About Our Lady Of The Snows
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In 1960, Father Logue began a fund drive to build what is now Our Lady of the Snows Church in Waitsfield. With a gift of land for the church from Philip and Fleurette Lareau, a $50,000 gift from the estate of Jane Foley Martin and the contributions of local residents and visitors alike, the $100,000 needed to construct the church was secured before long.
The first mass in the new church was celebrated by Fr. Logue on Christmas Eve of 1963. In 1964, Father Logue became the Catholic Chaplain at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury, a post he held until his retirement in 1993.
During the 1990s, Father Logue frequently celebrated mass in Our Lady of the Snows Church on Christmas Eve and often recalled in his homilies the Christmas Eve mass of 1963. The new church was finished except for the pews. Before mass, the congregation was lined up along the outside walls of the church. He reminded his hearers in the 1990s how moving an experience it was for him to see the congregation on Christmas Eve of 1963 move forward en masse as he and the acolytes entered the sanctuary from the sacristy.
Our Lady of the Snows Church was dedicated by Burlington Bishop Robert Joyce on March 1, 1964. In 1965, Father Raymond A. Adams was appointed pastor of Our Lady of the Snows Church with responsibility for the mission in Moretown.
Between 1965 and 1995, Our Lady of the Snows Church had a resident pastor whose responsibilities included St. Patrick's Church in Moretown. In 1995, when Our Lady of the Snows pastor Father Kevin Rooney was appointed pastor of St. John Church in Northfield, the spiritual care of Catholics in the Mad River Valley again became the responsibility of the pastor of Saint Andrew Church in Waterbury — at that time, Father Donald Ritchie.
After his retirement as chaplain at the State Hospital in 1993, Father Logue frequently celebrated weekend masses in Waitsfield. After his death in 1999, weekend masses in Waitsfield were often celebrated by Father John Kinney, a retired priest and by Father Wendell Searles, Vicar General of the Diocese of Burlington.
In the Spring of 2000, Bishop Angell appointed Father Bernard W. Bourgeois pastor of Saint Andrew Church and Our Lady of the Snows church with responsibility for the mission in Moretown.
In 2002, Father Bourgeois discussed the notion of merging Our Lady of the Snows parish and St. Patrick parish with the members of both Mad River Valley parishes in a "town meeting" held in Waitsfield on June 10, 2002. On the recommendation of Father Bourgeois, Bishop Kenneth Angell merged the two valley parishes in 2003 into a single parish known as "Our Lady of the Snows and Saint Patrick Parish."
