History
St. Peter Parish
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After many visits by travelling priests in many areas, the community in Forestville, with the permission of the Bishop, began preparations for a church. A lot was purchased on October 24, 1907 for $70. St. Anthony Church was dedicated on June 14, 1908 with 250 attending. The new parish had 19 families registered and served the large number of Italian men living in quarters of the nearby mine and 68 registered Catholic students at Slippery Rock Normal School who were bused over by the school. The bell tower and the vestibule were added by 1911 and the parish cemetery was purchased in 1916. By 1920, Mass was available every Sunday.
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The foundation of St. Peter can be traced to a survey of local Catholics conducted in 1934 by the Missionary Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Based on this survey, the Bishop gave permission to start a new mission for the 35 families living in the Slippery Rock area and the Catholic students attending the State Teachers College. A priest from St. Fidelis Seminary in Herman began visiting Slippery Rock and celebrating Mass in Grange Hall until ground was broken on August 22, 1937 for a new church. The cornerstone was laid on March 22 and the completed church was dedicated on November 13, 1938. St. Peter remained a mission of St. Fidelis Seminary until 1955 when a Diocesan priest was appointed as pastor of both St. Anthony and St. Peter Parishes.
The aging St. Anthony church was rebuilt in 1972. In 1993, St. Anthony and St. Peter Parishes were formally merged and became St. Peter Parish with two church sites. In 1998, the responsibilities of the Newman Center chaplain were merged and assigned to the Pastor of St. Peter Parish. In 2009, St. Peter Parish and the Campus Ministry for Slippery Rock University began to share the former Newman Center as the newly named Rock Catholic Parish Center. Today, the “Rock Catholic” community is comprised of more than 700 Catholic families who live in the parish year round, about 4,000 Catholic students during the academic year and over 200 Catholic families residing at campgrounds in the summer.
