History

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Indio, began as a Franciscan Mission in 1928. It became a quasi-parish in 1934 and was raised to full parish status in 1937. Fr. Patrick Kenny, its first pastor (1937-’44) built the first church in the same year. The ’40s and ’50s saw so rapid a growth in the Catholic population that the old church could no longer keep pace with the liturgical and sacramental services. Fr. John Rhatigan, pastor from 1958-’61, built the present church, which was solemnly blessed on April 24, 1960 and dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

The community has grown significantly over the years and much has been done to minister to the needs of the faithful and promote Catholic identity. Today the parish serves 5000+ registered families. However, of the 80,000+ people who live in Indio, over sixty percent of are Catholic due to the large number of Hispanics in the area. The community is growing in number, housing opportunities, and civic involvement. Youth are currently the number one priority in Indio with the parish and civic government working together.

The academic arm of the church’s mission is Our Lady of Perpetual Help School which opened its doors in 1951 to 218 students. At 2010 the enrollment is at 239 students.

List of OLPH past Pastors up to present:

1937-44    Rev. Patrick J. Kenny (First Pastor)
1944-45    Rev. Michael J. Browne
1945-48    Rev. Richard P. Maher
1948-55    Rev. Joseph Mackey
1955-58    Rev. Michael O’Duignan
1958-61    Rev. John Rhatigan
1961-66    Rev. Msgr. Maximiliano Gomez Macouzet
1966-67    Rev. J. Ernest Hayes
1967-69    Rev. Llyod Bourgeois
1969-80    Rev. J. Vincent Sullivan
1980-84    Rev. Patrick Comerford, C.S.Sp.
1984-86    Rev. Michael Grey, C.S.Sp.
1986-88    Rev. Joseph B. Gaglione, C.S.Sp.
1988-92    Rev. Robert Clover
1992-93    Rev. Bishop Gerard Barnes
1993-2002 Rev. Rafael Partida
2002 -08   Rev. John S. Vieira
2008-        Mrs. Laura Lopez (Pastoral Coordinator)

CURRENT DESCRIPTION OLPH PARISH

Laura Lopez took over the pastoral leadership of OLPH in 2008 and is presently working on new plans as the parish continues to grow with great activity and energy.

One significant blessing for OLPH in the past years is the amount of people passing from having been catholic believers to being Disciples of Christ. We saw over 100 parish members make a commitment to participate in different parish, school ministries and leadership roles. The harvest of new registered families in 2008-2009 is more than we’ve seen in a
single year for many years. Another blessing at OLPH has been an increase in Mass attendance. In the last three years our mass attendance count went from 3131 in 2006 to an average of 3900 people every week in 2009.

In January of 2009 OLPH started a new governance structure that gathers every month more than 40 leaders. The leaders get together to pray, dialogue and make plans to bring to reality our mission statement.

The leadership includes the Pastoral Coordinator, Priest ministers, staff (parish & school), pastoral council and five commissions that oversee the essential aspects of the parish. Stewardship is the center
to the structure. Commissions:Worship, Community, Educacion, Outreach and Administration.