Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Seaford, Delaware

By Father George Blasick |

To get onto the Delmarva Peninsula, you have several choices: two bridges crossing the Chesapeake Bay, the ferry from southern New Jersey, or five routes crossing the canal from the north. (That’s it, unless you’re flying in.) So the Delmarva is almost a kingdom unto itself, and smack in the middle of it is the town of Seaford.

Seaford is a town that has seen its better days, especially when DuPont was churning out nylon. Those days are long gone. Fortunately, so are the worst days, when Seaford was the crack center for the peninsula. Nowadays Seaford is a quiet, semi-sleepy town surrounded by the fields and chicken coops of rural Delaware.

In the middle of Seaford is Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. It has approximately 1,000 families. This is the typical parish one finds today: a slowly shrinking and aging American population, a quickly growing Latino population (mainly Mexican and Guatemalan), with a smattering of other peoples mixed in.

It is a parish in the midst of leaving its past behind (founded in 1945 by those mainly of Irish and Italian descent) and now becoming something different. Right now the mix is about 70 percent American and 30 percent Latin. Only time will tell how she looks when she reaches her 100th anniversary.

The Wilmington Diocese does not have many religious priests, and virtually all of them are north of the canal. Except for the small community in Georgetown, we Redemptorists are the sole “religious presence” on the Delmarva.

And if you ask the folks here, they will say (like they do at our other parishes) that there is a different feel to Our Lady of Lourdes than at any neighboring parish. In some fashion, even if they might not be able to put their finger on it, they know there is a charism unique to the Redemptorists and, by extension, to Our Lady of Lourdes.

Forty-five years ago, after a scouting mission to see how best to serve the Spanish-speaking migrants, the Redemptorists came to town. At first, in our heyday, four priests were stationed here.

But over the years that number dwindled to three and then to two. Now things have changed once again because Our Lady of Lourdes is on the verge of being staffed by two Indian Redemptorists from the Liguori Province.

The new pastor will be Father Clement Vadakkedath, C.Ss.R. He arrived here in February from Dominica after serving as the Provincial for his province. His associate is Father Paul Kuzhimannil, C.Ss.R., who is currently studying Spanish in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Only time will tell what Seaford will be like when the 100th anniversary arrives. Yet one thing is certain: Our Lady of Lourdes has seen many changes over the past 70 years and weathered them well. May she continue to do so with the Sons of St. Alphonsus at the helm.