Holy Redeemer Parish celebrated its 100th anniversary on Sunday, June 16, with a Mass, a Eucharistic procession, and a parish picnic.
Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost celebrated the anniversary Mass, which was concelebrated by Fr. Joseph Previte, Fr. Peter Mihalik, and Fr. Martin Polito, pastor of Holy Redeemer. Deacons Thomas Ward, Timothy Shell, Bruce Batista, and John Sferry also assisted at the Mass.
Bishop Woost began his homily by repeating the refrain of Sunday’s psalm response: “Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.” Explaining his own gratitude to Fr. Marty Polito for their many years of friendship and shared ministry, Bishop Woost invited the congregation to remember the century of blessings that God had poured out on the Holy Redeemer community. Bishop Woost recounted the parish’s distinguished history to the crowded church. In the early 1920’s, Italian-Catholics settled in the Collinwood section of Cleveland. Lacking their own nationality parish, they worshipped at St. Mary Church, the Slovenian parish, and St. Joseph Church, a largely German-Irish community. Eventually, the Italian immigrants petitioned Bishop Joseph Schrembs to create an Italian nationality parish. The Bishop established Holy Redeemer Parish in June of 1924.
Bishop Woost noted that the parish had been served by numerous priests, deacons, and religious women during its 100 years. While the members of the parish staff originally ministered primarily to the Italian Catholic community, each successive generation built upon the sacramental and catechetical life of the parish to develop spiritual and social outreach programs for the neighborhood. Referring to Sunday’s parable of the seeds sown in the farmer’s field, Bishop Woost described how those who ministered at Holy Redeemer and the parishioners themselves had sown the seeds of faith, hope, and love, producing a faith-filled community that welcomed many people. “Like the mustard seed springing up to become the largest of plants providing shelter for the birds of the sky,” Bishop Woost said, “Holy Redeemer has become a community that has welcomed and served a diversity of neighbors in Jesus’ name.”
Looking toward the future, Bishop Woost asked the community to be “always courageous” like the early Christians in Sunday’s second reading, in which St. Paul reminded the church in Corinth that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” “Just like the first Italian immigrants in Collinwood could not have known what their parish community would look like in a hundred years, so too you don’t know how the seeds of faith, hope, and love you are sowing will impact Holy Redeemer in the future.” Bishop Woost noted, “We believe that God who has been faithful and active in the past will continue to bless this community now and in the future. For your part, as a community, you must courageously continue to be a living sign of Christ’s presence in the Church and in the Collinwood neighborhood.”
In keeping with the parish’s Italian heritage and the observance of St. Anthony of Padua’s feast day, Bishop Woost blessed St. Anthony bread at the conclusion of the Universal Prayer. This bread was distributed to everyone at the end of Mass.
Following the Mass, those in attendance joined in a procession with the Eucharist and the parish’s statute of St. Anthony through the streets of Collinwood. An Italian marching band provided music for the procession as they followed a Cleveland police escort and the parish’s altar servers. Most of the parishioners joined the procession through the streets on foot, while older members rode on a bus provided by the parish. A highlight of the procession was an explosive display of fireworks as participants returned to the parish grounds.
After benediction with the Blessed Sacrament on the front steps of the church, parishioners enjoyed a picnic gathering on the parish grounds which included traditional Italian fare.