Our Lady of Perpetual Help celebrates 75th anniversary
In 1947, the determination of eight women who had gathered signatures to petition for a Catholic church in Salem paid off in the establishment of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Parish. On Sunday, Sept. 11, OLPH honored its 75th anniversary with a special Mass concelebrated by Bishop Barry C. Knestout, area clergy and former pastors. The parish’s annual picnic followed.
“God writes straight with our crooked lines,” Bishop Knestout said in his homily, quoting an adage. He was referring to the long path to establishing the Salem church, as well as the long path traveled by the venerated icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the parish’s patroness. The image shows the Blessed Mother comforting the Christ Child.
He explained how the Eastern icon, created by a monk on the island of Crete and now housed in Rome, is associated with the Redemptorist priests, who celebrated the early Masses in Salem.
“It is a sacramental; it is an image that conveys grace,” he said, speaking to a crowd of about 300. “Our Lady is very much our mother and cares for us.”
Bishop Knestout also pointed out the colorful image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help printed on the vestment he wore that Sunday, which had been given to the parish years ago.
Before 1947, Salem’s Catholic families drove east to attend Mass at St. Andrew or Our Lady of Nazareth parishes in the larger city of Roanoke, approximately 10 miles away.
In fall 1946, certain that there were enough Catholics in Salem to establish a parish, the eight “founding mothers” convinced the Diocese of Richmond’s Bishop Peter Ireton to allow Masses to be held starting the next year. They would be celebrated by Redemptorists who came from St. Gerard Parish, Roanoke, about six miles away, a new church founded to serve the Black Catholic population – thus making OLPH a mission of St. Gerard.
In the beginning, Masses were held in the chapel at Roanoke College in Salem, sometimes for as few as 20 families.
In 1949, upon donated land near Lake Spring Park and its duck pond on Main Street, a small, white Army chapel was bought and relocated from Camp Butner in North Carolina. This chapel, where a Burger King now sits, was home for the growing OLPH parish until 1973, when a church was built on Turner Road.
The late Lena Givens was president of the Salem Catholic Women’s Club, the group that organized the church founding. Her son, Joe Givens, was 7 years old when he started attending OLPH’s Masses with his mother in 1947.
“Mother and I had been going to St. Andrew’s in Roanoke, but it was a long way in those days,” he said. “She and the other ladies petitioned the bishop to have a church here.”
She came from Highland County, converted to Catholicism in the 1930s and “was very determined” Givens said, adding that his father, Carl Givens of Craig County, was not Catholic but was very supportive of his wife.
“I feel very proud of what she did,” Givens said.
Parishioner Danny Cobb, whose mother, the late Pat Cobb, was in the original women’s group, has attended OLPH all his life. Like the parish, he is 75 years old.
“My mother was headstrong, and she loved the Catholic Church,” he said, adding that she was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his father, Thomas Cobb, was from Bedford. “He wasn’t raised Catholic, but he was one of the first to join the new church. My father talked about how my mother and the other ladies really stuck together to get the church founded.”
Cobb’s wife, Joyce, met her husband in 1967, started attending church with him and became a Catholic. Two years later, they held their wedding at the white chapel that was OLPH.
“Danny likes to tell people we were married where the grill is at Burger King,” she said with a laugh.
Joyce also wrote a commemorative booklet on the history of OLPH for the 70th anniversary. “We were afraid people would forget how our church started and all it’s been through over the years.”
Father Ken Shuping arrived as OLPH’s pastor on Pentecost in 2016, the fifth pastor in five years, and remained there until July 2021, making him the longest- serving pastor the church has had.
“When I arrived, they needed some stability, and I was lucky enough to stay there,” he recalled. “It’s small enough that people are involved in things. It’s a wonderful, positive community where people can practice and grow in their faith. And there is a definite Marian spirituality there.”
His message to OLPH on its anniversary: “Keep praying and looking toward the future.”
Father Julio Reyes, parochial vicar for OLPH and St. Gerard Parishes, celebrates a Spanish Mass at OLPH on Sunday afternoons.
“They have a good spirit of friendship there and are very welcoming,” said Father Reyes, who came to the area in July. “They are open to helping other people, work well together and are very close to each other.”
Father Danny Cogut, pastor of OLPH and St. Gerard since July 2021, also noted the kindness of the Salem parish. Three ministries in particular – a longtime Haiti ministry, a quarterly collection of baby items for families in need, and Family Promise – have devoted support from parishioners.
“People are very generous and caring at OLPH,” he said. “And even though it’s the smallest parish in the Roanoke Valley, some people are drawn for that reason, and they get to know each other.”
Alluding to the remarkable, faith-driven history of his Marian parish, he quoted the Memorare, which also was sung during the anniversary Mass:
“Never was it known that anyone who fled to you, who asked for help, who sought your intercession was left unaided.”