Anapilis Christian Community Centre, Hall Rentals for Mississauga and Toronto

MASS TIMES
    Saturday - 3:00pm

CHRUCH ADDRESS
    41 Talbot Road
    Delhi, Ontario
    N4B 1Z7

PARISH COMMITEE CHAIR
    Pranas Pargauskas (519) 468-2163

CHURCH HISTORY
Delhi is a small town in southwestern Ontario in the heart of tobacco growing country. There were economic immigrants from Lithuania who had come to Canada as early as the late 19th and early 20th century. Most settled in large cities or mining communities. The depression of 1929-30 forced many to turn to agriculture in the tobacco belt. Most started as labourers on the tobacco farms and later they began to grow tobacco as share-growers. After a few years many were able to purchase their own farms.
With the end of World War II, began a mass migration of Lithuanians and other eastern Europeans who came to Canada to escape the oppression of the USSR. Several hundred Lithuanians came to work on the tobacco farms and, as did their predecessors, they eventually bought their own farms.

Pastoral care to Lithuanians in this area, in their mother tongue, was not available prior to World War II because of a shortage of Lithuanian speaking priests. With the post-war immigration came a number of priests. Initially pastoral care was irregular and handled by Lithuanian speaking chaplains who were attached to territorial parishes. The Lithuanians in the area needed not only pastoral care but also their own centre where they could gather for social, political and cultural events. They approached Bishop J.C. Cody of the Diocese of London Ontario regarding the possibility of establishing their own parish and in 1959 he acceded to their request and appointed Rev. Fr. Jonas Gutauskas as founding pastor of a national Lithuanian parish in the tobacco area. In Delhi, there existed the territorial parish of St. John de Brebeuf and Companions. They were in the process of building a new and larger Church and thus the Lithuanians were able to buy the old church and rectory.

The parish was named St. Casimir's in honour of the patron saint of Lithuania whose remains lie in the Cathedral of the capital city Vilnius.

In 1976, Rev. Gutauskas retired and from 1976 to 1978 the pastor was Fr. Jonas Staškevičius. From 1978 the pastor was Fr. Laurynas Kemėšis who served until 1997, when ill health forced him to retire. With no other Lithuanian-speaking priests willing to assume responsibility of St. Casimir's parish, Msgr. Jonas Staškevičius, the pastor of Lithuanian Martyrs' Church in Mississauga, Ontario, volunteered to administer the Delhi parish on a temporary basis. This remains the situation to the present day.