Catholic Parish of Edwardstown
St. Maria Goretti's
Ascot Park
St. Maria Goretti's Church was located at 30 Wood Street, Ascot Park
St. Maria's Church is now closed. The property including adjacent buildings on the site has been sold to the South Australian Government.
The Mass community from St. Maria's as part of the Edwardstown Parish is now merging into St. Anthony's Mass Community on South Road.
Symbolically, the statue of the young Saint Maria has moved to a chapel in St. Anthony's Church.
Largely, funds from the sale of St. Maria's will assist in the refurbishments at St. Anthony's to the benefit of all now and in the future.
The history of St. Maria's will be appended and incorporated into the history of Edwardstown Parish.
About St. Maria Goretti
Links with information about St. Maria Goretti can be found below:
Extracts from An Informal History of St. Maria Goretti's Church - by John Berry.
The Early Days
In the late 1940's and into the early 1950's when the Ascot Park area was starting to be developed, Catholic families in the district had two churches which they could attend: St. Anthony's at Edwardstown, or St. Anne's at Marion. In those early days Mass was held in what is now St. Anthony's Hall, and this also served for school during the week.
In the Ascot Park area, the first move for Catholics was implemented by Fr. Sullivan of the Glenelg Parish who started a Sunday Mass in the Ascot Park Primary School.
Some of the Edwardstown parishioners used to set the room up each Saturday for the Sunday Mass and then put things away after Mass. There were many problems with the use of the school and something more permanent was needed.
The Decision to Build
Mr. C. Tully and Mr J. Berry approached Fr. Skehan to see if we could get a church and school built in this end of the parish. In November 1952 Fr. Skehan called a meeting of all parishioners to outline the proposals for a church/school.
In these early days we raised moneys by Euchre Evenings, Bug Evenings, Dances, Fetes, Queen Competitions, Fancy Dress Frolics, etc and it was on the strength of this that Fr. Skehan was able to build the Church School which served the area for many years.
Clearing the Land
On of the first tasks was to clear boxthorn bushes from the property the church owned in Wood Street. A busy-bee was arranged and Mr Simionato arrived with his Clydesdale Draught horse. It wasn't very long before the bushes were removed and stacked into a huge heap in the centre of the property. Some short time later - at about dusk - some of the men decided to burn them while they were still green so they wouldn't have too big a bonfire. Boxthorns have an oily sap and burn fiercely when they are green. I am told the flames from the fire were leaping about 100 feet (33 metres) into the air, the Fire Brigade arrived and there were several red faces, not caused by the heat.
The Church/School
Came the great day, 13th September 1953 when the first Mass was celebrated at St. Maria Goretti's and then on 27th September the official opening was conducted by Archbishop Beovich. The afternoon tea for the official party was held in the home of Mr and Mrs Nanke, which is situated at the eastern end of the property.
The school opened at the beginning of 1964 and Sr. M. Gonzalvo of the Dominican nuns was the head teacher. There were initially three grades and then children had to go to St Anthony's or elsewhere.
The church school served our needs for a long time. On Friday afternoons the nuns had the school children shift all the desks and chairs out on to the verandah. In the late afternoon Clem and John Berry and their families swept the building out and put all the chairs and kneelers in position for Sunday Mass.
Following the last Mass on Sundays, groups of volunteers moved all the chairs and kneelers out and put the desks and chairs back for school.
Building St. Anthony's Church
The Edwardstown Parish as a whole developed very rapidly in the late 1950's and the church which was situated in St Anthony's Hall was not large enough for our needs.
Fr. Skehan formed a group of men he called the Church Finance Committee, and he discussed with them means whereby we could raise finance to build a church. It was agreed we commence a planned giving programme. The scheme was a great success financially, but at the expense of the social life of the parish as all fund raising social events were discontinued.
Finally, St. Anthony's church was built, based on a design Fr. Skehan had seen in Sydney.
The Church/Hall at St Maria's
The Planned Giving Programme allowed us to payoff the loan for building St Anthony's fairly quickly. Fr. Skehan started to get itchy feet again! He proposed to the Finance Committee that there was a growing need for improvement to St. Maria Goretti's at Wood Street.
From discussions held it was decided to build a church hall for the spiritual and social needs of the parish. In his argument for this he pointed out the need to stop the disruption of the school set-up each week and the need to relieve the men of the furniture shifting each Sunday.
The church hall was started and the foundation stone was laid on 17th December 1961. The first Mass was celebrated by Mons. Skehan on May 27 1962.
For a short period we held Sunday night dances for the young people of the parish but these had to be discontinued because of complaints from neighbours. Fr Chambers developed an indoors bowling club which used to meet weekly. We used to compete against parishioners of the Church of England, Sixth A venue.
In 1976 the school at Wood Street was closed. When Mons Skehan left the parish, Fr Collins was appointed Parish Priest. It wasn't long before Fr Collins discussed with the Finance Committee the idea of refurbishing the church hall into a church, as the building was seldom used for entertainment now.
The church we have here at Wood Street today has been the result of hard work and effort by the parishioners from the whole parish.
(Picture of St. Maria Goretti painting photographed at The Monastery Glen Osmond SA)