In September, 1950, the Reverend Edward Murnane arrived in Eugene to become the pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church, the only Catholic Church in town.

Father Murnane found that the number of households in St. Mary’s parish was too large to serve the needs of the people. He decided it was time to form new parishes in the area.

In May of 1954, St. Peter Parish came into being with the purchase of 10 acres of land from the Pennington Estate on Maxwell Road.

In 1954 a campaign was held to raise money to start building. Sufficient monies were raised to build a school and gymnasium. The decision was made not to build a church but to use the gym as a temporary church. And so it was.

Dedication of a four room school and gym took place on July 22, 1956. The sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas consented to run the school. It was supervised by Sr. M. Ermena, CSJ, and Sr. M. Luciana CSJ. The school opened on September 4, 1956, with an enrollment of 57 students.

At this time the church did not have a full time pastor. Fr. Murnane was the temporary pastor and Fr. Robert Tommiser was the assistant. Not until September of 1957 with the naming of Rev. Daniel O’Connell as the first Pastor. Until this time St. Peter’s had been a mission of St. Mary’s Church. Celebration of mass had been taking place in two of the four classrooms. With the completion of the gymnasium mass was now celebrated in the gym.

Bob Fitzgerald arrived in June, 1963 to assist the pastor in many duties. After a short while Rev. James McConnell arrived and was the Assistant until September, 1967.

The wing of the school which is now the Parish Center was built in 1958. By 1960 the Rectory was completed and all the buildings we have now were in place. Fr. O’Connell was the pastor until 1966.

Fr. Louis Rodakowski was the next pastor, and he stayed for just one year.

Soon the school had expanded to 8 grades and had over 200 students. There were 3 nuns and 3 lay teachers. But by 1970, enrollment went down to 138 and the Sisters of St. Joseph were called back by their Mother Superior. The school sadly closed in 1970 for economic reasons.

Fr. Vincent Cunniff arrived on December 1, 1967. A library was constructed (the current chapel), the grounds were asphalted, new windows were installed in the church, the church was painted inside and out, the classrooms and new wing were made into a parish center.

After the school closed, the classrooms have been used for parish meetings and Religious Education.

In 1996, while Fr. David Cullings was pastor, construction of baseball fields began that would be used by Kids Sports, and later Babe Ruth Baseball.

In 2008, while Fr. Dick Rossman was pastor, construction began on the New Entryway of the church. This modern space was constructed to accomodate fellowship and have a separate space from the worship space where people could gather. 

In 2006 Fr. Rossman became the pastor of both St. Peter and neighboring St. Mark Parishes. Since that time we have shared a pastor and later, in 2014 the staff was combined to serve both sister parishes. 

Deacon David Sorensen has been our deacon since 2006.

Pastors of St. Peter Church through the years:

Temporary: Rev. Edward Murnane 1954-57
1. Fr. Daniel O’Connell 1957-66
2. Fr. Louis Radakowski 1966-67
3. Fr. Vincent Cunniff 1967-80
4. Fr. Philip Prudhomme 1980-91
5. Fr. Ed Altstock 1991-92
6. Fr. David Cullings 1993-2005
7. Fr. Dick Rossman 2005-13
8. Fr. John Marshall 2013-14
9. Fr. Michael Jeeva Antony 2014-present