To commemorate the 80th anniversary of Columbus Our Lady of Peace Church’s founding, Bishop Earl Fernandes celebrated a Mass for Peace on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Established in 1946 by Bishop Michael Ready only months after the end of World War II, Our Lady of Peace has served generations of the faithful as a neighborhood parish that includes the Clintonville area in north Columbus.
The Saturday evening Mass was offered as both a call for peace throughout the world and to recognize the parish’s service to the community for 80 years.
“The Church is the presence of Christ in the human reality,” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily. “And you, Our Lady of Peace Parish, you are the presence of Christ right here in these neighborhoods … to bring hope, to bring forgiveness, to show mercy, to bring God’s love to others.”
The church is located at the corner of Dominion Boulevard and North High Street on land that was sold to Ansel Phinney in 1855 and still was known as the Phinney farm when it was purchased by the diocese from Benjamin and Emma Patterson in 1946.
Its first Sunday Masses were in a funeral home and in the former Beechwold Theatre, with weekday Masses in the home of Father George Foley, the founding pastor who served the parish for 19 years until his death in 1965. Separate surplus barracks from a closed Army depot in Marion served as the first permanent church and school buildings and were moved to the parish property in 1946 and 1947, respectively.
Our Lady of Peace School is located behind the church and offers Catholic education for children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school building in use today was dedicated in 1952, and a combined church and gymnasium connected to it was added the following year. The current church, which included a rectory, offices and meeting rooms, was dedicated in 1967. The diamond-shaped building has a spire rising 110 feet, making it a North High landmark.
The school gym is named for Msgr. Kenneth Grimes, the parish’s pastor from 1986 to 2006, the longest tenure of any of its pastors.
Also on the parish grounds is a convent that has been home to four members of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (FIH) since 2022. The convent originally was used by the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs (later Dominican Sisters of Peace) when they taught and assisted at the school.
Father Anthony Raj Bellamkonda Irudayam, appointed the parish’s pastor last year; Father Sean Dooley, a former pastor; and Father Pete Gideon, a former parish administrator, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Fernandes on Jan. 24 hours before a severe winter storm hit Ohio. They were assisted at the altar by Deacons Lou Griffith and Geoffrey Fortkamp.
Five years earlier, Bishop Robert Brennan, who led the Diocese of Columbus before being appointed to shepherd the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, had come to Our Lady of Peace in January 2021 to offer a 75th anniversary Mass while Father Dooley was OLP’s pastor.
Distinctive features in the church’s main sanctuary are its original “Lamb of God” cross that was restored in 2011 by parishioner Jerry Ulibari, who added rays of light and panels depicting “living water.” He also created murals of St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary, which mirror images found elsewhere in the church.
“Jesus had a mother who is the Queen of Peace,” Bishop Fernandes said. “May Our Lady, Queen of Peace, watch over you and inspire you to proclaim the kingdom with an unarmed and disarming beauty so that others might no longer have to dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death but might walk in the path of life.”
For more information about the church, go to its website at www.olp-parish.org.