Before there was a Catholic church in Thomasville, there were many faithful Catholics. Through their lively faith and hard work, along with God’s grace, we are now celebrating 60 plus years at Our Lady of the Highways Catholic Church.
Each summer in the late 1940’s, players of the Hi-Tom’s baseball team added to the population of Catholics, and this led to the first celebration of Mass in our city. During the summer, Mass was offered in Thomasville at the J. C. Green & Sons Funeral Home and the Women’s Club by Fr. Robert MacMillan of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish of High Point.
Mrs. Hazel Cardiff, a woman with great zeal for the Church, led a drive to have a place for worship on a year-round basis. She convinced Bishop Vincent Waters to arrange for Masses to be said in a rental home at 15 College Street in Thomasville. After alterations, the house had its first Mass celebrated on Friday, June 6, 1951 by Fr. Robert MacMillan. He passed the nameless mission chapel to Fr. Hugh Kennedy, the Thomasville Catholic community’s first Pastor, on June 8, 1951. This chapel was named St. Thomas A. Becket on December 27, 1951 and was a mission of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish of Lexington for 7 years until late 1958.
Fr. Lawrence J. Hill, the new Pastor, assisted by his twin brother Clarence Hill, drew up the first plans in 1953 for a permanent building. Bishop Waters chose the present site for the church. The three- and one-half acre location was purchased and a congregation of some forty persons constructed the church at a cost of over $50,000.00. In 1953, the cornerstone was cut. The new church was named Our Lady of the Highways and the first Mass in the new building was celebrated on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1954. The new building was dedicated by Bishop Waters on June 27, 1954, at 11:00 a.m. in 104-degree heat with Fr. John Cardiff, brother-in-law of Hazel Cardiff, giving the sermon, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary choir adding to the celebration.
Our Lady of the Highways remained a parish mission of Lexington until late 1958 becoming a mission parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary in early 1959. In April 1968, Our Lady of the Highways became the mission of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lexington again. Fr. Ron McLoughlin was pastor until June 30, 1970.
On July 2, 1970, Bishop Waters received help from the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and Our Lady of the Highways became a full parish in its own right. Fr. William Stahl, O.S.F.S. was appointed the first permanent pastor and served two terms from July 1970 to July 1975 and then from June 1976 until his retirement in August 1977.
Fr. Stahl was a spiritual and spirited priest and remembered as an excellent pastor. In his two terms as pastor more than half of the marriages and First Holy Communions as well as almost half of the Baptisms performed at Our Lady of the Highways were done by Fr. Stahl. In his first term, the parish acquired a real church organ, and in his second term, our church debt was paid in full. The church grew from 17 to 72 families during his time as pastor.
From July 1975 – 1977, Fr. William Lyman, O.S.F.S. served as interim pastor. Then in August 1977 Fr. John Murphy, O.S.F.S. was appointed pastor. He established a picnic shelter, a mobile home for faith formation classrooms, and increased the parish membership to 95 families; 40% were converts.
In 1984 a Spanish Language Mass was added for the Spanish-speaking parishioners and for the migrants of the area. Our educational, social, and worship space kept getting tighter by late 1985. After many hours of planning for over 3 years, with Diocesan approval, construction of a parish hall and rectory began. On September 17, 1989, the two new buildings were dedicated by Bishop John Donahue. The new buildings, at a cost of over $400,000.00, gave the educational and social space that was needed for the now 163 families.
In 1989, the parish experienced a year of physical and spiritual growth. Through the involvement of active parishioners, the R.C.I.A. process helped new converts to become members of our church. The parish choir was established and has improved our worship and praise. Our faith formation program and a Knights of Columbus council were other ways the Holy Spirit moved us to be people of action and charity.
Fr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, O.S.F.S. was appointed third permanent pastor in August 1977. Under the guidance of Fr. Tom, in late 2000, a drive was begun to raise $150.000.00 to remodel the interior of the church and add more seating space. The interior was refurbished with beautiful stained-glass windows replacing most of the original windows. Two restrooms were added along with a Cry Room and Sacristy. Seating space was increased to accommodate the parish membership of 250 registered families.
In September 2007, Fr. James M. Turner, O.S.F.S. was appointed fourth permanent pastor at Our Lady of the Highways. He greatly enhanced the maintenance of our church, parish hall, and rectory, as well as bringing computers and a secretary to the parish office. As the parish grew, currently at 750 families, Fr. Jim faced the challenges of adding more classrooms and meeting places, as well as ministering to a very large Hispanic population. Father Jim retired due to illness in November of 2020.
In December 2020, Father Gabriel Carvajal Salazar joined us as our first diocesan priest. Our parish continues to grow under his energetic leadership as we navigate through the pandemic and the need to expand our facilities. Fr. Gabriel was installed as pastor by Bishop Peter Jugis on July 13th 2021.
May God continue to bless Our Lady of the Highways parish!!!
The priests who faithfully served our parish
1951 Fr. Robert MacMillan
1951 Fr. Hugh Kennedy, our first pastor
1953 Fr. Lawrence J. Hill & Fr. Clarence Hill
1954 Fr. John Cardiff
1968 Fr. Ron McCloughlin
1970 Fr. William Stahl, O.S.F.S.
1975 Fr. Willam Lyman, O.S.F.S
1977 Fr. Thomas FitzPatrick, O.S.F.S.
1977: Fr. John Murphy, O.S.F.S.
2007 Fr. James Turner, O.S.F.S.
2020 Fr. Gabriel Carvajal-Salazar
We Thank All of Our Pastors/Priests who served our Parish and City over the Years. You are truly appreciated.
We thank the Oblates of St. Francis deSales for your years of Service here at Our Lady of the HIghways Catholic Church