Not surprisingly, among the first people to arrive before the 100th anniversary Mass for Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bethesda, Maryland, on Feb. 11, 2026 were Frank Black Jr. and his wife Barbara. They had come to celebrate the milestone of a parish community they have been a part of for 56 years, since 1970.
“It’s home, every time you’re here,” Barbara Black said in an interview in the church’s gathering space before the anniversary Mass.
Her husband, a retired executive recruiter, agreed. “Everybody is always welcome,” he said.
Barbara Black, who is a retired urologist, noted how their son, Frank Black III, was baptized there, attended Our Lady of Lourdes School, and received his sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation there, and married his wife Diane there.
Over the years, Frank Black led the Home and School Association there and served on the parish’s Finance Council, while his wife served on the Parish Council three different times, and also served on the school board and led the women’s Bible study group.
Frank Black mused how Bethesda evolved from a town with one-story shops, to a bustling area. In years past, a nearby local landmark was the neighborhood Hot Shoppes family restaurant that closed in 1995. Now Our Lady of Lourdes Church – which was dedicated in 1951 – is nestled among high-rise apartment and corporate buildings, including offices for Capital One Bank, and the church and school are a short walk away from the Bethesda Station on Metro’s Red Line.
“Now it’s a metropolis. Bethesda is not the little town it was. It’s now a little city,” Barbara Black said.
But she added that as Bethesda changed, “Lourdes stayed the same… The community always stayed really close.” She added, “Our closest friends were friends we made in the parish,” as they participated in parish activities together, and their children went to school together.
‘A great vibe of community’
At a nearby table, Maryann Egan – a catechist at the parish who is serving on its centennial committee – worked with other volunteers in setting up refreshments, including French pastries, for a reception following the anniversary Mass.
“There’s just a great vibe of community” at the parish, she said, noting it has a very diverse group of parishioners of different ages and backgrounds.
Egan, who retired after teaching English and reading at Little Flower School in Bethesda, now as a catechist leads a class for seventh graders preparing to receive the sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. “We’re preparing them to take their place in the Church as adults,” she said.
She also helps lead the women’s Bible study group there, which is called Walking with Purpose. “We’re walking toward the Lord,” Egan said.
Volunteering at a nearby table selling 100th anniversary commemorative items were Jim Gadwood and his wife Jill, who were joined by their four sons who are all students at Our Lady of Lourdes School – Gregory in the seventh grade, Mark in fifth grade, Henry in third grade and Peter in kindergarten.
Jim Gadwood works as a tax lawyer, and Jill Gadwood is also an attorney and works with mergers and acquisitions. He serves on the Parish Finance Council, and she is a prolife coordinator there, and they both are serving on the parish’s centennial committee and as lectors at Masses.
The family lives nearby, and their four sons walk to the parish school.
“I think what the school does better than anything else, it preserves the innocence of children. It focuses on letting kids be kids,” Jim Gadwood said, noting that Our Lady of Lourdes School has a “no social media policy” for its students. Their sons are excited to go to school and learn there, he added.
Jill Gadwood noted that they are at the parish multiple times a day, at school, for Mass or for CYO basketball and soccer games.
“I love the parish and the school,” she said. “It’s not a second home for us. It’s like an extension of our home, because we live in the neighborhood.”
‘The heart of Bethesda’
The two co-chairs of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish’s 100th anniversary committee also praised the spirit there.
“We’re in the heart of Bethesda,” said Mary Devlin Capizzi, a partner in a D.C. law firm who has been a parishioner there for 25 years with her husband Joseph Capizzi, the dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America.
All six of their children attended Our Lady of Lourdes School, and their daughter Margaret Capizzi Poole teaches English language arts and science there.
Praising the parish community, Mary Devlin Capizzi noted how Lourdes includes parishioners who live nearby, and daily Massgoers who work nearby.
“It’s incredibly diverse. It’s like the world, a melting pot, all united in a commitment to faith and Catholic education,” she said, adding, “It’s a welcoming parish. There’s a real sense of community and generosity and care.”
Ana Rubio, the anniversary committee co-chair, agreed, saying, “It’s united… Everyone is always looking out for each other.”
She pointed out how the Hispanic community there is active in the parish, and participated in the 100th anniversary opening Mass on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, celebrated by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States. The anniversary kick-off also included traditional Latin American music and food. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish has offered Masses and ministries for its Spanish-speaking community for more than six decades.
Praising the parish’s diversity, Rubio, who is a native of Nicaragua, said, “It comes alive when everyone’s here. I just love to see how everyone comes out and honors their faith.”
100th anniversary Mass
Moments later, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy processed into Our Lady of Lourdes Church for the 100th anniversary Mass on Feb. 11, which also marked the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, the parish’s patroness. The bilingual Mass featured songs, prayers and Scripture readings in English and Spanish.
“We celebrate today the faith of 100 years – men, women, children and families who have come to this place seeking God’s grace in their lives, and finding it here, and finding it in one another,” the cardinal said.
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish had its first Mass on Dec. 12, 1926 and initially served an estimated 30 families in that neighborhood. Now 100 years later, the parish has about 1,500 families and households, and hundreds of people filled Our Lady of Lourdes Church for the centennial Mass on that Wednesday evening.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy noted the faith of generations of Lourdes parishioners and how over the past century, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish has brought people together in countless ways to encounter God’s love.
“God is truly and tangibly present here and has been these past 100 years,” he said, adding, “God has always been here, beckoning to us as individuals, and beckoning to us as a community of love and faith in the Lord.”
The Mass was also held on the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Sick, and one of the prayer intentions sought Our Lady of Lourdes’ intercession for the sick and suffering, that they might experience Christ’s healing presence.
A grotto outside the church includes a statue of Mary as Our Lady of Lourdes with St. Bernadette kneeling in prayer, and harkens to the international pilgrimage site of Lourdes, France, where people go to seek spiritual and physical healing. The parish has a healing Mass at 7 p.m. every First Friday.
After the 100th anniversary Mass, Cardinal McElroy chatted with parishioners and with students from Our Lady of Lourdes School.
Finding wisdom and sharing love
In an interview after the Mass, Keren Cepero – a young adult who has been attending the parish for five years – praised the sense of community there. Cepero, a native of Puerto Rico who works as a personal trainer, participates in a women’s Bible study group offered in Spanish, and she also brings Communion to senior citizens at a nearby assisted living facility.
She praised the wisdom of the older women she has met there, and said visiting with them and bringing them Communion lets “them know we are there for them. It’s just sharing the love and joy that I receive at the parish.”
Reflecting on that parish ministry, Cepero said, “Bringing our love to them, they get to receive the Lord, and to see how the Holy Spirit works through us. There’s no better feeling.”
Like many of the parishioners interviewed, she emphasized that “we have amazing priests.” Father Rob Walsh serves as the pastor there, and Father Dylan Prentice serves as a parochial vicar there.
After serving as the chaplain at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Maryland for 10 years, Father Walsh became the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes at a challenging time, in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He praised the spirit of the parish, and noted its range of ministries for men and women there, including Cana Couples, a group for young married couples, and its Catholic school and religious education program. The parish’s outreach to the community includes the service to local senior citizens, and regular food drives.
“A great community has been established here,” he said, noting the community has come together again after the pandemic. “I’ve been learning a lot from them, in my first time as a pastor.”
A school and a teacher’s legacy
Also interviewed later that week was David Long, in his fourth year as principal at Our Lady of Lourdes School and in his 29th year at the school after earlier serving as an assistant principal and teacher there. He continues to teach history and religion to middle school students, and sometimes helps teach reading to fifth and sixth graders. Long also tries to visit each classroom every day.
Working with the students, and being connected to their families, is the most rewarding part of his job, he said.
“The parents and I all have the same mission – to raise saints together,” Long said.
The principal said the school’s “no social media policy” has helped students’ sense of happiness and self-worth and has bolstered learning and teaching there.
Our Lady of Lourdes School was founded in 1941 and originally staffed by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, and Lourdes was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2015. The school now has 240 students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade, and it offers a nursery for teachers with young children.
A special highlight of the school year there is the annual Kate Truax Lions Roar 5K each spring, which brings together members of the school and parish communities and people in the neighborhood to honor the legacy of a beloved teacher who died in 2012 after a long battle with cancer. Six of her former students became teachers at the school.
Summarizing the spirit of Our Lady of Lourdes School, Long said, “We’re so rooted in the teaching of Jesus Christ to love everyone…We say, ‘We’re not trying to get you (students) in high school, we’re trying to get you in heaven.”
Anniversary events
Upcoming events to mark the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish include a pilgrimage on March 14 to the National Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for a parish Lenten retreat; a Corpus Christ procession on June 7; a parish picnic on Sept. 26; an All Souls Mass for the faithful departed on Nov. 2; and a closing Mass and celebration on Dec. 12.
