Burkesville, Cumberland Co.
Established 1976
Registrations: 39 (Attended from Emmanuel in Albany)
Please note: parish maiiling address is different from its location.
LOCATION
264 Glasgow Rd., Burksville, Ky 42717-9696
PARISH OFFICE (Attended from Emmanuel, Albany)
Mail to: c/o P.O. Box 160, Albany, Ky. 42602-0160
Phone: (270) 864-4107
E-mail: holycrosscc@windstream.net
CLERGY
Pastor: Rev. Joel C. Rogers, C.P.M.
Associates: Rev. Kenneth Soroko, C.P.M., Rev. Charles Zmudzinski, C.P.M.
MASS SCHEDULE (C.D.T.)
Sundays — Sun: 10:30 a.m.
Holy Days — See bulletin
Daily — Tue: 5 p.m.; Thu: 5 p.m.
HISTORY
Before the construction of cathedrals and fine church buildings, early Christians met in each other’s homes for worship and fellowship. Cumberland County’s history reveals that prior to the completion of Holy Cross Catholic Church in 1985, a handful of Catholics worshiped in the same intimate manner. Thus was Roman Catholicism introduced to this small Southern Kentucky town where, even today, less than one percent of the population is Catholic.
During the 1970s, as the handful of worshipers became a roomful, more thought was given to accommodations. Father John Malloy and his associate Father Joseph Burgdorf from St. Helen Parish in Glasgow celebrated Saturday evening Mass in the log cabin in Burkesville’s City Park, known today as the Dr. Joseph Schickel Veteran’s Memorial Park.
Holy Cross, then known as Cumberland Catholic Church, became a mission of Emmanuel Parish in neighboring Clinton County in 1976. Father Joseph Dawson purchased a house with a renovated basement, located on Veteran’s Alley in Burkesville.
In 1984 Joseph and Dorothy Schickel donated most of the acreage where Holy Cross stands today, and another strip of land was donated by Dr. William McComas in memory of his wife, Lillian. With the leadership of Father Gerald Bell and with the skilled direction of parishioner Jim Lee, parishioners and others volunteered their labor, building Holy Cross into the beautiful sanctuary it is today.
Holy Cross’s presence has had a positive effect on Cumberland County. A small community of about 50 parishioners with a high percentage of participation, the parish has long been in the vanguard of activities that benefit the county as a whole and which promote unity with other Christian denominations.