About our Church

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them                                                                                 Matthew 18:20

St. John Vianney is a Parish Church.  A Parish is the basic building block of the Roman Catholic Church's administrative structure and is usually administered by a Pastor.  For St. John Vianney our Pastor is Fr. Wladyslaw Karciarz, OMI.

A group of parishes in a geographic area make up a diocese – in this case the Diocese of Kamloops under the guidance of Most Reverend David Monroe, Bishop of Kamloops. He is responsible to His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI. For all practical purposes there are just three levels of management between the people of a parish and the Pope. Sunday Mass, with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist by a Priest – together with the People of God – is the very heart of Church life. It is the greatest blessing and privilege as well as an obligation for every baptized Christian. The mysteries of our redemption are celebrated and made present throughout the liturgical year:

"All other works in the life of a Christian lead to Eucharist or flow from it."

We are blessed by – and grateful for – the multitude of volunteers who have come together in faith, hope and love over the past 30 years to do what must be done – first to build the parish complex and the church, then to keep the parish and its programs running smoothly.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish – Heffley Creek, BC

Our Lady of Lourdes is served by St. John Vianney Parish. Sunday Mass is celebrated at 8:30 a.m. Parishioners assemble to the sound of the church bell in the former schoolhouse near the junction of the Yellowhead Highway and the Sun Peaks road. 

The Diocesan Jubilee history compiled by Sister Mary Adele St. Cyr, C.S.J. reports that Father John Mcintyre (later to become Monsignor Mcintyre) celebrated the first Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes on April 21, 1957. The solemn blessing of the church by Bishop Harrington followed on July 7 in the same year. Priests from the Cathedral cared for the parish until 1978, when Fr. Thomas Flannery was appointed Pastor. He was followed by Fr. Tom O'Neill in 1987, Fr. Allan F. Noonan, O.M.I. of St. John Vianney Parish in 1993 and Fr. Wladyslaw Karciarz, O.M.I. in 2007.