Saint Veronica

Founding Pastor: Fr. Marcus Pollard
Parish Founded: 1999
Church Dedication: 2005

School Information

Saint Veronica Catholic School
Founded: 2004
Founding Pastor: Fr. Marcus Pollard

What Makes This Parish Unique?

We strive to provide various opportunities for our parishioners to grow in holiness and virtue, so that we are better prepared for the glory of Heaven someday. To accomplish this goal, although a reasonably small parish, we have at least two Masses every day; we offer multiple times each week for confession; we have daily Eucharistic Adoration; along with many different apostolates that provide opportunities for prayer, service and fellowship. Through the liturgical life of the parish we also strive to to foster a greater reverence for the sacred.

Parish History:

The parish was founded in 1999 in western Fairfax County, not far from Dulles Airport. A home in a neighborhood was purchased to serve as the rectory. Fr. Marcus Pollard was the founding pastor, who worked hard to provide Masses, Holy Hours, and numerous other opportunities to build parish life. Masses were held at nearby churches and an area elementary school. The parish school opened before the church did in September of 2004. The first Mass was offered in the church on Christmas Eve day in 2004 and the church was officially dedicated by Bishop Loverde on February 5, 2005.

Many of the appointments in the church came from other churches -- for instance, the crucifix, some of the statues, the first altar, ambo, and Stations of the Cross all came from Pennsylvania. Some of the pews (the numbered ones) came from the first American cathedral, the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore. Parishioners helped retrieve these appointments from these other places, transported them to Chantilly, and helped repair and install them in the church. What was and is the church actually was meant to be the narthex of the future church, which was to extend out towards Centreville Road.

Fr. Buckner assisted at the parish while living in residence and working with Catholic Distance University. After eight years at the parish Fr. Pollard was transferred and was replaced by Fr. John Kelly. Fr. Ed Hathaway became pastor in November of 2007 and served until 2015. During his time as pastor the decision was made that a new church would not be built and so the "narthex" was set to be renovated to make it the permanent church. The sanctuary was reconfigured. A new marble altar, ambo, altar of repose, and baptismal font were constructed. New flooring, lighting, audio system, tabernacle, and Stations of the Cross and additional new pews were installed. Since 2015, Fr. Dennis Kleinmann has been pastor.

During the parish's 22 year history Fr. Steve Holmes, Fr. Chuck Smith, Fr. Mike Isenberg, and Fr. Robert Wagner have served as parochial vicars. The current parochial vicar is Fr. Rich Dyer. The parish has over 3500 parishioners, 400 students in its school and serves four nursing homes and one hospital.

To learn more about Saint Veronica Catholic Church, please visit: www.stveronica.net.