Former St. Philomena parishioner writes late Msgr. Peter Lentine’s biography, remembering a beloved east-side pastor
DETROIT — Msgr. Pete Lentine was a mainstay at St. Philomena Parish on Detroit’s east side for 50 years. For half a century, St. Philomena’s was Fr. Pete, and Fr. Pete was St. Philomena’s.
"Fr. Pete" — as he preferred to be called — put his own personal, laid-back style as a stamp on the parish, and parishioners loved him for it.
When it was time to celebrate 50 years at St. Philomena in 2016, Fr. Pete was hesitant at first, but parishioner Patrick McCuen insisted it would be a gift to the parish to create a video documentary honoring the priest's life to show at the celebration.
McCuen conducted a series of interviews to finish the documentary in time for the anniversary, but he still had plenty of material he knew needed to be shared with the parish and the world, especially after Msgr. Lentine's passing in 2017 at the age of 98.
So McCuen set about writing his late pastor’s biography, “Conversations with Father Pete: What a 98-Year-Old Priest Taught Me about Leadership, Forgiveness, and the Meaning of Life,” a “Tuesdays with Morrie”-style novel on the wisdom and grace one can glean from a life well lived.
“The book is the story of his life as he told it to me through our meetings,” McCuen told Detroit Catholic. “We would have weekly meetings, and I would bring a video recorder and an audio recorder, and he would just tell me his stories. I then took all that footage to make the documentary. And this book is literally about his life, making the documentary, and the lessons I learned from my experience with him.”
“Conversations with Father Pete” is McCuen’s first book — just as the documentary was his first film project. McCuen is an engineer by trade, so he did some “weekend warrior work” to put the book together.
The book is supplemented with interviews from people who knew Fr. Pete best, particularly staff and volunteers at St. Philomena Parish and surrounding parishes in Detroit, Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores, and what people learned from Fr. Pete’s life.
“He had a phrase called ‘habitual forgiveness,’ and I think that is one of the things that always stuck with me on what Fr. Pete practiced,” McCuen said. “It was his habit to forgive people and not hold a grudge. Without giving it away, he had a lot of struggles in the seminary. He had some challenging assignments where he thought he wasn’t being supported. But he never held that against anyone, and his entire life, he showed this tremendous grace to be patient and forgiving.”
McCuen said it wasn’t uncommon for his conversations with Fr. Pete to go on for hours in between dialysis treatments and medical appointments, and tears were often shed when Fr. Pete delved into more sensitive parts of his life.
“There were times when he’d be telling his stories and would be so overcome with emotions, we’d be laughing, crying all at the same time,” McCuen said. “You wouldn’t think he’d get too emotional when we started. But we kept going, and I was just listening, and he would not only talk about the good days of life, but the challenging days. I thought Father Pete was very brave to talk about some instances that were just soul-crushing events that took place in his life.”
In writing the book, McCuen said he got to relive the friendship that developed between himself and Fr. Pete, with McCuen’s daughter remarking that he had become Fr. Pete’s “last best friend.”
“It was just a very rewarding experience to listen to his stories and record them and make the documentary,” McCuen said. “It was a full house, 350 or so people at the church (during the anniversary celebration), and it was very rewarding for him to see his life and hear people talk about what he meant to them.”
McCuen said initial feedback from the book has been positive. Surprisingly, he has had positive reviews from people who did not know Fr. Pete or set foot in St. Philomena’s.
“I think one of the interesting parts is hearing from people who did not know me and did not know Father Pete, and they said they gained a lot of insight about life from the book,” McCuen said. “It’s always like that when you come across an interesting story; it resonates with so many different people. And Fr. Pete led a very interesting life; he entered the priesthood late, struggled in seminary, faced challenges in parish life, but he took everything in stride. That’s why everyone wanted to be his friend.”
McCuen said readers will find Fr. Pete’s story relatable because of his down-to-earth nature that will remind them of many priests they have come across.
“The story of Father Pete is probably the same as a lot of priests,” McCuen said. “He had a sincerity about him. Even though he was a monsignor, he went by Father Pete. Everyone called him Father Pete because he didn’t want that title to interfere with any sort of relationship that he was having with somebody, or he didn’t want anyone to be intimidated by a title.”
Beyond bringing Father Pete’s story to a wider audience — the book is available on Amazon — McCuen said it was an honor to write about his pastor, but even better, to call him a close friend.
“He had lots of friends, but for him to trust me to tell his story, that’s an honor,” McCuen said. “I guess when I wrote the book, I kept thinking about the fact that he trusted me to tell his story, to get it out there and make sure that at least the people from St. Philomena, his friends and family would have his book to always remember him and go forward.”
