History:
In 1983, Father Hever and the Parish Council formed a building committee which was chaired by Dick Barton (still a current member of our parish). In early 1985 the committee chose Phoenix Architects Jones and Roberts to build the new church. Work began in April of 1985 and the new Church was completed by December of 1985 at a cost of over One Million dollars for the building and furnishings. The first Mass was said in the new church on December 15, 1985. The current Church of St. Thomas Aquinas was dedicated on February 23, 1986 with Bishop Thomas O'Brien and Fr. Tom Hever officiating the Mass.
Our present Church seats 600 people and has a separate chapel that has the Stations of the Cross from the Mission Church. It also has original Art work as the stone wall statues were sculpted by Michael Myers of Prescott. The statues and stained glass in the Church were all designed by Maureen McGuire of Scottsdale. Dave Jones, the architect, designed the altar to symbolize granite rock rising out of the floor as a sacrificial altar in the Old Testament and the wooden table on top symbolizing the Last Supper in the New Testament.
Many changes have transpired since that day in 1986. We have had the privilege of seeing four more pastors come our way; Fr. Paul Smith (1989-1992), Fr. Franklin Bartel (1992-1998), Fr. Ray Greco, Associate Pastor (1993-2000), and Fr. Kieran Kleczewski (1998-present).
In 1995, Father Bartel renamed the Activity Center the Aquinas Center. A Statue of St. Thomas Aquinas was retrieved from the old Mission Church and is now prominently displayed in the Center.
Our very first Deacon, Tony Scarbino, joined our church staff in 1993. In 1994, Deacon Chuck Shaw joined our Parish. Deacon Tony moved out of town, but in 1996 Deacon Dan Peterson joined us too. Deacon Dan Peterson left in the fall of 1997 and became director of the Diaconate for the Diocese of Phoenix. Deacon Bill Phares joined us in the spring of 1998 and left in the late spring of 1999. In August 2000, Deacon Joe Root joined our parish. He left and we have been blessed by having Milford Suida join the parish. Mr. Suida was ordained as a deacon on November 6th, 2004, and continues to serve our parish as Deacon Milford Suida.
During this period of time we have also seen tremendous growth in the West Valley. Our Church, which was originally intended to serve the Litchfield Park, soon became a West Valley Church. With the completion of the I-10 Interstate and the sale of the area around Litchfield Park to Pinnacle West , a local developer, the little village of Litchfield Park changed immensely as it became a City in 1986. This changed the entire strategy of the original concept of the Church. With all of the new housing areas and new commercial development surrounding Litchfield Park, our Church population has grown from the 300 families at the old Church to over 1300 families in 1998. We now have six weekend Masses instead of the two we had in the Mission Church.
This situation presented a space problem and in November of 1996 a major fund raising drive was held to retire the Church debt and to remodel the Aquinas Center to add two more Religious Education classrooms. The old Rectory was converted into Parish offices. An interim Rectory was purchased two blocks from the Church in Litchfield Park and has now been replaced by a much larger Rectory.
At the present time the Mission Church is still owned by the Litchfield School District. The Mission Church is one of three buildings that the City plans to give a place of honor and preserve as a historical structure.