Back in 2019, Our Lady of Lourdes, 150 Water St., New Holland, was assigned a new pastor by the Diocese of Harrisburg. The Rev. Steven Fauser said he was received warmly by the people of the parish. "They welcomed me very quickly," said Fauser.

"As everybody knows, COVID-19 happened and disrupted a lot," noted Fauser of the pandemic that interruped his first year at the parish. In 2019, when Fauser arrived, Our Lady of Lourdes was celebrating its 100th anniversary with a visit from the Bishop of Harrisburg. In March 2020, when the shutdown occurred, Fauser was still getting acclimated. "You're new and wanting to know people, and then you aren't supposed to congregate," he recalled, adding that for nearly a year Mass was held in the church social hall so that attendees could be carefully distanced from each other. "That was hard," said Fauser, who said that May of 2021 marked the movement of the congregation back to the sanctuary and that in September 2021, a picnic was held on the church grounds to welcome everyone back. "We had a few hundred people here. We rented a tent, and there were so many activities," said Fauser, who noted that the celebration was necessary after the isolation of the pandemic. "It is so important to focus on coming together to worship and how special that is, but also to spend time together as a parish family," he said.

Fauser was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as a child. He was born in Michigan and has lived in a number of places throughout the U.S., but he is no stranger to Lancaster County. Fauser graduated from Warrior Run High School in Northumberland County before going to Millersville University to study foreign languages, specifically French and German. While in college, he discerned a call to go to seminary, and after graduating from Millersville in 1998, he attended St. Vincent's Seminary, Latrobe, in Westmoreland County. After completing seminary in 2003, he undertook a variety of assignments in the Hanover area, New Oxford, and Danville. He served in campus ministry at Millersville University and at Franklin & Marshall College. He also served in Elizabethtown and at St. John Neumann in Lancaster. Of the 19 years he has been in the priesthood, 11 have been spent in Lancaster County.

Fauser quickly recognized willingness to give as a strength of his New Holland congregation. "We are very generous, not just with our own parishioners, but in the community, especially through CrossNet Ministries," he noted, pointing out that vegetables from the church garden are gathered weekly and sent to CrossNet with a freewill donation. Gardeners recently harvested huge squashes, zucchinis, and tomatoes from the variety that is grown.

"We are starting up a Caring Community," stated Fauser. The ministry will include a group of volunteers who will be linked to needs in the community to complete a variety of projects.

Masses at Our Lady of Lourdes are held Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 9 a.m.; Saturdays at 5 p.m.; and on Sunday, Masses are at 8 and 10:30 a.m. More information about the parish may be found at https://ourladyoflourdesnh.com.