Dear Parishioners,

I was asked to give the last rites to Joe Piazza, who had been bed-ridden for some time in his home, and he died a couple days later. He and his wife Rose were married for 59 years and had 4 children and 6 grandchildren. They were formerly members of Corpus Christi while Rose served as the cook for 25 years at Our Lady of Good Counsel, presently Mary Queen of Peace. We celebrated Joe’s funeral Mass on Friday, September 30th. May he rest in God’s peace as we commit our prayers to him and our support to his family.

I received word today from Father Vesely’s niece that his sister, Millie Ancin, has entered Hospice. You may recall that she took a fall just after her brother’s death and so was not able to attend his funeral Mass, and while she has been recovering nicely from that injury, she has been declining in other ways. The family decided it would be best to move her toward the goal of comfort care. I fondly remember the many dinners I enjoyed with Millie and her brother when we would go out after the 4pm Mass on Saturday evenings. Please keep Millie in your prayers during this time and ask for God’s grace on her family members who are tending to her care and comfort.

This weekend we welcome Bishop Malesic to St. Leo’s for his first visit to our parish. He will be celebrating the 11am Mass to help us begin our year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the parish. You will have the opportunity to meet him personally and welcome him to our parish in Lux Hall after the Mass, where refreshments will be available. You will find the Bishop to be a very gentle and personable priest who has genuine concern for the people he shepherds in this Diocese. We are grateful that he is making the time to be with us today. 

Throughout this anniversary year we want to share some information with you concerning the beginning and history of our parish in the hopes that it will help us all to appreciate the unfolding of God’s plan and vision for this Catholic community of faith. So here is a bit of information I found from the booklet used in 1988 for the 40th Anniversary of the parish. The first Mass of the newly founded parish was celebrated at Ben Franklin School Auditorium on Sunday, October 17, 1948. There was a simple announcement in the bulletin of Our Lady of Good Counsel (again, currently Mary Queen of Peace) which spoke of the birth of St. Leo parish and gave the parish boundaries. Good Counsel parish had a Mass on Sunday 6am so Father Lux, our founding pastor, decided to have the first Sunday Mass at 5:30am for those who liked an earlier liturgy. There is a white house on the east side of Broadview Road that was used as a rectory (residence for the priest) and later this became the first convent of the parish. It had a little porch that Father Lux extended for daily Mass. 75 years later, we remain grateful to Father Lux for all he did to begin a community that would stretch (so far) 75 years into the future.