The origins of St. Jude Parish trace back to the 1950s when Archbishop Leo Binz asked Fr. Donald Peters, associate pastor at St. Patrick, to determine if there was a need to establish a parish on the west side of Cedar Rapids.  It was quickly affirmed that such a need existed.  By February 5, 1959, twenty acres at the intersection of 1^stAvenue NW and Edgewood Road were purchased.  A Catholic parish began!
 
Construction work began in the summer of 1961 on the building that is currently the LaSalle Elementary School. On August 11, 1962, less than a month after the parish was canonically erected, our first pastor, Fr. Richard Krapfl, presided at the first Mass in an open space in the southwest wing of the new building.  There were more than 300 families in the new parish.  St. Jude School opened on September 4, 1962, with an enrollment of 370 students.
 
Mass continued to be offered in the school until the new parish center, now called Thaddeus Hall, was opened in September 1966.  The September 4 church bulletin contained the following message: “Welcome to our new temporary church – temporary for the next 10 years, more or less.” It would be almost twenty-three years before a new worship space would be built.
 
In 1984, the present rectory at 3601 First Avenue SW was purchased.
 
Ground was broken for the new (current) church on Saturday, May 11, 1988.  The building project included a new church, the reservation chapel, offices and meeting rooms, a new roof on the parish center, renovation of the parish center (now Thaddeus Hall) and an enlarged parking lot. The new Church was dedicated on March 12, 1989.  At that time, the parish had about 1400 families.
 
The former LaSalle High School property was purchased in 1999 to be used as part of the Holy Family School consolidation, now known as LaSalle Catholic Schools.
 
In 2014, St. Jude Parish launched an ambitious fundraising campaign to secure funding for building a new community center.  Enough funds were raised to allow that construction to begin and on March 20, 2016 the new community gathering space was blessed by Archbishop Jackels.  We refer to this beautiful gathering space as the Community Center.  At this time, we have about 1170 families in the parish.
 
Throughout the years, St. Jude Parish has been blessed with seven (7) pastors: