An anniversary is “not primarily about the past, it’s about the
future,” said Msgr. Stanley J. Krempa July 28 in his homily for the Mass celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Winchester.
“But as the past six months have taught us, we can’t predict the
future,” he said, pointing to how quickly and drastically the coronavirus
pandemic has changed our lives and our world. Yet no matter how much we might
wish it to, history does not flow backward, and “we can’t relive the past,” he said.
Msgr. Krempa, who served as Sacred Heart’s pastor from 1999 to
2017 and is now retired, returned to concelebrate
the anniversary Mass Tuesday night with Bishop Michael F. Burbidge and a number
of other priests, past and present, who have served at Sacred Heart, including
Father Bjorn C. Lundberg, the current pastor.
Bishop Burbidge greeted the socially distanced assembly of about
250 people, and pointed out that they were gathered “with pride in the past and
faith in the future, to rejoice, remember and renew.”
In his brief but wide-ranging homily, Msgr. Krempa recapped the
history of Catholics in the Shenandoah Valley, from the Irish immigrants of the
1700s to the Civil War years, when Winchester saw six battles and changed hands
more than 70 times. He said that even during the war, Catholics on different
sides still worshipped together. After the war, local Catholics met in private
homes until the parish built its first church downtown on Loudoun Street, with
many donations from non-Catholics, a sign of the town’s regard for the people
of Sacred Heart. The parish had its first Mass there in 1870 and remained in
the building for 120 years, until the current church was built, about 30 years
ago.
Msgr. Krempa noted that Winchester has been part of three different
dioceses in its long history — first Baltimore, then Richmond, and now
Arlington. Much of that time, it’s been in
the far reaches of its territory, he added, “like being assigned to the
Falkland Islands.”
Yet the parish has continued to grow and thrive, he said, and the
story of Sacred Heart “is a story of generosity — the people’s generosity to
the parish, and God’s generosity to us.”
Just as the new high-tech medical center down the street from the
church brings healing to the body, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy by
the people of the parish bring healing to the soul, he said. “Mercy and
forgiveness and hope are things you cannot buy in a store.”
Even though we cannot know the future, he said, “the God who was
with us is the God who is still with us and will be with us.”
And in the growing city of Winchester, where “a couple thousand
people a day” drive past the Sacred Heart of Jesus campus, they will know that
“here the fire of faith still burns, Jesus is still Lord, and the people of the
parish are a sign to our world that the Kingdom of God is always waiting and
ready to be born.”
After the Mass concluded, Father Lundberg thanked parishioners
who joined via livestream and invited those attending in person to stop outside
to greet Bishop Burbidge and Msgr. Krempa, who will celebrate the 50th
anniversary of his ordination later this year.
Parishioner Timothy O’Donnell, president of Christendom College
in Front Royal, said he and his wife have been parishioners at Sacred Heart
since coming to the area in 1988, and “it has been one of the greatest joys of
our life.” He noted that “the Catholic population has just exploded in recent
decades, and we’re out in the hinterlands,” but at Sacred Heart, “you always
felt like you were being fed, by the Word and the homily and the Eucharist. It
is such a beautiful experience. We are blessed here.”
Parishioner Mariah McCarthy remembers sitting outside on blankets
before the groundbreaking of the new church, dedicated in 1989, and said that
even though it was much larger than the old church on Loudoun Street, she
always found it “a very close parish, maybe because I attended the little
church first.”
McCarthy said her late husband was a Catholic and after they
married in 1974, she attended church with him every Sunday.
When Bishop John R. Keating visited in 1983, soon after being
named Bishop of Arlington, McCarthy was there, and said it was a day she’ll
never forget — she still gets a little choked up talking about it.
As Bishop Keating walked up the aisle, she noticed his eyes were “sea
blue and so clear,” and a feeling came over her that she can only describe as
the Holy Spirit.
“I felt like it was Christ,” she said. “Shortly after that I
converted,” and she’s attended Sacred Heart ever since.
Buy photos from the Mass at catholicherald.smugmug.com.