The story of Our Lady Help of Christians parish began in June of 1974 when James Hickey who was then Bishop of Cleveland at the time, met with Pope Paul VI and was asked what he was doing to evangelize the 'unchurched' Catholics in his diocese. Upon returning home, Bishop Hickey conferred with his secretary, Fr. John Fiala, who just happened to grow up in the rural area at the far southwestern corner of the Cleveland diocese where the Catholic population had to travel many miles to attend Mass on Sunday. Any real linkage with surrounding parishes was practically non-existent.
For the next two years the needs in the area were researched and the decision was made to establish one parish with several worship sites that would include a geographical are of 500 square miles encompassing parts of four counties in North Central Ohio. This new concept of parish would be overseen by a Pastoral Team made up of clergy, vowed religious, and lay pastoral ministers working collaboratively to shepherd the parish into existence and continue to journey into the future.
It just so happened that a 90 acre piece of land became available in the rural area in question where the diocese previously operated a home for boys with special needs. This property, with its two existing buildings became the administration site and the residence for the Pastoral Team. Things moved quickly after that and the first weekend Masses were celebrated on June 26th and 27th, 1976 in homes, town halls, school cafeterias, and churches of other Christian religious traditions.
From its very beginning Our Lady Help of Christians was unique in concept as a parish entity. OLHC is not a cluster of parishes that merged after having 'already established identities and histories. Neither is it a grouping of 'mission outposts' established under the sponsorship of an existing parish. Nor is it a 'cooperative' made up of independent church communities collaborating for purely practical reasons.
Rather it is a single parish comprised of four 'brother/sister' communities, all founded at once and as one, to collaborate in realizing a shared parochial vision and common mission. Our Lady Help of Christians remains one parish made up of four interdependent communities with access to four worship sites and a unified sense of purpose. From the very beginning the people of the parish and the Pastoral Team worked together to forge a collaborative partnership and empower each other to take their rightful roles in the life of the parish.
The idea of ownership among parishioners took strong hold. Parish identity developed around the notion of CHURCH as THE PEOPLE OF GOD. So much so that in the beginning some parishioners even questioned the need for the construction of 'church buildings'. They did not want to be identified with a building, but known rather for their relationships in the Lord. Although the parish did end up with simple, compact, multipurpose worship sites, modest administrative offices, and team residences built or renovated by parish volunteers, the notion of "CHURCH" as a network of Christ-centered, hospitable, caring and interdependent believers persists as a defining feature.