Sunday Sharing 6.16.19

Called To Be “Father” By The Holy Trinity

By Joe Accardi, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving

We have come again to another Father's Day, this year falling on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Over the years I have had the pleasure to share with the parish the stories about my father, my grandfather, and my father-in-law through the Sunday Sharing piece of the Steward. This year I want to share about another "Father" and his connection to the Holy Trinity. I had the privilege to be the pastoral assistant to the Scalabrinian Fathers at St. Callistus parish in the early 1990's. They had been asked to minister to the Italian community on the west end of Taylor Street by Cardinal Mundelein in the 1920's. It would be to that parish that came a newly ordained priest from Italy in 1939, Father Alex Peloso. Father Alex was a very interesting character, short in stature but big in what mattered: heart. He had a very compassionate nature that would serve the people of God in Chicago for over 60 years. Although he never had children of his own, he still was a good "father" to those entrusted to his care. He possessed all the virtues that we honor on Father's Day for those men who raised us, taught and guided us, made a difference in our lives. Father Alex did all those things for the souls entrusted to his care. Shortly after being named pastor of Santa Maria Addolorata he was told that his parish would be condemned to make way for the Ohio feeder ramp of the Kennedy Expressway.

He now had to rebuild further west near Grand and Ogden Aves. He saw to the building of a new church, school, and rectory. But the accomplishment of building that new parish plant would not be what many people in Chicago remember him by. What made Fr. Alex stand out was that he was a courageous pastor, he saw that times were changing and he made sure that he would be on the forefront to provide for those less fortunate. Chicago's Italian neighborhoods were changing in the 1960's with the influx of new immigrants, the Hispanic community. They would be like the Italians of the late 1800's and early 1900's, struggling and seeking help. And they could count on this 5 ft. little priest and his openness to the needs of Hispanic immigrants. He was one of the first parish priests in Chicago to offer Mass in Spanish. After becoming pastor of St. Callistus in 1973, he helped start charismatic prayer groups. In 1974, with the help of a group of Hispanic professionals, Father Alex founded "The Confederation of Spanish American Workers," a nonprofit organization whose mission was to defend the rights of Hispanic workers who at that time faced labor injustice and racial discrimination. Likewise, he established a Credit Union to promote Hispanic investors and help Hispanic families with financial loans. After retiring from St. Callistus in 1992, he would collaborate with Father Louis Gandolfi in the creation of married couples prayer groups called "El Pequeno Cielo" to strengthen the newly married through prayer and ongoing formation. His greatest desire though was to evangelize young people, so he started "Young Catholics in Action" and directed the composition of the first "Rock Mass" at Santa Maria Addolorata parish in Chicago, where he resided as the pastor emeritus. The work for which he will be remembered, not only here in Chicago, but in several cities in the United States and Mexico, is the TRUE LOVE WAITS (EVAE) youth movement charged with promoting chastity among all young Hispanics. At the end of 1994, he had formed and prepared its first team of leaders, who, working with him, would educate other young people in the virtue of chastity.

The coordinating team of EVAE- Chicago had the great privilege of working with him in the last 6 years of his life. What an impressive resume' of successful apostolates! As I mentioned earlier, I had the pleasure of working for Father Alex before I got married as his pastoral assistant for 5 years. He was the Italian "energizer bunny", slept for few hours, and was always out during the day to visit with people. The church was always busy, hosting a different group Father had founded, every night of the week. He never took a day off, never a vacation until he was pastor emeritus at Santa Maria in the late '90s. He wrote spiritual books on Sacred Scripture in Spanish and gave away all the money from the publishers. A major donor owned a Bingo Hall in Melrose Park and donated two nights of proceeds each week, so Father Alex would never have to turn away a deserving family from St. Callistus School because they could not pay. He was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament sponsoring weekly Adoration and annual 40 Hour Devotions. He was a "spiritual heavyweight" and he often could be found in prayer gazing up to the window of the Holy Trinity in St. Callistus. The window was not your typical example of the Blessed Trinity with the Father as a bearded elderly man with Jesus, His Son, and the dove representing the Holy Spirit. Instead this window was a symbol of the relationships that make up the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; that of three distinct but interrelated persons. The words in the image seek to explain the truth that has taken centuries to figure out. Father Alex would explain it to everyone as love. It is a special kind of love that connects each person of the Blessed Trinity, one that is perfect and lasts forever. He would often repeat this theme when explaining where we exist in the relationship with God as His children. Out of love we were created, out of love we were saved, out of love we are given freedom. Our life needs to be a response to the love poured out by the Holy Trinity. Every year on Trinity Sunday we are reminded of that love and are given the opportunity to recommit ourselves to bringing that love to a broken and troubled world. Father Alex had to be a "father" to his immigrant fold, their "protector and defender", their "counselor and teacher" until God called him to his eternal reward in 2001. We pray today for all men we call "father" and "Father", both living and deceased. May God reward them for all the love, wisdom, counsel, and fortitude they have shared over the years. When called back to Him, may they be received into the loving presence of the Most Holy Trinity.