Saints Peter & Paul † Roman Catholic Faith Community

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Parish Faith Community of Saints Peter and Paul Church.

We hope that this website will encourage you to join us in the many spiritual, social and educational activities which our parish church and school offer. The information on this website has been compiled by members of our parish staff and parish council.

As you will discover in your reading, ours is a very vibrant and spiritual faith community. We need all of the gifts and talents that God has invested in each of you. You may come from another faith community that offered other wonderful opportunities for prayer, worship, education and sociability. We value your experiences and suggestions, as we are eager to learn.

The ministries you will find listed provide varying opportunities for each of us to share our talents and to serve one another. Each member of the community is invited to contribute in his or her own way. Options for long term and short term commitments are available. Please take time to read the following pages. If there is a ministry or organization that interests you, feel free to call the Parish Office for the name of the contact person.

We welcome you with the words of St. Paul, one of our patron saints: "I will always mention you in my prayers and thank God for you, because I hear of the love and the faith which you have for the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. I pray that this faith will give rise to a sense of fellowship that will show you all the good things that we are able to do for Christ." (Philemon 1:4-7)

Peace be with you,

Fr. Jerome E. Kopec and Staff

Ss. Peter and Paul 175 Years: From Frontier to the Future

Celebrating a church as well as its founder

SS. Peter & Paul marks 175th anniversary

Drums rumbled and trumpets blared Sunday afternoon inside SS. Peter & Paul Church on Main Street in Williamsville, heralding the 175th anniversary of the parish's founding in 1836 by a missionary priest who would later become bishop of Philadelphia and a canonized saint.

About 375 people attended a special Mass that concluded a year's worth of events commemorating the beginnings of SS. Peter & Paul, the third-oldest parish in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

The congregation also holds the distinction of being the first parish founded by the Rev. John Neumann, a Bohemian immigrant who was a prolific congregation starter and creator of Catholic schools. Neumann went on to establish a total of 50 congregations and 100 schools throughout the Northeast, including several others in Western New York.

"We are here 175 years later, still believing, still holding on, still giving of our hearts and minds," the Rev. Jerome E. Kopec, pastor, said during his homily. "When John Neumann founded this community, we became a new creation in Christ."

The celebration included a procession of two bishops, more than a dozen clergy and a uniformed and sworded honor guard of members of the Knights of Columbus.

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of the Diocese of Buffalo was joined as principal celebrant of the Mass by Kopec and Bishop Donald W. Trautman, who served as pastor of SS. Peter & Paul in the late 1980s, prior to his appointment as the head of the Diocese of Erie, Pa.

Kmiec, who closed dozens of churches throughout the diocese in recent years in an effort to create more vibrant congregations, cited SS. Peter & Paul as an example of what a healthy parish community looks like.

"I think you've really filled the bill very well," the bishop said in remarks after the Mass.

The parish still maintains the longest continuously operating Catholic school in the entire diocese, with an enrollment of more than 400 children in prekindergarten through eighth grade.

The current church, built during the Civil War and dedicated in 1868, features a soaring steeple that is among the village's most identifiable landmarks.

The heat that built up inside the old, unair-conditioned sanctuary over the past few days of wilting temperatures prompted Kmiec to crack wise with parishioners using church programs to fan themselves.

"I'm just wondering why St. John Neumann couldn't have picked October or November to found the parish," the bishop said with a smile.

Kmiec, who submitted his resignation letter in June to Pope Benedict XVI, remembered his early days as bishop of Buffalo, noting that Kopec was the first priest he assigned to a parish in this diocese.

Kmiec also read a congratulatory letter from Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who as apostolic nuncio serves as the pope's official representative in the United States.

Parishioners spent the past year celebrating the theme of "From frontier to the future." Trautman visited last July to dedicate a new pantry. Church members took trips to see other area churches that Neumann founded in Swormville, Niagara Falls and the Town of Tonawanda, and in January they participated in a prayer service honoring the 200th anniversary of Neumann's birth and the 150th anniversary of his death.

Earlier Sunday, another area church with a fascinating history celebrated 150 years as a congregation with an outdoor worship service in Martin Luther King Park.

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, a historically African-American parish, was founded in 1861, just weeks after the Civil War broke out. It is the seventh-oldest primarily black congregation within the Episcopal Church, and it includes among its members the Rev. Michael B. Curry, the first black person elected as bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.