Annunciation Parish, close to the American University campus in Northwest Washington, started a year of 75th-anniversary celebrations with a Mass, followed by a catered picnic on the church grounds.
Even before the noon Mass on June 11, worshipers at the 10 a.m. Mass honored the feast of Corpus Christi with an around-the-block Eucharistic procession after Mass.
The noon Mass featured not only Washington Auxiliary Bishop Juan Esposito-Garcia as celebrant and Msgr. Michael Mellone, the parish’s pastor, as homilist, but also six priest-concelebrants who had once been assigned to Annunciation.
One former weekend associate sent his regrets.
“I will be traveling that day to Orlando, Florida, for the (U.S.) bishops’ conference,” wrote Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond.
“I have many wonderful memories of helping out as a priest at Annunciation Parish while serving on the staff at the archdiocese,” he wrote. “The parishioners, the priests and staff were always very welcoming and hospitable.”
Bishop Knestout is not the only Annunciation alumnus later elevated to the episcopacy. The pastor from 2000 to 2002, the Irish-born Msgr. Kevin Farrell, is now a cardinal and prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
Annunciation was one of four parishes established by the archdiocese in 1948, Msgr. Mellone said in his homily. The other three were Holy Redeemer in Kensington, Little Flower in Bethesda, and Our Lady Queen of Peace, also in Washington.
“Why four parishes?” he asked. The District of Columbia was burgeoning, Msgr. Mellone said in answer to his own question. St. Ann Parish in Washington’s Tenleytown neighborhood was packing in Catholics at its Sunday Masses. When Annunciation was established with some of the territory of St. Ann, it had to buy a church building from a third parish so it could conduct Masses. Soon, Annunciation had to hold seven Masses each Sunday to accommodate the demand.
Washington, Msgr. Mellone added, “was becoming an important city, not only in America but around the world,” which is typified by the international flavor lent today by Annunciation parishioners.
Patricia Alonso Escartin first moved with her family from Barcelona to Washington. She returned to Spain to complete her schooling, but her father, who said he was going to stay at his U.S. assignment for one years – three years at most – never left. It was he who found Annunciation for the family.
Patricia returned to Washington and has been a parishioner for the past 26 years. She met her Argentina-born husband here, and he helps with Annunciation's religious education program while their 9-year-old son plays with his church friends.
Last in the line for some Red Hot & Blue barbecue was Maria Santos, a 10-year parishioner from Brazil for whom being at the back of the line was not a big deal. “I’m a cancer survivor,” Santos said. “This is such a beautiful day. It’s beautiful to see all the parish celebrating the love of God, because he wants us to be happy.”
Michelle Kingue, a native of Cameroon, hasn’t even registered yet as a parishioner. A U.S. resident for the past 10 years, she moved to the neighborhood with her young daughter, called the Annunciation rectory and was invited to the upcoming anniversary Mass.
“This is a warm place,” Kingue said of Annunciation while a duo was playing Scottish fiddle tunes, which was later followed by a beginners' demonstration by the parish square-dancing group – whose origins predate Annunciation’s and which once could boast of having Marjorie Meriwether Post as a member before it became a parish activity in the 2000s.
In anticipation of the picnic outside the church following Mass, Msgr. Mellone led the assembly in saying grace before the final blessing.
However, even a day of jubilation can be marred with sadness. Longtime usher Lou Ramble succumbed to cancer June 10 at age 93. Parishioner Paul Chaffiotte said Ramble ushered “until just a couple weeks ago.”
(Mark Pattison, a freelance writer, formerly was a longtime reporter for the Catholic News Service.)
