Father Walter Deppisch, pastor of St. Valentine’s Parish in the Bend area, appealed to the bishop in the fall of 1953, about the problem Catholics in his area were having getting to Sunday Mass, due to the long distances they had to drive to attend Mass, plus the habitual spring flooding that occurred on many of the county roads in the area.
Bishop O’Connor’s response was to challenge Father Deppish to show him there were enough Catholics in the area to support another parish. Father Deppisch set out to visit both active and fallen away Catholics in the area, personally inviting the latter to return to the fold. He also gave instructions to people he met who were interested in learning more about the faith.
He soon had 25 families who were enthusiastic about a new church, according to Sharon Skaggs, who wrote the parish history, based on articles published in the Robinson Daily News, the Oblong Oracle and the Western Catholic (predecessor of today’s Catholic Times).
With the help of area priests and donations from parishioners at St. Thomas, Newton; St. Mary, Ste. Marie: St. Elizabeth, Robinson; and his own congregation, St. Valentine, Father Deppisch set up a temporary chapel in a storefront in Oblong, so it would be ready to use as soon as he received permission from the bishop to start a new church.
On Thursday, March 11, 1954, Bishop O’Connor gave the new parish the name “Our Lady of Lourdes.” Father Deppisch celebrated the first parish Mass in the storefront chapel on Sunday, March 21. The following Memorial Day weekend, ground was broken for the church, and on Dec. 12, 1954, Gaudete Sunday, construction was completed, and Bishop O’Connor was there to bless and dedicate the new church.
“In four short years the parish grew from 25 initial families to 38 families, with a total of 125 members,” Skaggs wrote.
According to the 2014 Diocesan Pastoral Directory, Our Lady of Lourdes, Oblong has 107 parishioners, in 63 families. Father Aloysius Okey Ndeanaefo is pastor, and resides at the rectory at St. Elizabeth in Robinson, where he is also pastor.