Clergy

Pastor: Rev. Saju M. Vadakumpadan, C.M.I.
Permanent Deacon: James D. “Jimmy” Richerson

Pastoral Staff

Bookkeeper: Mike Newcomb
Secretary: Libby Barlow

Mass Schedule

Sundays — Sat evening: 4 p.m.
Holy Days — See bulletin
Daily — Tue: 5:00 p.m.

Reconciliation

Saturdays — 3:30-3:45 p.m.

Eucharistic Adoration

First Tuesdays — 4-5 p.m.

History

The history of the Church of Our Lady of the Hills in Finley begins with the Church of St. Matthew. Built in 1874, St. Matthew was a mission attended from St. Francis Xavier in Raywick and St. Mary’s College. When the road up the Muldraugh Hill was completed around 1900, the congregation of St. Matthew Church moved to Finley. In 1907, the lumber from the old church building was used to construct a rectory for the priest and to add some 10 feet to the cottage that was bought with the property and would be used as the new church. In 1908, Bishop William George McCloskey established the parish as Our Lady of the Hills. Father John J. Neafsey was the first pastor.

Already that same year the parish was thriving. After visiting for the Sacrament of Confirmation, Bishop McCloskey, impressed with the good showing in the overcrowded church, ordered that a thirty-foot addition be added to the building, with the bishop himself defraying the cost. But by 1948 the church was again too small and with no place to build on the existing site, an area on the other side of the cemetery was selected for the new church building. The pastor, Fr. Louis P. Bossung, requested that parishioners furnish logs, labor, and what money they could to make the new church possible. This is the church that exists today.

In 1950, land was deeded for the construction of a school for Our Lady of the Hills. Two Dominican sisters came to staff the school in 1954, so the pastor, Fr. Henry Stuecker, built a convent for the sisters behind the church. The sisters left Finley in 1964, and the school property was sold off. The convent is now used as the parish rectory.

In October 1970, Mrs. Sara B. Martin left part of her estate to the parish, which coupled with the money earned from the farm willed to Our Lady of the Hills by Richard Moore and family, funded the parish hall, called Martin Hall.

In autumn of 1986, the exterior of the church building was improved with bricking and other external renovations. The steeple was added in 1990. In 1995, the interior was painted, tiles were added to the altar, and the stain glass windows were installed. In 2005 a new back high altar was built, and the sanctuary was remodeled. The Parish currently has almost 330 members.

The people of Our Lady of the Hills are a family-oriented community with generations of history with the parish.