Celebrating over 75 Years of our Parish and 60 Years of our Church!
The first Holy Mass celebrated at The Entrance was in the 1860’s at the home of Mr George Taylor who lived at Long Jetty. The priests travelled from Gosford until 1914 when Wyong became a parish, which included The Entrance and the whole of the Lake Macquarie area.
The foundation stone for the first church at The Entrance was laid by Archbishop Kelly on 4 October 1925 and the church was opened Christmas Day 1925. During 1935 to 1937, under the leadership of Father O’Flaherty, the church was remodelled and doubled in length.
In July 1947 The Entrance became a parish in its own right. The first Parish Priest was Father Patrick Brennan who served the parish until September 1953 when Father Reg Reynolds who served the parish until his retirement in January 1980 succeeded him. Both these men, were far more than excellent administrators, both were truly Priestly men, gifted in many ways. They each showed great foresight.
Father Brennan set up the first presbytery and a convent for the Sisters of St Joseph whom he invited to start the first Catholic School here in 1952. Father Reynolds completed his work and built additional classrooms and a library and a new school on the Shelly Beach site. The Sisters of St Joseph laboured for forty very fruitful years in our parish school and in the parish generally, a contribution for which the parish is most grateful.
Father Reynolds also directed the building of a new presbytery, the Catholic Carnival Hall, Reynolds Court Retirement Village and the present beautiful church in which we worship today. This church was blessed and opened in December 1962 by Archbishop James Carroll. Father Reynolds, together with our parish members, was also responsible for the development of Catholic high school education on the Central Coast.
Father Robert Brogan came here in 1979 and made further additions to the Primary School at Shelly Beach and was responsible for coordinating the financing and building of the Mater Dei and Corpus Christi Colleges (now St Peter’s) at Tuggerah.