In 1950, John T. Gaetano gave five acres on Racebrook Road for the site of a church. In October of 1951 the new church was dedicated as Holy Infant, and on May 8, 1952 Holy Infant became a parish with Fr. Francis Monahan as the first pastor.{{more}}
A parochial junior high school opened in 1966 on an additional eight acres also donated by Gaetano. It closed in June, 1970. Now it is the thriving parish center offering an astounding variety of faith based opportunities.
Fr. Eugene Charman has been the pastor of Holy Infant Church for the past two years. He previously was with a Cheshire parish. He has been a priest for 42 years.
Fr. Joe Sidera is the assistant pastor or parochial vicar. And Sheila Fremont is the director of Religious Formation.
Holy Infant is home to 2,100 families.
The church offer four weekend masses and seven at Christmas. And there is a monthly children’s liturgy where the youngsters help to plan the service and participate including ushering and reading the liturgy.
Both Fr. Gene and Fremont said they have an extraordinarily active parish.
Over a four day period, the former junior high school sees 871 students for a variety of classes Christian Education Programs taught by 40 long standing volunteers. Additional youth programs include attending the World Youth Conference which this year is in Brazil and a bible study group.
Community Life at Holy Infant offers a plethora of variety including Knights of Columbus, Holy Infant Council, Coffee and Tea Social after the 9:30 a.m. mass, Eagle Scout projects, a bereavement group (Eucharist Widows and Widowers group) to name a few.
The parish offers a large variety of service oriented projects such as the Midnight Run where youngsters prepare sandwiches and toiletry kits on a weekly basis for New Haven and Milford shelters. Later in the evening the teachers deliver the packages.
Other projects include a diaper bank, a Christmas Giving Tree, food closet, toy closet and visiting the sick and homebound regularly.
Holy Infant is home to more than 25 volunteer groups and Fr. Gene said he wishes he could accommodate more but there just isn’t room.
Holy Infant Church is located at 450 Racebrook Road.