SPN Parish History at a Glance:
1904 - St.
Philip Neri Parish established 31st & Grebe in Florence.
1905 -
First Pastor, Fr. Michael Barrett, assigned.
1918 - First
rectory built, NW corner of 31st & Grebe.
1922 - School
built north of the church, staffed by School Sisters of St. Francis from Clinton, Iowa.
1937 -
Church enlarged and updated. Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine in Kentucky came to serve.
1953 - Present church & rectory built
1959 - New
school built on site of old rectory and church.
1969 -
Church air-conditioned
1998 -
Parking lot built
1999 -
Land donated (31st & Mormon) for Activity Center.
2000 - Building
begins; church website developed.
2001 -
Activity Center completed; Media Center at school built.
2003 - St Philip Neri School Choir sings at Governor's Inaugural Ball.
2004 - Refurbished and replaced church pews and floor tiles.
2004 -
Celebration of St Philip Neri 100th Anniversary.
2004 -
Celebration of church and rectory 50th Anniversary.
2005 - Planning of St Philip Neri School remodeling.
2005 - Completion of St
Philip Neri School remodeling.
Historical Background of Parish
The Catholic influence in the Florence
area dates back to the early 19th century when the Catholic fur trader Manuel Lisa headquartered along the Missouri River
within the confines of the present day St. Philip Neri Parish. Some years later a small band of Belgian Jesuit missionaries,
including Father DeSmet, came to Nebraska. Father DeSmet knew the area of our parish well; he visited the trading post of
his friend Jean Cabanne, which was located near the present Hummel Park.
In 1850 the Holy See established the Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory: a Diocese including
all the land between Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. The first bishop made his residence in what would later be Kansas.
In 1854 the Nebraska Territory was opened to white settlement, and Irish-born Catholics from Pennsylvania settled in the vicinity
of Omaha. On May 15, 1855, the first Mass in Omaha was said. In 1859, a Vicar Apostolic of the new Vicariate of Nebraska was
appointed. Catholicism now had official roots in the Plains.
Meanwhile the Mormons, led by Brigham Young,
spent from September 1846 until May 1848 in the Florence area. In fact, the present Florence Park, which for years served
as a playground for St. Philip Neri pupils, was the Mormon's cattle corral. It had always been our understanding that Brigham
Young's home was in the block of 31st Street just north of our present school and playground. However, a missionary at
the Mormon Cemetery has told us that research shows that he lived on almost the exact spot of the fire station at 31st &
Dick Collins Road. Hundreds of Mormons who died in those dreadful winters lie buried in the Mormon Cemetery at 33rd &
State Streets.
Shortly after the Mormons left for Utah, the Florence Bank was erected, and it stands today at the northwest
corner of 30th & Willit. One by one, other business establishments came in to being. Main Street, which is now 30th
Street, was a wide road, dusty and dirty in summer and fall, and miserably muddy in winter and spring. At the turn of the
century Florence was a typical small western town.
Some miles north of the present Mormon Bridge
was a boat dock called Rockport where a tiny ferry carried passengers to the Iowa side of the Missouri River and back. Of
course, the ice-bound river could not be navigated from November to March.
Until
1904 the Catholics of the Florence area were in somewhat of a spiritual wilderness. The closest churches were the church in
Blair, a mission church in Calhoun, and Sacred Heart at 22nd & Binney. Many of the "old timers" of the
area tell of driving by horse and buggy or walking to Sacred Heart. At
times, Mass was said at William Pulte's home. His brother, Anton, often told of driving his horse and buggy to Blair and bringing
back a priest to say Mass in the Pulte home. A few years later a train ran from Blair to downtown Omaha where Catholics could
attend Mass at St. Mary Magdalene's Church which was formerly a day's trip for those in and around Florence.
A young man, Dennis J. Scannell O'Neill, who had been born in Bloomington, Illinois, and educated at Creighton
University, was friendly with Fr. Paul Francis, the popular minister of the Episcopal Church in Florence. Fr. Paul Francis
was so influenced by O'Neill that he left the Episcopal Church and became Catholic.
O'Neill approached a relative,
Richard Scannell, then Bishop of Omaha, telling him of the faith of the Catholics in the Florence area and of their willingness
to go to any lengths to attend Mass. Obviously, a church was needed in Florence. According
to the article written by Fr. Burke for the dedication of the new church in 1954, and the 75th Anniversary booklet written
in 1979 by Dr. Thomas A. Kuhlman, a Mr. Manning donated the ground on which the church was to be built, but records show that
in 1899 Bishop Scannell bought land for the church from Victor Lantry for $25. Four founding families mortgaged their properties
to make possible the building of the church on the west side of 31st Street, north of Grebe Street: Dennis O'Neill, Joseph
Cloudt, Jacob Long, and William Pulte. St. Philip Neri Parish was founded in 1904 as a mission and named for St. Philip Neri,
who was born in Florence, Italy, in 1515.
