Beginning in 2025, Saint Jude Parish in Columbiana, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in East Palestine, and Saint Patrick Parish in Leetonia entered into a new era of collaboration that ultimately created a new parish community. Beginning in 2009 with the appointment of the Rev. Thomas Ziegler--Pastor of Saint Jude Parish--as the Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, the Catholics of Columbiana and East Palestine were increasingly brought together under the leadership of various pastors. In 2023, the Very Rev. Chad Johnson, V.F. was appointed by the Most Rev. David J. Bonnar, Sixth Bishop of Youngstown, as the fourth Pastor of the collaboration. In response to the ongoing decline in population in the Northeast and Midwest and the subsequent decline in the number of active Priests ministering in the Diocese of Youngstown, the 2019 Diocesan Pastoral Plan for Regionalization saw Fr. Johnson appointed as the Pastor of Saint Patrick Parish in Leetonia in 2025 and in January 2026 the three parishes merged to become Saint Carlo Acutis Parish, inaugurating a new era in northern Columbiana County.
The Roman Catholic Community of Northeast Columbiana County has a proud history of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and looks forward in that hope born of the Holy Spirit to continue building the Kingdom of God in new and dynamic ways. Below are links to those histories.
