St. Matthew Catholic Church

On May
6, 1996, it became official. Archbishop of Omaha, Elden Francis Curtiss and the
Archdiocesan Priests' Council issued a decree of establishment for St. Matthew
the Evangelist Parish in Bellevue, Nebraska. The Reverend Dennis Stolinski,
whose roots reach very deeply in the area, was chosen by the Omaha Archdiocese
as the parish's founding pastor. It was the first time that Fr. Stolinski had
ever been asked to build a parish from scratch, but he immediately began to
construct a solid foundation upon which St. Matthew Church would rest. That
foundation consists of the people who are members of the parish and that
foundation gains strength every day. The first step was to form a Task Force
which was responsible for overseeing the following areas: Parish Council,
Liturgy, Education, Service and Building and Finance. One significant result of
the work of this Task Force occurred in October of 1996 with the establishment
of the first Parish Council consisting of twelve members. This consulting body
to the pastor also did not waste any time getting started. First on the agenda
was a working draft of a schedule of organization. Next came the Parish Mission
Statement. Shortly, thereafter, work began on the parish master plan which
addressed the current and, more importantly, the future needs of the parish.