Bishop Michael William Hyle

Bishop Michael Hyle served as pastor at St. Peter’s from 1943 to 1946.  He was large of frame and had a bass voice with a very low range.  As pastor of the church, Fr. Hyle oversaw several maintenance projects for church buildings, such as the painting of the steeple.

On April 23, 1946, a reception and dance honoring the returned servicemen of Libertytown District was held at St. Peter's Hall (known today as Sappington Hall).  Fr Hyle welcomed the veterans and then refreshments were served and records were played for dancing.

Fr. Hyle also worked with the parishioners to bring back the annual picnic and tournament, which had ceased in 1942 due to the war.  The significance of this event was that 1946 was the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the parish (1821) and the 75th anniversary of the second church (1870).  Tournament riding began at 11 AM and there were several booths and games to enjoy, dancing was held in the afternoon and evening, and food was served throughout the day.  Both Fr. Stephen Chylinski, who had just been appointed pastor of St. Peter’s, and Fr. Michael Hyle, now at St. Stevens in Bradshaw, participated in the event.

Fr. Hyle was born in Baltimore on October 13, 1901.  He attended St. Charles College in Catonsville, MD, St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, and the North American College in Rome.  He was ordained at St. John Lateran in Rome on March 12, 1927, by Bishop Giuseppe Palica.  In 1961, Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, MD, granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.

Upon returning to the U. S., he was assigned to the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, DC, and appointed administrator of Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Washington.  From these assignments he was appointed pastor of St. Peter’s, and following that, as pastor of St. Stephen’s Church in Bradshaw, MD, from 1946 to 1957, and then to St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church in Govanstown, Baltimore. 

Pope Pius XII named him a monsignor on April 30, 1958.

On July 3, 1958, he was named Coadjutor Bishop of Wilmington, DE, with the right of succession to the current bishop, Most Rev. Edward J. FitzMaurice.  He was ordained a bishop on September 24, 1958, and on March 2, 1960, upon the retirement of Bishop FitzMaurice, who had been bishop of Wilmington for 35 years, he acceded to the bishopric.

As the fifth Bishop of Wilmington, he was present in Rome for the first three sessions of Vatican II and left the fourth early due to illness.  He brought the philosophy of the Council home to his diocese and implemented several changes.  He established a board of laymen to assist him in the areas of planning and development and in other areas where laymen had particular expertise.  He established the Parish Council system in the diocese; it was to go into effect in January 1968.

Catholic social agencies were improved, and their programs expanded.  He took an active role in the civil rights movement, financing trips by diocesan priests and sisters to places like Selma, AL, to participate in rallies and marches.  He established St. Mark’s High School in the diocese and the University of Delaware’s Newman Center.

He was also active in ecumenical matters, giving an address to the 1964 Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware and acting informally in groups and organizations to promote this attitude.  In November, 1964, he said, “This is a moral principle – that all men should be absolutely free to follow the religious dictates of their own consciences as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others,” adding, “We believe that individuals have rights, even though they may be in error.”

On occasion he was a heavy smoker and would often ask others for remedies for laryngitis … except giving up cigarettes.

Bishop Hyle died on December 26, 1967.  He entertained a relative in the afternoon and went upstairs to rest.  The housekeeper brought him a newspaper at 5:30. He did not respond to her call for dinner, and she went upstairs at 6 PM and found him collapsed.  He was pronounced dead by a doctor called to the house.  He was the first bishop of Wilmington to die in office. It was later determined that he had had a coronary thrombosis.

The Pontifical Funeral Mass was held on Saturday, December 30, 1967, at Christ Our King Church, his first assignment in the Diocese of Wilmington.  He was buried at All Saints Cemetery, Wilmington, DE.

