Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory’s June 13, 2021 visit to Our Lady of the Visitation Parish in Darnestown, Maryland, marked a trifecta of milestones, as he celebrated a Mass marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the parish in 1991, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 dedication of its church, and words of thanks and appreciation for its founding pastor, Father Raymond Fecteau, who is retiring.
Praising the veteran pastor, the cardinal said, “He has walked every step of the spiritual journey with you and those pioneer families who established this wonderful parish community... He begins his retirement, and this parish shines as a bright light on his priestly ministry and service.”
Parishioners offered long applause for Father Fecteau, whose retirement is effective on July 7. While he will no longer be pastor of Our Lady of the Visitation, he will remain as chaplain to the Boy Scouts of America and as chaplain to the Montgomery County and Maryland State Police and to the United States Secret Service.
Our Lady of the Visitation Parish is hosting a June 27 reception to honor their retiring founding pastor, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1972 by Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle, the first resident archbishop of Washington.
Cardinal Gregory noted, “I’ve been told in a couple of weeks you’ll have a ‘Ray Day’ to thank him personally for his goodness, as I do today.” The cardinal added, “He has served under every archbishop of Washington, and survived!”
The Gospel reading at the anniversary Mass related the account of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with St. John the Baptist.
The cardinal closed his homily with more words of gratitude for Father Fecteau, saying, “May Mary and Elizabeth smile on him each day of tomorrow and bring him both satisfaction and joy in what God has been able to do with you and him working together in love. Thirty years is a blessing, Ray, and you have been a blessing each day.”
In an interview after the Mass, Father Fecteau noted that his grandparents and parents were also parish founders. His grandparents, Lorenzo and Victoria Fecteau, were French Canadian immigrants and founding members of St. Theresa Parish in Methuen, Massachusetts, and his parents, Paul and Cecile Fecteau, were founding members of the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, the future priest’s home parish.
After his ordination to the priesthood, Father Fecteau served as an associate pastor at St. Bartholomew in Bethesda, Christ the King in Silver Spring, St. Rose of Lima in Gaithersburg, St. Jane de Chantal in Bethesda and Mother Seton in Germantown.
In 1990, Cardinal Hickey appointed Father Fecteau to investigate the possibility of forming a parish in the Darnestown area. After meetings in eight neighborhood homes, the priest celebrated the first Mass for the fledgling community in January 1991 at Fairhaven United Methodist Church, located on Darnestown Road in Gaithersburg, also the site of their Saturday Masses, with Sunday morning Masses celebrated at Rachel Carson Elementary School in the Kentlands subdivision.
On May 31, 1991, the Feast of the Visitation, Our Lady of the Visitation was officially established as a parish, with Father Fecteau as its founding pastor and 250 families as its initial parishioners. Another milestone for the parish came in 1994, when Our Lady of the Visitation was among seven upper Montgomery County parishes to cosponsor the neighboring Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown, the archdiocese’s first new Catholic elementary school in three decades. In 2001, also on the parish’s feast day, Our Lady of the Visitation’s new church was dedicated. Now the parish includes 660 households.
In his welcome to Cardinal Gregory at the beginning of the Mass, Father Fecteau noted that earlier they had tried twice to have him visit, “but the pandemic got in the way.”
With coronavirus restrictions eased, those attending the Mass included some people wearing facemasks and many no longer wearing masks after being vaccinated against the coronavirus. The congregation included people of many different ages and backgrounds, from babies in mothers’ arms to senior citizens, and from longtime residents to immigrants.
In his homily, Cardinal Gregory praised the parish on its 30th anniversary, noting, “The most successful parishes are born of faith, hope and love.” He added, “You are a highly diverse community that welcomes people from many nations of the world to become one family in faith.”
The cardinal said vibrant parishes begin with God’s grace, and he encouraged the Our Lady of the Visitation Parish family not only to reflect on its past blessings, but to look to the future and “renew its promise to be a giving, loving, open and faithful people.”
He pointed to the Gospel account of Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth, noting how both expectant mothers “without knowing what each of their sons would eventually become, they both knew in faith that God had something wonderful in store for the future, and they each had a special role to play in God’s plan.”
When Our Lady of the Visitation Parish was established, Father Fecteau noted that its pioneer parishioners were already working hard to live up to their parish’s name.
“Corporal works of mercy must be an essential part of our ministry. Mary left her home to go to Elizabeth’s home. We need to be a parish that is sensitive to the needs of people where they are,” he said.
In the interview after the 30th anniversary Mass, Father Fecteau said Our Lady of the Visitation parishioners are continuing that legacy.
“In terms of social justice, this parish knocks it out of the park,” he said, noting how after the Mass, a father and daughter were heading over to volunteer with the food pantry at St. Martin of Tours Parish in Gaithersburg.
Visitation parishioners over the years have provided meals for the Dorothy Day homeless shelter operated by Catholic Charities in Rockville, and they’ve visited nursing homes and provided food baskets, clothing and Christmas gifts to people in need.
From its beginning, members of Our Lady of the Visitation have collected new baby items for the Shady Grove Pregnancy Center in Gaithersburg.
The priest noted that in a parish named for the visitation of Mary with her cousin Elizabeth, “How can we not be sensitive to right to life issues?”
An icon in the church’s gathering space depicts Mary and Elizabeth embracing one another. Praising the caring nature of Visitation’s parishioners, Father Fecteau said, “They take care of one another, if anyone is in trouble.”
That point was echoed by people who attended the anniversary Mass. Megan Gorman noted that in the first years of her marriage, she was having trouble conceiving a child, and Father Fecteau encouraged her to join a women’s prayer group there. She was joined at the Mass by her husband Patrick and by their son Timothy, a 2019 graduate of Mary of Nazareth School.
“It was definitely God’s hand in it,” she said of her answered prayers.
Larry Rosenbaum, a founding parishioner, has served as an usher there since the parish’s beginning and was handing out parish bulletins after the Mass.
“A lot of folks come here regularly. I have the opportunity to talk to all of them,” he said, noting how many parishioners “are here all the time, working together, keeping the parish going, keeping the parish a success.”
Father Fecteau said Visitation’s annual Christmas tree sale run by parishioner Marty Kelly has been called “fun-raising” because it draws new parish volunteers into the fold. They held the sale this past year even during the pandemic, and the trees sold out in two days.
Another Our Lady of the Visitation Parish tradition is an annual Ash Wednesday prayer service, held jointly with members of nearby Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, whose clergy along with Father Fecteau meet regularly in a group nicknamed “Club 28” after Route 28, Darnestown Road.
Diana Hurley, who over the years has led the music ministry at Our Lady of the Visitation and also served as a catechist and as a member of the Sodality, praised Father Fecteau for helping parishioners appreciate the liturgical calendar with its holy days and saints’ feast days throughout the year.
“The richness of the seasons are experienced here,” she said.
Earlier at the Mass, Cardinal Gregory noted how there would be some kind of “Ray Day” coming up at the parish to honor their retiring pastor, and after Communion, Father Fecteau lightheartedly expressed appreciation for the cardinal’s visit to Our Lady of the Visitation. “I’m going to declare this ‘Wilton Week,’” the pastor joked.
