Parish History

It all started when…

Our story begins on June 6, 1944, when about 20 families attended the first Mass in the ‘Little House in the Woods, the first home of the St. Bernadette Mission Church.” Most of the families lived in Price Hill, a western suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, but spent their summer weekends on Locust Lake in Amelia. St. Bernadette parish began with a tract of 5 acres that included a small house.

Additional acres were purchased and soon St. Bernadette Mission grew to 65+ acres. Fr. Claude Nevins was the first Pastor. Several parishioners from St. Williams Church in Price Hill owned weekend retreats at Locust Lake and were influential in St. William's donation of $6,000 to help get the rural mission started, along with the Mater Ecclesia [music] Society, a great interest of Fr. Nevin.

The ‘Temporary” Church, (now Stievenard Hall) was built later in 1944 by parish member, Francis Stievenard. Many say that the Church was named after his sister, Bernadette. His other sister, Georgette, died in March 2009 and left a substantial bequest to St. Bernadette Church, or (more likely) because of Fr. Nevin’s great devotion to the Virgin Mary. (He made a pilgrimage to Lourdes France, returning with a “barrel” of healing water, and had the Grotto built [1948] after having successfully prayed to Mary for good festival weather.)

It wasn’t long before three Sisters of Charity arrived and opened a school for grades 1-8 in two rooms of a farmhouse, adjacent to which was added the “temporary” church. Fr. Nevin began to build a replica of the Lourdes Grotto to fulfill a promise he made to the Blessed Virgin. All the work on the grotto was done by parishioners and rocks from the local creek beds were used in its construction.

With the assignment of Fr. Bernard Piening as pastor in 1950, St. Bernadette became a ‘Church’ rather than a ‘mission’.

During his time as pastor, he made many improvements. These included a new altar, tile floor, and new pews with padded kneelers. With the help of parishioners, he added running water, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and a kitchen to the school. A year or so later, the Hall was built to serve as a cafeteria by day and bus garage by night! Six classrooms were also added with offices to the original school, ready for the 1956-57 school year.

Fr. Buddlemeieer arrived in 1957. The convent was built that year (now the pre-school) and a new rectory (now the parish center) was added in 1963. By 1968 a typical Sunday brought about 600 people to church and 174 envelopes would be collected in the basket. On March 6, 1966, there was exactly $11.99 left in the parish treasury. The young Church continually had financial challenges.

Over the next 20 years, many improvements were made to the church and cafeteria. By the time Fr. Fay arrived in July 1985, much was in disarray, and record-keeping was haphazard. Fr. Fay bought computers and developed software to automate many of the parish records. He also remodeled the Church to bring it up to date with the guidelines from Vatican II.

Sister Mary Assumpta Koesters, a retired Sister of the Dominican Sister of the Sick Poor joined the parish staff in 1990 and began a ministry to the homebound. Parishioners joined her in this ministry and this program is still active today. Sister Assumpta was an extraordinary lady and kept everyone on their toes. When her health began to fail in 2004, it was necessary for her to move.

Fr. Hans Gruenbauer became pastor in 1991 and in 1992, fundraising began for a multipurpose building/gym. The multipurpose building project (now Venture Hall) began in June 1996 at a cost of over $500,000, nearly $400,000 over the projected cost. Fundraising and a major bequest by John Ventura (died 1994) made up the difference.

Some parishioners were unhappy that the gym was built when a new church was desperately needed. The little white church could only accommodate about 165 people. Soon, the 11:00 AM Mass was moved to Ventura Hall with a makeshift platform serving as the sanctuary area. Attendance at that Mass was usually around 400 people.

In 1998, a planning process and fundraising toward a new church began. Although over $1.1 million were raised, our request to build a church was denied by the Archdiocese because our finances were not stable enough to support the loan required for the project.

In 2005, a self-supporting pre-school was opened and was so successful that alterations were made to the space in 2010, and capacity was increased from 30 to 60 students.

Fr. Bill Stockelman became pastor in 2005. He knew our need for a new church and soon formed a committee, wrote a prayer, and fundraising began. He believes that St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes are responsible for the approval to build a new church because he and a group of parishioners made a pilgrimage to Lourde, where they prayed for a new church!

Our new church was dedicated by Archbishop Pilarczyk on November 22, 2009. Our parish family continues to grow as we number over 800 families and are known for welcoming all who visit or join our parish family.

In March 2009, the parish received a large bequest from Georgette Stievenard, which allowed the parish to pay off debt and make many improvements to our campus. Over the past 75 years, the physical structure of St. Bernadette Church has been transformed and the spiritual life of the parish, through the grace of God, has flourished.

Today with our present pastor, Fr. Tim Ralston, appointed in July 2017, St. Bernadette parish looks to the future. New families, a growing music ministry, increasing faith formation opportunities, a flourishing school all lead us to go forward in faith and hope.

Our Pastors