 

Other Key Moments in St Peter's History

Monsignor John A. Dietzenbach

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John Augustine Dietzenbach was born on December 9, 1951 at West Union, Iowa, the second of six children. He grew up on a family farm near Fort Atkinson, Iowa and attended St. Luke Church and school in St. Lucas, Iowa. After graduating from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in 1974 with a BA double major in Business Administration and Philosophy, he attended St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park, Baltimore, MD. He graduated with a Masters of Divinity in Theology from there in December of 1978 and during his last year in the seminary, he sought incardination (the official acceptance by one diocese of a clergyman from another diocese) with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Fr. John was assigned to All Saints Parish on Liberty Road in January 1979, where he remained through his deaconate ordination on May 24, 1980 and his ordination to the priesthood on November 29, 1980. In the summer of 1981 he was assigned to St. Elizabeth Parish on Baltimore Street where he remained for 5 ye
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St. Peter’s Bicentennial

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The most recent key moment in St. Peter’s history is the commemoration of the parish’s bicentennial. 2021 marked 200 years since the establishment of the parish and the beginning of construction of our first church building, a stone chapel, on land donated by the Coale family. In September 1823, the newly completed first church was consecrated by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal of Baltimore. To commemorate this milestone, a Bicentennial Committee consisting of 20 parishioners planned a number of activities beginning in September 2022 and culminating in Fall 2023. In order to carry out these plans without impacting the parish’s normal operating budget, Bicentennial fundraising efforts were undertaken. Early on, a logo was developed showcasing the current church with the extant portion of the second church prominently featured. This logo was used in the development of a Bicentennial ornament, which has been sold over the past year. A ticketed Bicentennial Ball dinner dance is planned f
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Deacons John Martin, Jerry Jennings and Michael Dvorak

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“I’ve come to serve.” That was the response called out by John Martin in May 2009 and by Jerry Jennings and Michael Dvorak in May 2011 as each was called forward from the pews of Baltimore’s Cathedral of Mary Our Queen to be ordained as deacons by then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) O’Brien. When asked today to talk about their roles as deacons assigned to St. Peter’s, they each summarize by saying “I’m here to serve.” Both Deacon John and Deacon Jerry have served in our military, and Deacon Mike works for the Employee Assistance Program for the Department of Defense.  Deacon John was in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves, while Deacon Jerry is a retired U.S. Army Colonel.  All are husbands and fathers, and Deacons John and Jerry are grandfathers. They each talk about how blessed they are to serve in our parish which values its deacons and allows them to exercise their full diaconal ministry through the liturgy, sacraments, preaching and outreach ministries.  Over the years, our d
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Fr. Martin W. Flahavan

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 Fr. Flahavan was a man of varied talents.  One example was a Marian Children’s Missal with Martin Flahavan featured in photos celebrating Mass.  This Missal, published by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, was designed to help children prepare for their First Communion, and was widely purchased throughout the country by parents for their children in the 1950’s and 60’s. In all the parishes he was assigned to, he was perpetually active doing something to advance the mission of the Catholic Church.   At St. Peter’s, where he was assigned from 1961 to 1965, he constructed a basketball court, developed the largest Altar Boy Society in the history of St. Peter’s, revived the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, organized an Usher Society, began high  school and adult discussion groups in cooperation with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (known to many of us as CCD), made major maintenance improvements to the church and (old) rectory, renovated the parish hall, and developed a new
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Religious Educators of our Children Over the Years

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While the religious education of our children has always been the responsibility of their parents (and extended family), there is documented evidence that the Jesuits who visited Libertytown in early years of the Parish, and later the diocesan pastors, provided specific instruction to our young, prior to their receiving their First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Archive materials from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, however; provide us with our earliest window into the beginnings of formal religious education at St. Peter’s. From these records we learn that the religious women from that Order, beginning with Sr. Theophora Foley and Sr. Fidelis de Katow, moved into their new convent on October 25, 1892. This convent was adjacent to the school where they would be teaching – Notre Dame Academy (now occupied by the Parish office staff). Records don’t indicate how many sisters were teaching at the school at one time, but in 1935, the number of religious in the community were reduced t
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Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

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Catholics in Libertytown were blessed to interact with some of the major pillars of early Catholicism in the United States. For example, the first US bishop, John Carroll, was involved in the initial discussions about the possibility of a church in Liberty. Fr. John Dubois, who would go on to become Bishop of New York had ministered to Catholics here, as did Fr. John McElroy who completed our first church and later founded Boston College. Very notably, they also interacted with the first American born saint! Some eight decades before St. Peter’s would open the Notre Dame Academy, and a decade before our first church building even got underway, a young lady from Libertytown would benefit from the fact that the first free Catholic school for female education staffed by religious women in the U.S. opened here in her county. “Received the sum of twenty five dollars for three months advance payment for the board + tuition of Miss Sarah Coale,” reads a September 1811 receipt signed by Mo
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Father John McElroy, S. J.

