The Catholic Times

ST. MICHAEL: Begin Drive For New Worthington Parish Church

Worthington St. Michael's Parish will break ground for a new $500,000 church on the parish property at N. High St. and Selby Blvd., Father John P. Byrne, pastor, announced this week.

A campaign to raise $200,000 to help finance the new edifice will get under way today and end with a Mass of Thanksgiving on March 4, Father Byrne said.

THE DRIVE WILL be conducted by members of the parish, without any outside help, the pastor disclosed. It will be led by Cornelius Tracy, a member of the parish and prominent Catholic layman who has served as a leader in various diocesan fund-raising campaigns. Tracy was chosen "Catholic Man of the Year" in Columbus last year.

The new church will be a basilica-type structure of Romanesque architecture. It will seat 806 persons.

An 80-foot bell tower will dominate the exterior. Interior columns and arches of stone, and exposed wood roof trusses are other features. It will either be constructed of red brick trimmed with Indiana limestone to match the school, or entirely of Indiana limestone.

THE BUILDING PROGRAM also will include construction of a new $125,000 convent for the sisters who teach at St. Michael's school, and remodeling of the quonset hut, now used as a church, to provide additional classroom space.

Rapid growth of the parish has made the building necessary, Father Bryne said. Population of the 15-year-old parish is now 2500 and is expected to reach 3500 in another five years. The 11-room school, completed in 1954, now has 600 students and is expected to top 800 by 1966.