The church was blessed on Rosary Sunday, October 2, 1904, by Bishop Scannell. Due to adverse times, the
four families came close to losing their properties, but Count Edward Creighton stepped in with a loan of $1,500 to save them.
For its first year, the parish was served by Rev.
J.C. Buckley of Sacred Heart, or by a priest who visited from Blair. In 1905, Fr. Michael Barrett was transferred from Blair
to be the first pastor of St. Philip Neri. He had studied at St. Bonaventure's College in New York. Until 1918, when the first
rectory was built, Father Barrett lived in a room behind the altar of the Church, taking many of his meals at the W. R. Wall
home on the corner of what is now 31st & State.
Money
was so scarce that it was impossible to buy even the necessities. Ruth Lonergan Kelly told of her mother taking a crock of
fresh-churned butter to Father. When she went to Mass the next day, her crock was being used as a holy water font. Fr. Barrett taught his altar boys Latin during the summer months so that they could
properly serve Mass. Father loved to play the violin. He could often be seen on Sunday afternoons fiddling in the bandstand
in the Florence Park, and usually a large crowd would gather to hear him play. In
1918, a year after Florence had been annexed to the City of Omaha, Fr.Barrett found it possible, with the help of the men
of the parish, to build a rectory on the northwest corner of 31st & Grebe, just south of the church. Shortly after
that he died.
Following Fr. Barrett's death, Fr. Peter Ganon and Fr.Edward J. Flanagan
(later the founder of Boys' Town), assisted the parish until Fr.Timothy O'Driscoll, (also from Blair), was named Pastor late
in 1918. Fr. O'Driscoll was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1876; he attended All Hallow's College in Dublin where he was
ordained in 1902. He came directly to Nebraska and served in several locations before arriving at St. Philip Neri, where he
stayed until his death in 1930. At some point during Fr. O'Driscoll's
pastorate, the original altar of the church was replaced with a new altar contributed by Thomas Fitzgerald, father of Dorothy
Fitzgerald Carl, in memory of his wife.
Money was very, very scarce in those years,
and many times the collection basket held only nickels and dimes. It was said that one Sunday Father was so exasperated that
he took off his cassock and took up the basket himself and made the rounds, and if a person didn't put something in the basket,
Father stood shaking the basket until he did. Father then introduced a system of weekly envelopes for contributions, and finally
was able to buy the land with a house north of the rectory and church for $3,000. A school was built on the site in 1922 at
a cost of $75,000. The house served as a convent for the Teaching Sisters of St. Francis from Clinton, Iowa.
Prior to the building of the school, the 1st floor of the convent was converted to school rooms, and the 2nd
floor served as sleeping quarters for the nuns. Their kitchen was a lean-to on the back of the house. Enrollment in the school
was around 25 students. Many times the Sisters shared their small quarters with boarding students who could not travel back
and forth each day because of the distance of their homes; some stayed at the rectory. Although Fr. O'Driscoll paid his housekeeper and the few teachers $300 per year, he drew a salary in
1925 of $100. Father being a very frugal man, kept expenses to a minimum, and parishioners sometimes grumbled because the
school and church were cold. As enrollment in the school increased, the 7th and 8th grades used the room behind
the altar of the church where Fr. Barrett had first lived, as their school room. Father bought a school carriage and talked
Mr. Sam Smith into using his beautiful team to transport children to and from school.
Great thanks is due to the employees,
volunteers, and ministers of our school and parish who carry on the work of their forebearers. From
the earliest days of the St. Philip Neri Parish, it has served as a community and supplied the spiritual, educational, social
and sometimes physical needs of its people. St. Philip Neri remains the parish with the largest geographical boundaries within
the Omaha Metropolitan area. From the acreages of Ponca Hills to the urban byways of Florence, St. Philip Neri continues to
be a focal point for people of great diversity.
As St. Philip Neri Parish has served its members for over 90 years, so have its parishioners served the parish.
Its school now provides for over 220 students, and its church administers to 875 families. Its splendid school, many active
parish organizations, ministers and debt-free facilities all honor the many sacrifices of its parishioners, both past and
present.
