Queen Creek mission named a parish

By Lynanne Lasota
The Catholic Sun

QUEEN CREEK — Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission has witnessed an influx of 1,600 new families in the past few years, a testament to the exploding growth of the south East Valley.

With this burgeoning population came calls for a dedicated parish, a place of worship offering the Catholic sacraments and ministries. Heeding the call, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted recently elevated the mission to parish status. As of July 1, the new parish will be administered by priests from the Legionaries of Christ order.

For more than 60 years Our Lady of Guadalupe wasn’t big enough to qualify as a parish, but recently things have changed dramatically, said Ron Dailey, pastoral associate for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

For a mission to become a parish it’s simply a matter of the bishop recognizing the growth and need of the community, said Dailey. Bishop Olmsted visited Queen Creek several times and saw firsthand the need for the mission to be established as a parish.

The mission started in the late 1940s. The predominately Hispanic community of families and farm laborers helped organize the first Catholic congregation.

As surrounding farmland gave way to housing developments, people needed a place to worship. The current church seats about 480 people.

“The Legionaries of Christ have agreed to accept the new parish on Aug. 1,” said Fr. Tom Zurcher, vicar of priests. However, they are sending temporary priests until the priests who will permanently serve this community arrive next month.

“This particular parish is attractive to the Legionaries of Christ in part because it is near the ASU East campus,” said Fr. Zurcher. “They would like to develop an outreach to college students and a Newman Center.”

The Legionaries will have two priests and two seminarians for Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and the future Newman Center. The permanent priests have not yet been named.