 kids in pre-K through grade five. When I looked at the size of the complex, I was amazed at not just the church but also the narthex and the fellowship hall and the gymnasium. We are just so fortunate to have this kind of space. I was just amazed at how well things were kept up. The staff was so efficient and so professional and I felt very fortunate to walk into that."

At the Sept. 15 Mass, Liturgist Marie Ruffner will direct the Celebration choir in a featured song, "Sing Out the Jubilee", written Peggy Schwartz, another choir director at the parish, who grew up in the parish. After the Mass, there will be a social for parishioners to share memories. People with ties to the parish are invited to view the parish's Web site www.stpiusxappleton.com to record their memories as well. A booklet of remembrances will be compiled. The Web site also contains parish trivia compiled by Linda Bound, words to the jubilee song and words to the St. Pius X Parish Golden Jubilee Prayer.

While St. Pius X is 50 years old, it is still a young, vibrant and growing parish. "It's really a wonderful place to be," said Fr. Farrell. "I don't think there's another parish as nice in the diocese."