Good Shepherd Catholic Church

Physical Address: 890 W Main Street
Mailing Address: PO Box 730
Lebanon, VA 24266-0730
Telephone Office: (276) 889-1690
E-mail: [email protected]

Sunday Mass: 11:00 AM
Wednesday Mass: 6:00 PM




 

GOOD SHEPHERD’S HISTORY

The church in Lebanon, VA, was first a mission area of St. Therese Catholic Church in St. Paul.
 
Father Roland Hautz, pastor at neighboring St. Therese Catholic Church in St. Paul, first came to Lebanon and said Mass on Christmas Day, 1957, in a trailer chapel (the first of its kind in the Diocese of Wheeling, of which included Lebanon at the time) dedicated to St. Vivian in memory of the recently deceased wife of Larry Welsch of Cincinnati, Ohio, who donated the fully equipped mission trailer chapel. Mayor John McAvoy, a local Catholic, allowed Father Hautz to park the trailer on an empty lot next to the elementary school. Father Hautz would bring a portable organ which Cathy Foy or Margaret Gilmer played.
 
A more permanent structure was needed; therefore, the Diocese purchased a lot on Lebanon’s West Main Street for $7,000 in 1960. By 1962 funds were raised through the Diocese of Wheeling (the parish was later transferred to the Richmond Diocese in 1973-1974). Parishioners and Glenmary brothers helped prepare the foundation by manually hauling dirt and rock to build up the swamp area and digging a ditch for the water and sewer system of the new church. Raymond Hautz (the same person who built St. Vivian’s altar), the retired father of Father “Rollie”, aided the parishioners in the construction of the present day church. Living space adjoining the church proper served as a rectory.
 
Good Shepherd will forever be indebted to a substantial legacy from parishioner Dr. Albert delCostillo received during the mid-1980. The parish council voted with approval from the Diocese to purchase a house in the Town of Lebanon to serve as a rectory.
 
Monsignor Mark R. Lane dedicated the outdoor Good Shepherd statue at the front of the church at their 50th anniversary jubilee on August 28, 2016. Parishioners, benefactors, and grant funds were used to purchase and install the statue.