St.
Peter Catholic Church was established on September 29, 1987
with the assignment of Rev. Charles Notabartolo as the
founding pastor. The first Mass was celebrated on November
8, 1987 in the cafeteria of the old Jupiter High School.
There were approximately four hundred founding families who
joined St. Peter within the first year of the parish being
in existence. Over the next four years, Mass was also held
in the cafeteria of Jupiter Middle School. On September 16,
1991 the first Mass was celebrated in the multi-purpose
building which presently serves as the parish hall. With the
completion of the multi-purpose center, the parish was able
to accommodate many new activities in response to the
growing parish and the growth in population in the town of
Jupiter. After many years of hard work and parishioner
sacrifice, ground was broken for the new church. The dream
became a reality. The church was completed in the Fall of
2002, and the first Mass was celebrated on December 21,
2002. Bishop Sean P. O’Malley dedicated the church on
January 5, 2003. In February 2003, Rev. Chuck Notabartolo
was appointed Vicar General of the Diocese of Palm Beach,
and Rev. Donald T. Finney was appointed as the second pastor
of St. Peter.
The St.
Peter Parish family continues to grow and respond to the
pastoral needs of the people in Jupiter. The Spanish Mass
and Hispanic Ministry began in May 2003 and is greatly
enhanced by the work of the Guadalupan Sisters. In the Fall
of 2003, our inter-parochial school, All Saints Catholic
School, opened and began a new chapter in the history of our
parish. In the Fall of 2007, a renovation to the Parish Hall
was completed which added eight new permanent meeting rooms
to accommodate our growing number of ministries. Also in
November of 2007, our Parish celebrated its 20th
Anniversary, culminating in the dedication of our 20th
Anniversary Meditation Garden as a place of quiet prayer and
meditation on our Parish grounds. St. Peter continues to
experience tremendous growth both in numbers and in the
ministries that are offered. The dream of those founding
parishioners has become a reality and the future of our
parish is indeed bright.
The
patron saint of our parish is Peter the Apostle. Peter was a
native of Bethsaida near Lake Tiberias. First named Simon, he
lived and worked as a fisherman with his brother Andrew who introduced
him to Jesus. Jesus gave Simon the name “Cephas”, the Aramaic
equivalent of Peter (The Rock) in Greek. Peter was the chosen
leader of the apostles and is mentioned more frequently in the
Gospels than any other apostle. He became the first pope of the
Catholic Church and was crucified at the foot of Vatican Hill
in Rome. The church celebrates his feast day on June 29th.
