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St. Anne Parish History

Timeline of
St. Anne
Catholic Church

On the left you will find links associated with periods of history for St. Anne's and her missions. If you have any photos or important information that you think my be of help to these pages, please contact our office.

Events from 2009-2014

2009  After 12 distinguished years at St. Anne's, Msgr. Moys reached the age of retirement and simultaneously completed his second term as pastor at St. Anne's. At the request of the Archbishop, he agree to continue serving in active ministry and was assigned to St. Paul Catholic Church in St. Paul. Fr. Ron was also reassigned. He was sent to Sacred Heart in Gervais. 

Replacing both Msgr. Moys and Fr. Ron Nelson, Frs. William Holtzinger and Paschal Ezurike arrived July 1, 2009, as pastor and parochial vicar respectively. Fr. William "Bill" was born and raised in Medford until his family moved to the Portland area when he was a young teen. He arrived to St. Anne after completing seven years as pastor at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Forest Grove. Fr. Bill has a reputation as being a "geek priest" due to his great interest in science and technology. 

Fr. Paschal came to Grants Pass after serving one year at St. Anthony's in Tigard. He arrived in the U.S. in 2007 at the request of his bishop in Nigeria and was doing a year of Clinical Pastoral Education at the Oregon State Hospital. He was simultaneously serving at St. Joseph in Salem. On July 1, 2008, he was assigned for a year at St. Anthony's in Tigard just prior to arriving in Grants Pass with Fr. Bill. July 1, 2009, Fr. Paschal left for his next assignment at St. Philip Benizi in Oregon City as administrator.

Just prior to Fr. Bill's arrival, the quest for a new principal had begun after the departure of Jacqueline Henry-Ross.  The search concluded with Frankie Bytheway returning as a part-time principal and part-time teacher.  

2011 Following Fr. Paschal's departure, there was a gap of many months until Fr. Dominic Tumusiime, a professed religious and priest of the Apostles of Jesus. On February 1, 2011, Fr. Dominic arrived at St. Anne's as the next parochial vicar. He had been ordained a priest 15 years previous with experience in Ethiopia, Italy, and his home country of Uganda. On July 1, 2012, Fr. Dominic was reassigned as the administrator of St. Michael's Parish in Sandy, OR.

2012  On July 2, 2012, we received Fr. José Manuel Campos García, or Fr. Manuel for short. He is a native of Michoacan, Mexico and had been ordained to the priesthood just a few weeks prior on June 9. He is fluent in Spanish and English. He entered the seminary in Mexico City in 2003 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2007. He completed his studies at Mount Angel Seminary and received his Masters of Divinity there. His previous training included a pastoral year at St. Alexander Parish in Cornelius.

2013  Fr. Bill brought together a "Core Building Committee" to evaluate the desire and need to remodel the church.  After three years of consultation with Tom Hall of S & B James Construction out of White City, the committee discerned that it was more cost-effective to completely rebuild instead of remodeling. 

2014  Frankie Bytheway retired at the end of the school year, concluding a long and successful career as a teacher and principal.  Her successor was Colleen Kotrba who was previously a part-time teacher and previous to that was hired on as a Title I teacher for reading and math.  July 1, 2014, Fr. Joseph Hung Nguyen arrived, replacing Fr. José.  He was born on August 12, 1973 in Saigon, Vietnam. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Portland in 2012 by Archbishop Vlazny. Prior to his seminary studies, Fr. Nguyen received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. Fr. Nguyen studied at Mt. Angel Seminary, St. Benedict. His first assignment was at St. Cecilia, Beaverton as Parochial Vicar. 

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