By Amanda Hudson, News Editor
SOUTH BELOIT—Parishioners and friends at St. Peter Church here celebrated the 100th anniversary of their church building at a Mass the evening of Oct. 19.
At the altar Bishop David Malloy was joined by several priests, some of whom currently or in the past have served at the parish. Pews were filled with people of all ages, and the Mass and music were bilingual.
Speaking in both Spanish and English, Bishop Malloy reflected on past and present. He shared that his research said that the land on which St. Peter Church now sits was the highest point in the city when the first pastor of St. Peter’s purchased it. “How often (a church especially in smaller, rural, one-church towns) is a point of that light on the hill. It’s a point of witness and
testimony,” the bishop said.
St. Peter Church’s cornerstone was laid in February 1925, he said, adding that the coming Saturday would be the actual 100th anniversary of the dedication. The day of that dedication Mass was the first time the Solemnity of Christ the King was celebrated as an annual Church feast, then held on the last Sunday of October.
Bishop Malloy noted that much of the remodeling work leading to a 1986 rededication at St. Peter Parish was done by the parishioners themselves. “It was a sign of the love of the people of this parish for this church,” he said.
The bishop also spoke of next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States and noted that “this parish has covered 40% of the lifetime of the United States …
“How much of the prayer life of all of the faithful in 100 years has been centered in this building,” he said, briefly
pondering the silent and public prayers prayed in the church over all those years — prayers for family members, for consolation in loss, and prayers of thanksgiving for “some blessing that has been given … You are the living continuation of the prayers and the benefits of the sacrifices and the sacraments that were offered in this church … and so, too, is your living faith that continues.”
That faith leads to the present day. “This is a time for us to be filled with gratitude and thanksgiving,” the bishop said, encouraging all to pray for those who built, remodeled, and kept the church “well done,” along with all the priests who have served there, so that this church can “welcome us with open doors, with open arms.”
Quoting then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XIV) about how important a parish church is, Bishop Malloy said it “becomes our spiritual home … that place of warmth and reception … and creates the memories that give us hope and give us comfort all the days of our life.”
“What a magnificent thing we are celebrating!” he concluded.
A dinner followed the anniversary Mass in the parish hall on the lower southwest part of the parish campus.
A Brief History of St. Peter, South Beloit
St. Peter Parish was established by Bishop Peter J. Muldoon soon after he came to the newly-established Diocese of Rockford. Mass was celebrated for the first time at the parish’s first church on Aug. 15, 1909. That first frame church
was dedicated on Jan. 30, 1910.
Ground was broken for the present church and rectory on Oct. 24, 1924, and the cornerstone laid on Feb. 1, 1925.
Bishop Muldoon dedicated St. Peter Church on Oct. 25, 1925.
St. Peter School was built and opened for the 1963-1964 school year beginning with four grades and adding a grade a year up to eight grades. The school served parish children for many years until financial challenges closed it during the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of the school year in 2020.
Extensive remodeling was followed by the rededication of the church on Nov. 16, 1986, by Bishop Arthur J. O’Neill. In 1996, Bishop Thomas G. Doran installed the Blessed Sacrament at the parish’s new Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary Perpetual Adoration Chapel.
Priests serving St. Peter Parish currently are parochial administrator Father Rafael Parafina and parochial vicars Father Jorge Loaiza and Father Robert Blood.
