St. John the Baptist Catholic Church of Zachary and its mission chapel, Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton, can look back to a long history of Catholicism. Together they have been a parish since 1964, but their roots go back to the late 1700s. These areas were first populated by Spain. The earliest records indicate that in 1785, a contingent of Acadians, at the invitation of the Spanish king, came to Louisiana where they were offered land in the east side of the Mississippi River, north of Baton Rouge. They accepted and settled in what was then known as St. John’s Plains, now the center of the City of Zachary.
Other Catholic Anglo-Saxon settlers from Ireland received land grants from the British. They worshipped at a little log cabin church presumably built by the McHugh, Houston, Shaw and Sullivan families, who came to the area between 1795 and 1805. The chapel was named St. John of The Plains. In 1828, the Houston family donated three acres of land to build a new church. St. John was under the jurisdiction of St. Joseph in Baton Rouge, but priests from Pointe Coupee, Jackson and St. Francisville also ministered there and at Clinton. People in Clinton usually attended services in the various homes around that area until a church was built.
Between 1884 and 1894, a convent in Clinton was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who opened a school for the Catholic children. There were only seven Catholic families in the town, so the Sisters accepted Protestant students to keep the school going. After struggling valiantly for ten years, the Sisters decided to close the school.
The church was used until around 1870 when a new one was built nearby on Shaffett Lane and Pope Road. When Zachary was incorporated as a town in 1889, church members wanted to “move into town,” and built a new church on Main Street near Highway 19. In 1924, a fourth building was constructed on the corner of McHugh and Lee Drive which was used until 1974 when another Church was built.
In 2003, under the leadership of Fr Kenneth Laird, a parish-wide study was done and revealed the future needs of the growing community. It became apparent that the previous facility would no longer be adequate. However, throughout the years to follow, many changes occurred, including several pastoral transitions, two major hurricanes and new economic obstacles.
In 2010, St. John had grown to a parish of more than 800 families. Economic changes had been so drastic that a new building committee was formed, and a re-assessment of the project was done. By 2014, the congregation had swollen to 1,200 families, with more than 1,000 new homes planned for construction in the city of Zachary. A new church, which would provide ample worship space for many years to come, required more than double the originally anticipated funding. In 2014, under the guidance of Fr. Jeffery Bayhi, Phase II of Continuing the Legacy of Faith began. The following year, on September 20, 2015, groundbreaking was finally realized. The fifth and current church for St. John the Baptist parish was completed and dedicated to the glory of God on April 30, 2017, by Bishop Robert Muench.
The church is the culmination of generous pledges, donations, prayers, sacrifice, and much hard work of many years. We pray that this sacred space, filled with precious antiquities, provides an inspirational worship environment for generations to come.