In June 1972, when members of the new St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Derwood, Maryland, gathered for their first weekend Masses at the Redland Middle School gym, Dan Sullivan, then 11, was one of the altar servers.
On May 29, 2022, after Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory had celebrated a 50th anniversary Mass there, Sullivan stood outside St. Francis of Assisi Church. Moments earlier, he had been among about a half-dozen original parishioners who were asked to stand, and then were applauded by the congregation.
Sullivan, now 61, works as a business banker and serves on the finance committee of the parish, where he competed in CYO sports as a youth and later played on a men’s softball team. He married his wife Julie there, and their son Brendan, now in college, had been baptized and received his First Holy Communion there.
“This is like home,” Sullivan said, explaining, “I grew up here.”
Earlier at the beginning of the anniversary Mass, Father John Dillon, the pastor, offered welcoming remarks and traced the history of the parish, which was established on May 25, 1972, with its boundaries drawing parishioners from St. Peter’s in Olney, St. Martin’s in Gaithersburg, and St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s in Rockville. The founding pastor was the late Father John Stack.
“In 1974, we broke ground surrounded by corn crops on the church in which we stand today and dedicated that building on Oct. 4, 1975, on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi,” Father Dillon said. “Through every step of our history, St. Francis of Assisi has drawn loving, warm and faith-filled people who want to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and live their faith in service to Him.”
The parish on Muncaster Mill Road, known for its longstanding work in providing medical and educational outreach to Haiti and for its active St. Vincent de Paul Society program serving the needy in Montgomery County, now has 1,471 families.
In his homily, Cardinal Gregory reflected on that feast day marking the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, and jokingly noted how it tied into a special blessing that he would be offering after the Mass.
“Today, I will happily bless a number of projects that you have recently completed as a parish family, including a new elevator,” the cardinal said, adding, “I must confess that I find that somewhat humorous to do on the feast of the Ascension!”
After the people there laughed at that remark, he added, “Nonetheless, each of these accomplishments indicates that St. Francis of Assisi is an enduring community of faith – a vibrant family of believers for these past 50 years, with many more rewarding years lying ahead of you!”
Following the Mass, the cardinal blessed the new elevator connecting the church level with the parish meeting hall downstairs, and he also blessed a new meeting room and an outdoor grotto that features a statue of Mary tenderly holding the baby Jesus in her arms.
At the beginning of Mass, Cardinal Gregory noted that Father Dillon had pointed out how a few weeks after his first visit to the parish in 2020, the pandemic started. “This time, I pray that in a few weeks after my visit, the pandemic will be over,” he said, and the people applauded in response.
In his homily, the cardinal reflected on how Christ’s Ascension into heaven offers a reminder that “heaven is to be seen as an invitation to be united perfectly with the Lord, who fashioned us to be with Him forever.”
Cardinal Gregory noted that churches are designed to remind people of heaven, “where we are all destined to be,” but he added, “one of the great drawbacks of the pandemic is that it separated us from our community and our worship. We were not all together for reasons of safety. Unfortunately, we have grown accustomed to watching Mass rather than participating in Mass. We have grown accustomed unfortunately to seeing Mass on the Internet and not sitting in pews next to our friends and neighbors and family members.”
Prayers were offered at the Mass for peace in war-torn Ukraine, for healing in the community of Uvalde, Texas after the school shooting there, for an end to racism and bigotry following the shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, and on the day before Memorial Day, to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who gave their lives defending freedom.
One of the songs at the anniversary Mass was “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” based on the peace prayer attributed to the parish’s patron saint, Francis of Assisi, who is depicted in a statue near the church’s outside entrance, with a dove resting on his shoulder.
After the Mass, Tony Bosnick, the director of social concerns and adult faith formation at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, noted that its outreach to Haiti has been going on for more than three decades, with parish volunteers traveling to the country and serving at a medical mission there, and with the parish providing ongoing support for education there, including providing funding to help rebuild a Catholic school destroyed by an earthquake. He noted how the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society provides assistance to people struggling with rent or mortgage payments, and parishioners also support the St. Martin’s Food Pantry.
“The people here are extremely generous,” Bosnick said, adding, “It’s really great to see parishioners so generously helping people in need.”
St. Francis of Assisi is a sponsoring parish for St. Jude Regional Catholic School in Rockville. As part of St. Francis's adult faith formation program, a small group there recently read and discussed Dante’s Inferno.
Among the original parishioners attending St. Francis of Assisi’s 50th anniversary Mass was Peggy Smith, who is 98. “Just think, in 18 months, I’ll be a century,” she said.
Smith added that she has been a part of the parish “right from the very first. I like the people. It’s been a friendly parish. We’ve had a really good selection of priests over the years, every one with a different personality.”
The longtime parishioner continued, “I tell you what I’m most proud of. I was the first female Eucharistic minister (here). I was scared to death, because I felt so unworthy.” Remembering how she began in that ministry in the 1970s there, Smith said she was worried that some parishioners might not walk up to receive Communion from her because she was a woman, but a few ladies from the parish smiled and got in her Communion line, and everything was fine from then on, she said.
On June 5, priests who have served at St. Francis of Assisi over the years will concelebrate another 50th anniversary Mass there, and that liturgy will feature prayers and songs in different languages to reflect the diversity of the parish. Afterward, a parish festival there will include a catered lunch, games, a moon bounce, music and a DJ.
