Parish Trivia
Parish Trivia is a new feature being added to the parish bulletin and website. Both current and past trivia will be included. If you have a question you would like the answer to, or have trivia about St. Therese Parish that others may find interesting, please send an email to sttheresefw@sttheresefw.org.
Q: Who is our athletic director for the 2011 - 2012 school year?
A. Jeff Reeder, he has three daughters at St. Therese.
Q: How many registered families do we have at St. Therese?
A. St. Therese averages about 725 registered families.
Q: To whom is our parish hall dedicated?
A. Our parish hall is dedicated to the popular Fr. Irvin Gehring, OFM,
who initiated its construction and the pledge drive that made it
possible.
Q: What significance does the cross on the top of the bell tower hold?
A: It is one of three crosses that were on top of the original chapel that St Therese church community first called home.
Q: What Biblical passage do the first seven Chapel windows represent?
A: The seven days of Creation are pictured from east to west.
Q: In what year was Father Lawrence ordained?
A: Fr. Lawrence was ordained on August 22, 1961. He will be celebrating 40 years of priesthood this August!
Q: Whose images are on the circular stained-glass window above our baptismal font and main entrance?
A: God the Father (hands), the Son (cross) and the Holy Spirit
(dove)—the Holy Trinity is represented with the Living Water that flows
into our baptismal font and gives us new life in Christ.
Q: In what year was our third and newest church completed?
A: Our new $3.6 million church was completed and dedicated by Bishop John Michael D’Arcy on Palm Sunday, April 10, 2003.
Q: How many volunteers does it take to have a typical Sunday mass without the choir?
A. 22
§ 1 Sacristant
§ 1 proclaimer
§ 2 lectors
§ 4 servers
§ 4 ushers
§ 9 Eucharistic Ministers
§ 1 cantor
That’s 66 volunteers each weekend for the Sunday Masses!
The organist and priest are not volunteers, but are necessary for the Masses as well.
Q: How many church fires have we had in our sixty-four year history?
A: There have been two fires, one in 1950 and the second in 1970.
Q: Which order of religious women staffed our school for twenty-eight years?
A:
The Sisters of St. Francis (OSF) of Perpetual Adoration from Mishawaka, Indiana, served our school with devotion from 1958 to1986.
Q: Who was our first Franciscan pastor?
A:
Fr. Albert Senn, OFM, our first Franciscan pastor served our parish from 1956—1961.
Q: What religious order of men did Bishop Leo A. Pursley allow to staff our young parish in 1956?
A: The Franciscans from the Cincinnati Province of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) were going to staff the soon-to-be opened Bishop Luers High School. Because brotherhood was such an important part of the Franciscan way of life, the friars asked Bishop Pursley if they could also staff a nearby parish. The two locations gave them over twenty-five priests and brothers in Fort Wayne.
Q: Where did the cast iron bell from our first church, now in the bell tower, come from?
A: Parishioner Ed Wesner had bought the bell from a Michigan church and used it on his Lower Huntington Road farm. In 1948, another parishioner, Frank Miller, suggested to Ed that the big bell would be better for the new church than the smaller one that came in the steeple of the original military chapel. Fr. Shoudel eagerly agreed and the bell came to its new home in our first church.
Q: How many stained glass windows adorn our Eucharistic Reservation Chapel?
A: Ten windows surround the wall of our reservation chapel.
Q: Who was our last Franciscan pastor?
A: Fr. Simeon Cleves, OFM, served as our associate pastor from1984 and as pastor from 1987-1994. His departure brought the Franciscans’ service to a close. Fr. Simeon is our last surviving Franciscan pastor and he is currently serving as a hospital chaplain in Cincinnati.
Q: Other than glass, what material makes up the largest percentage of our school building?
A: Other than glass, our school is mostly made of concrete! The unique semi-circular design was created by local architect James J. McCarron.
Q: In what year was our parish hall completed?
A: Our parish hall opened in 1979. It consisted of a junior-hi sized-gymnasium, an air-conditioned parish meeting room, and a modest kitchen.
Q: What biblical story is depicted in the Reconciliation Room on the WEST side of the church?
A: The Prodigal Son is being welcomed home by his loving, forgiving father on two of the four windows in the west-side Reconciliation Room. This amazing human father gives us a glimpse of the limitless love and mercy of Our Father.
Q: What was the date the first pastor was assigned to form St. Therese Parish?
A: St. Therese's first pastor, Fr. Herman A. Schoudel, was assigned on Nov. 13, 1946 and he served until Jun. 10, 1953. A church for St. Therese Parish to worship in was not realized until almost a year later in late 1947.
Q: Which two pastors of St. Therese are distantly related?
A: Father Herman A. Schoudel's father, Mathias C. Schoudel, was a first cousin to Father Dave Ruppert's great-grandmother, Mary (Schoudel) Ruppert. The Schoudel family came from Germany and settled in DeKalb County in the late 1800's.
Q: Where do the purple banners that hang in the gathering space during Lent come from?
A: Bill Wunderlin, who taught at St. Therese School for many years, designed and created those window hangings for the church when it was in the school building. Several years ago, after moving into the new church, he trimmed them up to fit into the windows of the new church. He brings them each Lent and hangs them up himself and then switches them out for the Easter season. Thank you, Bill!
Q: How many buildings have served as worship space for the St. Therese congregation?
A: Not counting the home Masses and the liturgies held at Waynedale School in 1947-1948, we've had three very different churches: a former air base chapel, the ground floor of our school, and our current church.