Good Shepherd Parish in East Carbon City celebrates 75th anniversary

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Fr. Arokia Dass David, parish administrator of Notre Dame Parish and Good Shepherd Parish, speaks at the 75th anniversary celebration.

EAST CARBON CITY — All of the pews at Good Shepherd Catholic Church were filled for an Oct. 8 Mass celebrating the parish’s 75th anniversary. While some of those in attendance were locals, many others were Catholics now living elsewhere who returned to the tiny community for the special event.

Prior to 1947, those living in East Carbon City had to attend Mass in Dragerton, an outlying community that no longer exists. Good Shepherd was elevated to parish status in 1947 by the Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt, fifth Bishop of Salt Lake. Since then, the parish has had six pastors, including Fr. Donald Hope, who was pastor from 1982 to 1987, then served as administrator from 2003 to 2015. Today, in his retirement, he continues to help out by regularly celebrating Masses in the church in East Carbon City. Good Shepherd’s current administrator is Fr. Arokia Dass David, who also ministers to Notre Dame Parish in Price, 23 miles away.

Fr. Hope was the celebrant of the anniversary Mass; Fr. Dass concelebrated. Prior to the Mass, Fr. Hope blessed the church’s reliquary, which contains a relic of the True Cross brought to the parish in the 1960s by Father Gennaro Verdi, who was pastor from 1960 to 1975. Then Fr. Dass led the faithful in reciting the rosary. Kristi Candaleria then shared a short history of the parish.

In recent years, “Good Shepherd Church lost membership but it continues to serve the Catholic community in East Carbon,” Candaleria said in conclusion. “Today we are still here, celebrating the 75th anniversary. It would not have been possible without the grace of God and the sacrifices of many men and women who loved God and his Church and gave their time, talent and treasure.”

In his homily, Fr. Hope paid tribute to the history of the parish and the Catholics who had served the Church in East Carbon, many of whom have passed away. Prior to the construction of Good Shepherd Church, Catholics in the area invited visiting priests into their home to conduct services or drove two hours to attend Mass at Sacred Heart Mission in La Sal, he said.

“So, we have a long history — probably 100 years or more,” he said. “I’ve been privileged to spend 25 years of my 46 years as a priest here in Carbon County.”

Many of those attending the anniversary Mass were filling seats formerly occupied by parishioners who had passed on, he said as he remembered several of them by name. One, Rose Aquido, was known for yelling loudly when one of the saints she prayed to did not answer her prayers as quickly as she thought they should, he said.

“That saint was going into the closet for a week,” he said, and told other anecdotes as well.

“All through that, you’ve become a family,” he said. “And why do we gather? It’s because God has been so awesome, God has been so wonderful, and we’ve taken much of that for granted.”

Both the first reading and the Gospel told of men with leprosy. While those listening to his homily did not have a physical malady like leprosy, some of them might have fallen away from the Church at various times, Fr. Hope said. If so, he urged them to return to full activity in the parish. He also invited former parishioners who now live elsewhere to occasionally return to East Carbon.

“Every once in a while, come back to your roots,” he said. “Come back to where you were baptized, where you first encountered the grace of God in your soul. Come back to where you made your First Communion, where you were sealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, where you pledged your love to God.”

After the Mass, Fr. Dass expressed his appreciation for those who helped prepare for the celebration by working on the building and the grounds, including parish members from East Carbon and Price. He also thanked all the guests, including East Carbon Mayor David Avery and his wife, Jeannie, who are not members of the Catholic congregation, for attending the anniversary commemoration.

Later, parish members and guests packed the social hall beneath the building for a celebratory dinner. Then several current and former parishioners reminisced about the building’s rich history and the many local Catholics, past and present, who gave life to the faith community.