Catholic Community of Great Bend unites as Prince of Peace Parish

"The prophet Isaiah speaks of a people walking in great darkness… dark as death and yet there is one who can bring light, joy, even peace. He shall be called Prince of Peace! Isaiah hears soldiers’ boots marching into war and feels heavy burdens of injustice on the shoulders of the weak. And yet there is the Prince of Peace who can bestow boundless peace and sustain justice for all and forever.

"With war churning on in Afghanistan and Iraq, with North Korea congratulating itself on having ‘the’ bomb, with schools invaded and little girls murdered, with so much dark violence, I name a parish in our diocese to carry the name Isaiah proclaimed: Prince of Peace. It is my prayer that the Catholic people of Great Bend will not only accept this name but accept the challenge to allow the Prince of Peace to be seen in their lives, in their prayer, in their service… to be a light of peace and justice in our world. For we need them in our diocese, in our country, in our world… not only to be known by that name, but to be that light. I believe that they are up to the challenge because throughout these almost ten years they have been about coming together and becoming one. They know the tensions, they feel the resistance. Even more they have the faith that makes it possible."

The Great Bend Catholic Community will officially become Prince of Peace Parish on Dec. 3, the first Sunday of Advent. Parishioners in Great Bend have collectively been known as the Catholic Community of Great Bend since 2003 when Father Reggie Urban was appointed pastor.  The community is now being given a distinctly religious parish name.

Prince of Peace Parish in Great Bend is the only parish with that name in the Dodge City diocese and only the second in the state of Kansas. The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has a Prince of Peace Parish in Olathe, named by the late Archbishop Ignatius J. Strecker, a native of Spearville.

The new parish name will not affect the title of the church buildings, according to Father Reggie. "The titles St. Rose and St. Patrick will more specifically describe the ‘places’ where people can choose to worship, but Prince of Peace will describe the ‘people,’ the parish."

Transitions have been taking place since 1997 when the two parishes began the process of collaborating their ministries after the diocesan restructuring plan was promulgated. The two Catholic schools were united under the name, Holy Family, in 2001.

"I think that merging the two schools was a great step toward making it easier to merge the two parishes," said Father Reggie. "The children led the way, so to speak.

"Most of the councils and commissions were merged before I arrived in 2003, but I facilitated the merger of the finances right away and the last group, the Altar Society, the second year I was here. We have since created a Justice and Peace Commission.

"As pastor, I think the new name is descriptive of our present and future destiny, especially since our country is in war in many places in our world. Consequently, unity and peace are what we are all about here in Great Bend.

"We will always be somewhat site-specific due to the fact that we have two worship and social sites. There will always be some who will never accept the two parishes coming together, but there are many who do. The fact that some do not accept the merger tells me that they really did embrace their previous parish identity, but with too much dependency. I’m sure these people are feeling somewhat ‘lost’ because of it."

Prince of Peace will become the second largest parish in the diocese with 1,570 households. The Cathedral parish in Dodge City has 2,919 households. The third largest parish in the diocese is St. Anthony, Liberal, with 1,400 households.

"I personally like the name ‘Prince of Peace’ for a number of reasons," said Father Reggie. "It’s a biblical (Isaiah 9:5) title for Christ; it’s poetic; it’s a sign that we are locally trying to be instruments of peace in the middle of a international situation riddled by war. And finally, no other parish in the diocese has this name."

The uniting of the Catholic Community of Great Bend is actually a re-uniting. There has been a Catholic presence in Great Bend for 134 years, since 1872. It wasn’t until 1878 that the parish was known as St. Rose of Lima. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the parish experienced tremendous growth. A west side chapel was constructed in 1954 and later became an independent congregation when St. Patrick Parish was erected in 1960. The two parishes operated separately for 43 years until 2003 when, due to a priest shortage, Father Reggie was appointed pastor to serve the entire Catholic community.