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The priest who saw to the completion of the first St. Peter’s church was one very busy Jesuit. He was also responsible for building other local Catholic churches and schools before moving onto important roles from Mexico to Massachusetts. John McElroy came to the US from his native Ireland as a young man in 1803. He was ordained a priest in 1817 at the age of thirty-five. He was sent to Frederick in 1822 to aid the ailing pastor of St John the Evangelist Church, Fr. Francis Maleve, S.J. the successor to Fr. John Dubois, S.S. After arriving, Fr. McElroy, S.J. stayed with Fr. Maleve until he passed away a few days later, on Oct 3, 1822. Fr. McElroy was subsequently named pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church. St. Peter’s was a mission of St. John’s, as was St. Joseph’s on Carrollton Manor. While here, Fr. McElroy continued to build the church in our community…both figuratively & literally. Fr. McElroy’s journal notes that he made his first visit to Liberty on Nov. 12, 1822, and
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James McSherry Coale

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The building of the second St. Peter’s Church (dedicated in 1871, accidentally burned in 2004) was made possible by the generosity of the son of Richard and Catharine McSherry Coale who had donated the land and funding for our first church, dedicated in September 1823.   As our parish outgrew the original stone chapel, James McSherry Coale, son of Richard and Catharine, helped see to construction of a new brick church next to it. James was born in Libertytown on January 19, 1805, educated at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, and later studied law under Richard Potts of Frederick.   He was an Elector in the Electoral College for the 1836 and 1840 Presidential elections.   As noted in another Key Moment it was James, who had inherited the land where our church sits, who followed through in November 1867 on his late father’s intention that the 2 acres be transferred to the Catholic Church.   The “better late than never” transfer facilitated efforts to construct the larger church that the
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Consecration of St. Peter’s First Church

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Jesuit records reflect that the building of St. Peter’s first church was initially overseen by the Jesuit pastor of Frederick, Fr. Maleve. When Fr. Maleve died in October 1822, his successor, Fr. John McElroy, S.J. stepped in to see the completion of Liberty’s Catholic church. St. Peter’s was consecrated on September 28, 1823, as recorded in the diaries of both Archbishop Maréchal and Fr. McElroy: “I set out for Liberty town and got out at Mr. Coales’s, an earnest and zealous man, and owner of all the land about the town. He built a fine stone chapel and intends to give land for a graveyard, and very likely, a presbytery, garden and pasture: great prospect for an ecclesiastical establishment." - Arch Bishop Maréchal diary entry September 26, 1823 [i] “On the 28th I blessed the church. A great crowd from the neighborhood, and singers from Frederick and a fortepiano. Mass with the deacon and sub-deacon. I spoke twice, first on dedication of the church and secondly on confirmat
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Dedication of the Third Church

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“Woo-hoo!” shouted an excited parishioner, breaking the hush a few seconds after Msgr. Dietzenbach opened the doors. Perhaps a bit more vocal than the consecration 200 years ago of our first church, but no doubt very similar in sentiment to the consecration of our first church. Countless hours, lots of energy and significant effort went into making sure this most recent dedication was as flawless as possible. It was no small undertaking to arrange for a dedication liturgy involving a Cardinal, an Archbishop, 2 Bishops, more than 40 priests and deacons and a congregation numbering 800. Of interest, the youngest parishioner in attendance was Ava Folger, who was only 13 days old on the 7th of September and our most senior parishioner to witness the Dedication was Anne Morrissey, 104 years of age at the time. Two hundred years ago, in 1823, Fr. McElroy’s diary contained the following specifics concerning the procession preceding the liturgy of the consecration of the first church: “… s
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