Columbus St. James the Less Church was founded in 1947 on what used to be a dairy farm in the North Linden neighborhood. Its original mission was to serve young, middle-class families, mainly of European origin, who were moving into houses built there after World War II.
Fast forward 76 years to today. The original occupants of most of those homes have moved elsewhere, but the parish and its neighborhood again are filled with young, middle-class families, this time primarily with roots in Central and South America, along with many of African and Asian origin.
“We’ve come full circle,” said Diana Brnusak, a parishioner for 30 years, who was chairman of the parish’s 75th anniversary celebration, which took place on Saturday, March 11.
“This parish has very deep family roots, with many of the original families still involved or returning here for Masses. Now it’s being reborn, thriving as it did in the beginning because of the children coming to school here and the involvement of their parents.”
The celebration was the last of three anniversary events hosted by the parish in the past 12 months. There also was a picnic in June and a food festival in October. More than 200 people attended the celebration, including Mary Jane O’Brien, a founding member of the parish who turns 100 in April. She and her husband sent 11 children to St. James the Less School, which named its gymnasium in her honor.
Also in attendance were members of the Eyerman family, which has been part of the parish since its early days; Shirley Dusenberry, one of the school’s first principals; and Father Kenneth Pleiman, CPpS, who was pastor in the late 1980s at St. James the Less (the saint’s title refers to the younger of the two Apostles named James).
Office administrator Mary Souder, a lifelong parishioner who has worked in its office for 35 years, said the parish has about 850 families, 70 percent of whom are of Latino origin. It has shown significant growth since 2011, when a Catholic Times profile said it had about 650 families.
At that time, it had three weekend Masses in English and two in Spanish. Now there are three Masses in each language. She also said the parish had 75 baptisms, 70 confirmations and 75 first communions last year, mainly because so many of its immigrant families are young and growing.
Souder said much of the credit for encouraging Latino families to come to the parish goes to the late Father Patrick Patterson, CPpS, who died last September. Father Patterson was a missionary in Chile for more than 25 years before returning to the United Sates in 1995. He was at St. James from 1999 to 2013, began celebrating a weekly Mass there in Spanish in 2002 and saw its attendance constantly grow.
From its beginning, the parish has been served by members of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who were invited by Bishop Michael Ready to serve its spiritual needs at the time it was founded. The Precious Blood order has its provincial headquarters in Chicago and also is known locally for its connections with shrines in Maria Stein and Bellevue.
Father Antonio Baus, CPpS, a priest for more than 36 years and a seminary student of Father Patterson’s in Chile, has been pastor at St. James for five years. Brother Tom Bohman, CPpS, has been on its staff since 2013. The staff also includes Father Jim Gaynor, CPpS, who is in his mid-80s and served as a missionary for many years in Chile, Peru and Colombia, and Deacon Greg Evers, CPpS, who is studying for the priesthood.
“This is a very special parish because of its diversity,” Father Baus said. “Seventy-five years ago, the neighborhood’s first residents came here and worked hard over time, with the help of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, to build a community.
“Hispanics started arriving 20 years ago when everything was already built. That was a blessing for them. But it also could be said that without the Hispanic population, there may not be a parish today because there would not have been enough people to keep it open.”
Father Baus recalled that a festival that took place shortly after his arrival in Columbus helped him learn more about the parish and helped its members learn more about one another.
“Everybody brought in food from their own countries,” he said. “Food from 10 different nations was sold in our cafeteria. Everybody shared their own heritage through the food they brought, and it was better than words.”
Father Baus, or “Father Tony” as he calls himself, said his parishioners come from 26 nations. Most are Latino, with the majority from Mexico but also representing Honduras, Venezuela, Peru, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. “I’m the only Chilean,” he said.
He understands the immigrant experience because his parents and grandparents migrated from Spain to Chile, where his parents still live. Father Baus said that when his order decided it was time for a new pastor to come to St. James, he sought the job.
“For me, this was a way to pay back the many Precious Blood missionaries from North America who gave the best of their young years to work and serve and minister in Chile,” he said.
Although the presence of Latinos and other immigrants in the parish has constantly grown in the past two decades, “it’s a challenge to bring people together,” he said. “Many people here have a welcoming attitude, but some have been resistant and may have felt somehow invaded,” he said.
“That’s understandable, but when they look around, they don’t see a lot of Anglo-American families with young children. The young families are mostly Hispanic. So, people realize we’re in a time of transition.”
Several years before coming to Columbus, Father Baus did advanced study at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where Brother Bohman was a classmate. Brother Bohman is the pastor’s liaison between the parish and its school, and the two compare notes every night while eating their evening meal in the parish rectory.
“It’s great to have him around,” Father Baus said. “I would never have come here to serve in a parish without another Precious Blood priest or brother from the U.S. to help me.”
Like the parish it serves, St. James the Less School, founded in 1949, is undergoing a rebirth. Samary Cecchetti, its principal for the past seven years, said the school serves St. James the Less and the neighboring Columbus parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas, Holy Name and Santa Cruz.
It has 441 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, most of them from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other Central American nations, plus a number of African American and African immigrant students, and others from the Philippines and other Asian nations. Many attend the school with the help of tuition assistance from the diocese and the state.
There’s plenty of room for more. At its peak in the “baby boom” era of the 1950s and ’60s, the school had 1,200 students and was the largest in the diocese.
“I’m so proud of our diversity, with students from so many countries bringing the uniqueness of how they celebrate the Catholic faith to school,” Cecchetti said. “One particular way we notice this is through the various titles by which they honor the Virgin Mary, particularly the Filipino students.”
Under former principal Yvonne Schwab, the school began an ongoing partnership with the Latino Enrollment Institute of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, which offers a formation program to help Catholic schools attract and serve Latino families in their community.
“We meet with representatives from Notre Dame every month,” Cecchetti said. “All of our staff members have been trained to teach our children in ways they can understand. All our classes are taught in English. Sometimes parents of potential kindergarten students are concerned because English is not spoken in their homes. When they bring the children in for screening, we tell them that if the children don’t speak English now, they will by the end of the year.
“In many cases, it’s the children who teach their parents English,” Cecchetti said. “For me, success comes on a daily basis as students through their behavior show they embrace the Catholic faith and the ideals of a Catholic education. Our goal is to make sure students can read, write and speak English fluently while retaining proficiency in their native languages.
“When we see our students being admitted to Catholic high schools like St. Francis DeSales, Cristo Rey or St. Charles and making the honor roll there, it says a lot about the foundation we’ve established here.”
Brother Bohman said the parish is stronger today than it has been in years because of how its older and newer members have accepted one another.
“I’ve seen a lot of transition here in 10 years,” he said. “It’s been a positive thing, this meshing of cultures, and I anticipate seeing much more of it as people continue to recognize the value of each other’s unique perspective.
“The lesson is that if we treat people well, good things happen.”
