About St. Anthony of Padua · Helper, Utah
St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church is a small Roman-Latin rite parish in Helper, Carbon County, Utah, in the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. It serves the historic coal-mining and railroad community of Helper with weekend and daily Mass, Saturday confessions, and an outreach rooted in the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian immigrant heritage of Carbon County. The parish is currently administered by Reverend Rowland Nwokocha and shares pastoral ministry with the neighboring communities of Price, East Carbon, Huntington and Green River.
- Established
- 1944
- Patron
- St. Anthony of Padua
- Rector
- Reverend Rowland Nwokocha (Administrator)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Salt Lake City
Why belong here
St. Anthony of Padua is the historic Catholic parish of Carbon County, founded in 1944 to serve the families of Helper's mining and railroad community, and it remains the spiritual home of that lineage today. Weekday Mass every morning at 8:45 a.m. and a full weekend schedule of vigil and Sunday Mass, together with weekly Saturday confessions, make it easy to keep the Church's rhythm of prayer in this small town. A longtime parishioner like Mary Ghirardelli — honored as the Diocese of Salt Lake City's 2026 Woman of the Year for the Eastern Deanery for her decades as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, catechist, and parish carnival chair — is one example of the deep lay stewardship that makes this parish a real community rather than just a building.
Mass times at St. Anthony of Padua
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm
- By request
Parish Identity & Location
St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church is the Catholic parish of Helper, a small railroad and coal-mining town in Carbon County, Utah. It is part of the Roman-Latin (Latin) rite and is one of a cluster of parishes and missions in the eastern part of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, alongside Notre Dame de Lourdes in Price, Good Shepherd in East Carbon, San Rafael Mission in Huntington, and Saint Michael the Archangel Mission in Green River, all of which share the same priest-administrator.
- Parish: St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
- Location: 7 South Main, Helper, UT 84526
- Diocese: Diocese of Salt Lake City
- Rite: Roman-Latin
History of the Parish
The parish stands in one of the oldest Catholic regions of Utah. Mining and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad drew thousands of European Catholic immigrants to Carbon County from the 1880s onward; Mass was first celebrated in private homes, then at a 1898 church in Castle Gate (destroyed by fire in 1907), then at the D&RGW's nondenominational chapel, and finally — from 1914 — in the original wooden St. Anthony of Padua church on a hill in eastern Helper.
- 1880s–1890s: Visiting priests celebrate Mass in private homes across Carbon County.
- 1898: Catholic church built at Castle Gate; burns in 1907.
- 1914: Original wooden St. Anthony of Padua church built in Helper.
- 1917: Bishop Joseph S. Glass assigns Monsignor Alfredo F. Giovannoni to Helper; he serves Carbon County and beyond for 13 years.
- 1944: St. Anthony of Padua formally established as a parish by the Diocese of Salt Lake City.
- 1945: Present one-story brick-and-stone church (and adjoining brick rectory) constructed, replacing the original wooden building.
- August 16, 1958: Current church dedicated.
Carbon County's Catholic Heritage
Helper grew as a service center for the coal mines and the D&RGW rail yards, and the Catholic Church was the religious backbone of the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian immigrant communities that built the town. Monsignor Giovannoni, ordained in Lucca in 1904 and the first Utah priest to mark fifty years of priesthood, was a pivotal figure: he kept Catholic ministry alive not only in Helper but in remote mining and prospecting camps from the Uinta Basin to the San Juan River. The parish church and its rectory still stand as physical reminders of that immigrant-era Catholic identity.
The Church Building
The present church is a modest one-story brick-and-stone structure with a gable roof, built by the parish in 1945 and dedicated in 1958. It is paired with a two-story flat-roof brick rectory on the same lot. Both buildings have remained substantially unaltered and are documented as contributing resources of the Helper Commercial Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places.
Clergy & Pastoral Leadership
St. Anthony of Padua is currently administered by Reverend Rowland Nwokocha, who also serves as pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Price, Good Shepherd Parish in East Carbon, San Rafael Mission in Huntington, and Saint Michael the Archangel Mission in Green River. He is listed in the Diocese of Salt Lake City's official roster of priests with faculties.
- Reverend Rowland Nwokocha — Administrator, St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Helper
Parish Ministries & Community Life
Although the parish's online footprint is small, parish life in Helper is active and rooted in the long tradition of lay stewardship from Carbon County's immigrant Catholic families. The ministries that surface in the diocese's public record include Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, religious education of children, an annual parish carnival, and hospital volunteer service. Parishioner Mary Ghirardelli — with four daughters, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren — was honored as the Diocese of Salt Lake City's 2026 Woman of the Year for the Eastern Deanery in recognition of her decades as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, catechist for two children's religious education classes, four-time chair of the parish carnival, and volunteer at Carbon County Hospital.
- Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
- Catechists for children's religious education
- Annual parish carnival (a long-standing parish tradition)
- Volunteer ministry at Carbon County Hospital
Visitor Information
Visitors and parishioners can reach St. Anthony of Padua at its Main Street location in central Helper, within the town's historic commercial district. The parish office can be reached by phone for information on Mass intentions, sacramental preparation, the annual carnival, and pastoral needs.
- Address: 7 South Main, Helper, UT 84526
- Phone: (435) 472-3235
- Diocesan website: dioslc.org