Saint Isaac Jogues Catholic Church
Our Beginnings
Our parish was established in May 1987 to address the needs of the growth of the population in our area and to better serve the people in Southeast Orange County.
1987-1999
Our founding pastor, Reverend Robert Hoeffner, bought a rectory building and set up a temporary office. In Spring 1988, construction began on the parish hall. In the Fall of 1996, construction began on the parish administration building. In 1997, Father Phillip Nuñez III joined St. Isaac Jogues, becoming our first parochial vicar.
1999-2005
In Summer 1999, Father Robert Markunas was appointed as the second Pastor of St. Isaac’s. In addition to his pastoral duties, he led Catholic radio programming for the Hispanic population in the Orlando area. During that time, planning and construction commenced of our new church building.
In the Fall 2003, Father J. Fernando Gil, J.C.D. became our third pastor. Shortly after, Bishop Norbert Dorsey along with Father Gil and founding pastor Father Robert Hoeffner broke ground for the new church. In the
years following, our parish grew its clergy membership to seven ordained deacons, and Father Andrew Wojtan joined us as a parochial vicar.
2005-2021
In 2005, we welcomed Fr. Jose Muñoz to St. Isaac Jogues as our fourth pastor.
On May 14, 2005, a new chapter in the life of St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Community began with the Dedication of the new church building. Most Rev. Thomas G. Wenski, the new Bishop of Orlando at the time, was the principal celebrant for this exciting and jubilant celebration. Father Jose began to lead the parish with zeal and great leadership, growing our Faith Formation programs and maturing our ministries.
2020 was a very trying year for all of humanity as we experienced the worldwide pandemic. After the initial strict quarantine, and on Sunday May 30, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the faithful were allowed to return to in person liturgies, but it took a whole year before people felt comfortable to come back to church. The administration of the parish was strongly affected by the economy and the circumstances and a few employees could not return to work for us. With a “skeleton” staff we continued to lead the people of God back to normalcy by restoring services and activities we had before the pandemic.
In June 2021, after 16 years at St Isaac Jogues as pastor, Father Muñoz transferred to St. Catherine of Siena, our neighboring parish and we welcomed Father José Bautista as our fifth pastor, with Father Enrique Guerra as our Parish Vicar, and Mr. Dennis Johnson Jr. as the Parish Life Director. We are very blessed to have such talented and dedicated priests leading our community.
2021 – Present
Today, we are grateful to welcome over 5,000 families to our wonderful community of faith. As we continue to move toward normalcy, we gear to celebrate the 35th anniversary of our parish on May 2022, and we count our many blessings. We continue to mature as a community, and grow closer to Christ. We look toward the future and know that there are many great blessings in store for us.
