The Catholic Standard and Times

Immaculate Conception:
Honoring Mary in Bucks County

Immaculate Conception Church, Levittown
(Photos by Sarah Webb)

By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T

What a wonderful year 1954 was for the Catholic Church, including Philadelphia. Every one of the eight parishes founded in the Archdiocese that year were named for the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her various titles, because Pope Pius XII had designated it a Marian year.

Special distinction goes to Levittown’s Immaculate Conception Parish, which just closed out its anniversary year with a May 22 Jubilee Mass celebrated by Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The Marian year was proclaimed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and the Bucks County parish is the only one of the eight to honor Mary under that distinguished title.

Immaculate Conception was the middle of the three parishes that grew up in Levittown in the 1950s. The others were St. Michael the Archangel, which was founded the previous year, and Queen of the Universe, established the following year.

Constructed between 1952 And 1957, Levittown was the most prominent of William Levitt’s planned communities during that period.

It may have been scorned by the elite for its limited variety of so-called “cookie-cutter” houses, but Levittown — with its more than 17,000 homes — opened up suburban living to working-class families that previously had little access to the American dream of home ownership.

For as little as $10,000 or $11,000 — or as low as $67 a month — young families could purchase a brand new home. The package also included planned shopping areas and church sites.

“It was a God-send, what Mr. Levitt did for us,” said Theresa Kaminski, who was a pioneer resident of Immaculate Conception parish.

Like many Levittowners, Kaminski and her husband moved there from upstate. One of Levittown’s few purchasing requirements was being debt-free, so a friend loaned them $50 to make their last car payment, and they won approval to buy their new house.

At first, they worshipped at St. Mark’s in Bristol; later, after Immaculate Conception was established as a parish, under the leadership of Father Arthur Elliott, they went to the parish Mass at a Bristol fire hall.

Very soon, construction began for the church site on Emilie Road.

The first building was really a school with a large auditorium-gymnasium that was suitable for worship, and the plan was to construct a free-standing church. But that never happened; Immaculate Conception’s attractive parish church is still in its original wing of the building.

With the school came the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart, who taught Kaminski’s four children.

Now a widow, Kaminski has been living in Levittown for more than a half-century and she’s still as content as the day she moved in.

In fact, the founding parishioners at Immaculate Conception were mostly young, and the community has consistently attracted more young families as members of the older generation move on.

The parish was also still young when Shirley Mockler arrived in 1961; her two children attended its school, and she remembers how crowded it was back in those early years. Since then, one of her grandchildren has graduated from Immaculate Conception and another grandchild still attends the school.

“I remember, when my son was in the first grade, and he didn’t want to go to school, how kind Sister Maria Dominica was,” Mockler said. “She was so good to him.”

Over the past 50 years, Father Elliott was succeeded by Fathers John Campbell, John Fitzgerald, James Bones, and for the past five years, Father Joseph L. Logrip.

Those “cookie-cutter” houses, which now cost considerably more than $10,000, have taken on individual personalities, through renovations and additions.

And Levittown has become increasingly multi-ethnic.

“We have a Spanish Mass, now, that attracts between 80 and 175 people every Sunday,” Father Logrip said. “I’m proud of our multi-cultural services.”

His church, which seats about 550, is the spiritual home for Immaculate Conception’s 2,000 families. Baptisms, at about 60 a year, still slightly outnumber funerals — a sign of parish vitality. There are about 230 children in the school, and an additional 145 attend religious education classes.

The parish is debt-free, and between 65 and 80 worshippers attend daily Mass. Father Logrip takes satisfaction in the “steady faithfulness” of his flock.

“We are looking forward to the next 50 years,” he said.

Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and freelance writer.