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| St. Christine Church, 2002 |
St. Christine, Industry
St. Christine parish was established on June 1, 1961. The early history of Catholicism in Industry is not well known, but it appears that priests occasionally visited the community to celebrate Mass in private homes in the nineteenth century. This practice stopped in 1912, when Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish was founded in Midland. Local Catholics attended that parish.
Recognizing the growth of population in the area, the bishop directed that the Catholic Institute purchase land for a church in 1954. In February of 1957, St. Christine was established as a mission of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The pastor of Presentation made arrangements to celebrate Mass in the Industry Township Volunteer Firemen's Hall.
This arrangement was still in effect when the parish was formally established. The porch of the house purchased to serve as a rectory was enclosed and converted to a chapel for daily Mass. The first Mass in this small chapel was celebrated on Labor Day of 1961. The new pastor began raising funds to build an activities building that would also temporarily serve as a church. Ground for the new building was broken on July 22, 1962, and on April 14, 1963, Easter Sunday, the first Mass was celebrated in the new building. The church was formally dedicated on June 9, 1963.
The parish never moved out of their temporary church. As part of the diocese's reorganization and revitalization program, St. Christine parish merged with Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish to form the new St. Blaise parish. At first, the new parish kept both church buildings open.. However, in 1998, the parish council launched a study of the parish ministries. The council determined that the parish did not need to keep both church buildings open. With the approval of the congregation and the diocese, the parish decided to close St. Christine. The last Mass at St. Christine was celebrated on February 6, 2000.
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| St. Christine Church, 2002 |
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