History of the Catholic Church in Yelm

The Catholic Church in Yelm began 100 (1911) years ago in McKenna with a simple request from a woman who wanted to have her son baptized by the priest in charge of the Nisqually Indian church near Roy.  From this request sprung a realization that there were underserved Catholics in the area who needed a priest to offer  Mass.  So, the very first Mass was offered in 1913 above the McKenna Barbershop.  June 12, 1921 saw the building of the first church in McKenna now occupied by a gun shop, County Line Shooting Sports.  The church membership exploded from 10 to 100 people in two years, but the church accommodated their parishioners  till 1958 when the congregation moved to a building formerly used as a garage in Yelm. 

Today, that garage building is only a small part of a parish hall on the St. Columban church grounds.  The parish has a vibrant community of about 350 families and still growing.  A new priest administrator, Fr. Duc Nguyen, was a appointed in July 2010, and now a part-time youth coordinator has joined the team to grow the already active youth ministry. 

You can learn more about St. Columban on their new website http://www.sc-sp.org/ or follow them on Facebook.

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