On
May 1, 1981, Fr. Michael J. Dillon, who had been pastor of Sacred
Heart, Red Bluff, was appointed pastor of a newly formed parish of
Rocklin-Loomis
and Penryn. At this time, the posted population of Rocklin was 7,300
and the Catholic families in the whole parish were no more than 550. It
must have seemed
an impossible task to Fr. Dillon who arrived without so much as a place
to stay in Rocklin. He
lived at St. Rose until the parish rented a residence at 4542 Tuttle
Drive to
serve as a rectory.
The first order of business was to name the new parish. Fr. Dillon
invited the
parishioners to submit names. Many people suggested keeping the name of
St. Mary's of the Assumption
since that was the church they had been meeting in, but Fr. Dillon
preferred a
new name to mark a new beginning. It was finally decided to call the
new parish
SS. Peter and Paul.
The masses at St.
Mary's were extremely crowded. Fr. Dillon began to worry about safety,
but more importantly he wished to combine the Masses so that the new
parishioners might
begin to think of themselves as a community. The parish took over
Parker-Whitney
School's multipurpose room on Sunday for two Masses, 9:00 am and
10:30 am.
The Saturday
vigil Mass at 5:00 continued to be held at St. Mary's.
A nine member parish council was elected by vote of the parishioners to
assist Fr. Dillon in
making the pressing decisions needed by the new parish.
In February 1982, a professional fundraiser was hired to help raise
funds for the new parish center. The parishioners were asked to pledge
as much as possible to be paid off
over a three-year period. At the end of the drive $642,000 had been
pledged.
Fr. Michael Cormack and the people of St. Rose pledged an additional
$100,000 to
help the new parish get started. Because of the generous response on
the part of the
parishioners, it was decided the parish could afford to build a church
and social hall. The
parish council appointed various committees to study the needs of the
parish from the
point of view of worship, education, and social life.
Fr. Dillon took the ideas submitted by the various committees and, with
the help of Don
Cress, designed a floor plan. He submitted this plan to the council who
gave their approval. In
fact, the floor plan submitted to the architects, Krempely, Howard, and
Reynolds, is
essentially the final design of SS. Peter and Paul Church.
On April 17, 1983, the Most Reverend Francis A. Quinn, bishop of the
Sacramento Diocese,
officiated at the groundbreaking of the new church site at 4450 Granite
Drive, Rocklin.
On May 17, 1983, Champion Contractors began construction of the new
parish center. At this
time, to express the continuity of the church, a corner stone was taken
from old St.
Mary's foundation and laid in the front of the new SS. Peter & Paul
Church.
In May of 1991, Bishop Quinn returned for the groundbreaking of the
religious education center
which included two buildings with three adult education rooms, seven
religious education
classrooms, three offices, a parking lot and landscaping. It was
completed by the fall of 1992.
Due to the tremendous growth of our parish family, four additional
classrooms, a multipurpose
room, storage facilities and a new administration center were added.
We are blessed with the generosity of our parishioners who have made
our dreams a reality from
the inception of SS. Peter and Paul to the present day.