Now Msgr. T. Ansgar Laczko, 87, is living in retirement in a cabin in a rural area near Martinsburg, West Virginia, a state that advertises itself as “Wild and Wonderful” and is immortalized as “almost heaven” in John Denver’s song “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
In 2020, the veteran priest of the Archdiocese of Washington is marking the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. In some ways his life has come full circle, from the time he studied and was then ordained as a Benedictine priest, to his life today as a retired priest.
“What inspired me and drew me to the Benedictines was a life of prayer and being able to commune with the Lord. I still enjoy that now,” he said.
A native of Cleveland, Msgr. Laczko was ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Benedictine religious order in 1960 after studying at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, D.C., and at Ampleforth Abbey in England. For several years he taught math and some religion courses at the lower school of St. Anselm’s Abbey School in Washington, where his students included two future priests of the Archdiocese of Washington – Father William Ryan, now a missionary priest in Togo, West Africa, and Father William Foley, now the pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington.
While a Benedictine priest, he helped out at parishes in the Washington area, celebrating Masses on weekends. Msgr. Laczko said he realized how much he enjoyed the pastoral aspects of priesthood, and that spurred him to seek to become a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington. He was incardinated as a priest of the archdiocese in 1975.
“It was a natural transition,” said the priest, who noted that one parish where he helped out for a number of years was St. Mary’s in Bryantown in Southern Maryland. Msgr. Laczko said he has many fond memories of his years as a Benedictine and stays in touch with some members of the order.
Beginning in 1975, then-Father Laczko began compiling the annual Ordo for the Archdiocese of Washington, a book that includes the daily and Sunday Mass readings, information on saints’ feast days, and a list of priests, deacons and bishops who died on those days of the year, so they can be remembered in prayer.
“I did it as a service to the archdiocese,” he said, noting that another priest has recently taken on that responsibility.
Msgr. Laczko, who earned a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from The Catholic University of America, served as a guidance counselor for D.C. public schools from 1968-80, and as a chaplain at St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown, Maryland, from 1981-83.
After serving at Our Lady’s Church in Medley’s Neck and at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, he was named as pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Washington, where he served from 1984-92. “It was a wonderful parish with wonderful people,” he said.
Then Msgr. Laczko served as pastor of Assumption Parish in Washington from 1992 to 2004. “I really enjoyed the parish and the people (there),” he said, adding, “Some years ago, I said if the archbishop had left me at Assumption, I’d still be there.” The priest said he enjoyed working with the African American Catholic community there and at the other D.C. parishes where he served, including as pastor from 2004 to 2007 at Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Parish, which he remembered as a “very vibrant, active, wonderful parish.”
In 2000, Msgr. Laczko was named a prelate of honor with the title of monsignor by Pope John Paul II. After the priest’s retirement in 2007, for many years he assisted at St. Martin of Tours Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which was then led by Msgr. Mark Brennan. By coincidence, in August 2019, Bishop Brennan was installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where Msgr. Laczko has been living in recent years.
“I said that’s the best appointment, that’s the best person they could choose,” he said of Bishop Brennan, a priest known for his pastoral dedication to the people he serves.
Reflecting on his six decades as a priest, Msgr. Laczko said his greatest blessing has been “the ability to serve others, to serve in parishes, ministering to them with the sacraments, being with them in times of joy and sorrow.”
Before the coronavirus shutdown of public Masses as a safety precaution, Msgr. Laczko was celebrating Masses on weekends at Catholic churches in Martinsburg, Harpers Ferry, Charles Town and Berkeley Springs, West Virginia and in Hancock, Maryland. He looks forward to resuming that ministry when conditions allow him to help. The priest admitted that in his retirement, he enjoys not having the worry of managing parish finances. He likes listening to classical music, growing flowers and trimming the grass in his yard.
“In so many ways, the Lord has blessed me,” Msgr. Laczko said. “I hope I can do the Lord’s work for a few more years before He calls me.”
