St. Clare of Montefalco parishioners say it's a point of holy pride that Chicago-born pope visited, was ordained at their parish
GROSSE POINTE PARK — On a late summer day in 1981, the future pope of the Catholic Church was on his way to Detroit, deep in prayer.
Then, he was known only as Robert Prevost, OSA, a newly professed friar with the Order of St. Augustine's Chicago-based Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
When he arrived, he would kneel before the altar at St. Clare of Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park, where his life of ordained ministry — a ministry that would lead him from Chicago to Peru and eventually to the Chair of St. Peter in Rome — was about to begin.
Normally, transitional deacon ordinations for the Midwest Augustinians were celebrated in Chicago, but for various reasons, the ordination that year was to take place in southeast Michigan, at one of three Augustinian-run parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit at the time.
And so, on Sept. 10, 1981, the future Pope Leo XIV entered holy orders right here in southeast Michigan.
Fr. Andrew Kowalczyk, CSMA, the current priest serving St. Clare of Montefalco, said he had "no idea" until a mutual friend and member of the Augustinians told him of the blessed connection.
"He said to me, 'Andrew, do you know that this parish is now famous? It was the site of Pope Leo's ordination,'" Fr. Kowalczyk told Detroit Catholic. "We probably have to engrave a special plaque and put it in the church."
The 99-year-old parish on the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park has a storied history of its own. For most of its existence, until 2012, St. Clare of Montefalco was staffed by priests of the Midwest Augustinians, meaning then-Fr. Prevost — who served as vocations director of the province in 1987 and as prior provincial from 1999 to 2001 — would have visited the parish a handful of times.
Fr. Joe McCormick, OSA, who served as St. Clare's pastor from 1995 to 2002, recalled at least one visit from the future pontiff, "who went out of his way to spend time with me, to support me, listen to me, and offer guidance" to him and other Augustinian priests stationed at the parish.
Although few who spoke with Detroit Catholic remember many details, it turns out the future pope was ordained at St. Clare, too, the Chicago-based Augustinian province confirmed.
"I asked several people here in the parish if there was any recollection, but this was almost 45 years ago, and not many people remember," said Fr. Kowalczyk, a Michaelite priest who arrived at St. Clare in 2012. "Many of those who would have remembered have passed away, but people do remember Pope Leo coming here to help out the Augustinians, especially during times when there was a transition, because he was the superior."
Members of the parish staff are scouring church bulletins, records and archives to try to find any images or recollections, Fr. Kowalczyk said.
But simply knowing the pope began his ministry in their church is a blessing, the priest added.
Then-Fr. Prevost was ordained to the priesthood a few months later, on June 19, 1982, in Rome, and later served two years as prior provincial of the Midwest Augustinians before being promoted to prior general of the worldwide order. He also spent many years as a missionary in Peru, where he served as a bishop from 2015 to 2023.
But it all started in Grosse Pointe Park.
"He was hosted here. He celebrated Masses here," Fr. Kowalczyk said. "I told the children in our school that they should write a letter to the Holy Father and say how proud they are to go to the school, which was founded and run by the Augustinian Fathers, and by chance perhaps he came and visited their school."
Fr. Kowalczyk said it struck him that Pope Leo XIV invoked the Blessed Mother in his first address from the loggia of St. Peter's Square on the day of his election.
"I think the Blessed Mother will be very much a part of his pontificate, just as it was in the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict and Francis," Fr. Kowalczyk said. "As the mother of the Church and the symbol of hope, I think Our Lady will be a powerful sign to the Church, and to him, and to all of us, as well."
Although Pope Leo spent most of his ministry in Chicago and in Peru, the Holy Father's Michigan ties are a source of holy pride for those at St. Clare and across the Archdiocese of Detroit. The future pontiff also attended seminary high school at the now-closed St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, and visited a handful of other Michigan parishes, including St. Matthew Parish in Flint.
"I've never met (Pope Leo), but a lot of people here are familiar with him," said Sue Buckley, a longtime St. Clare of Montefalco parishioner. "There's a tremendous amount of pride in the fact that the pope is, to a degree, one of our own. It's pretty awesome."
Janet Guensche, a longtime parishioner and former secretary of the parish, said she remembers the future pope as one of two friars ordained deacons that day. According to the Midwest Augustinians, the late Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton was the presiding bishop.
"That was the first ordination I had ever attended," recalled Guensche, who began working at the parish in 1978. "It was spectacular. I didn't appreciate the fact that he was going to be pope someday; he was just a young man then."
Guensche recalled the parish had "a houseful of priests" at the time, with four or five Augustinians living and ministering at St. Clare. Often, Augustinian novices and transitional deacons would be sent to St. Clare "to get some parish experience," she said.
Guensche, who later became a lay affiliate of the Augustinians, remembered Pope Leo's servant leadership as prior provincial of the Midwest Augustinians, when he would often check in with the priests and parishes under the order's care throughout the province.
"He was very kind to me," Guensche recalled. "Anything I needed, if I called, he came to the phone right away, and he really helped us out at St. Clare."
Guensche described Pope Leo XIV as humble and "a quiet man until you got to know him."
"The first time I met him, a friend of mine who was one of my coworkers and I got together, and said, 'That's a holy man.' We knew it from the first time we met him," Guensche said. "He was quiet, very reflective — not a person who gets excited or makes a rash decision, but really thinks about things. He seemed like a real thinker."
Lifelong St. Clare parishioner Marilee Williams, 87, said it's a "fabulous" blessing for the community, adding she recently returned from Chicago, where she drove past the house where the future Pope Leo grew up.
"I was visiting my granddaughter, so we went to his birth house, which is in a very simple neighborhood," Williams said. "He was born into a very simple lifestyle. His grade school is closed up now, but it wasn't very far. He probably walked to school there."
Williams recalled that when the Augustinians left St. Clare of Montefalco in 2012, the community came together to pray the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel — a holy coincidence, she said, considering the order that would succeed them would be the Michaelite Fathers.
Could it also be a holy coincidence that the new pope — ordained at St. Clare — chose the name Leo, considering the last pope with that name, Pope Leo XIII, originally composed the prayer to St. Michael?
“Oh, really?” Williams mused. “It’s a very powerful prayer.”
Celebrating Mass with a few dozen parishioners at St. Clare on May 13, Fr. Kowalczyk counts himself among those thrilled to learn of the parish's new papal connection, adding it's "special" to think "I'm celebrating Mass in the church and at the altar where he was ordained."
"The church looked a little bit different in 1981, but certainly we are very proud of that," Fr. Kowalczyk said.
While parishioners at St. Clare are understandably elated, the excitement isn’t just about marking a historical site or boasting a bit of fascinating papal trivia, Guensche said.
Rather, the first American pope would want the focus to be where it should always be: on Christ.
"Parishioners are pretty excited, there's no doubt about that," Guensche said. "It's hard to wrap your head around the fact that you actually met and spoke with the pope. It's an honor for St. Clare parishioners, and hopefully he will bring interest and bring people back to the church — maybe people who have not been so active in the past — knowing that he's one of us. Hopefully he'll bring more people into the church. I hope so. I think he certainly has the ability to do that."
