St. Rita reaches centennial anniversary

When Peggy Shaffer took her 6-year-old son to Sunday school at St. Rita in Dundalk almost three decades ago, she wanted to help the parish while waiting for her son to complete religious education.

Shaffer approached Deacon George Evans, one of the first permanent deacons in the country who served St. Rita for 33 years, and said, “I’m going to be here for an hour, is there anything I can help you with?”  

“He had this crazy look in his eyes and the next thing I know I’m teaching third-grade Sunday school,” she noted.

Shaffer has been a parishioner of St. Rita for 32 years and has volunteered at multiple ministries. As the Baltimore County parish celebrates its 100th anniversary, she is an example of the kind of hardworking people who have helped keep the faith community strong over the decades.

St. Rita has been able to accomplish a century of parish life due to the love instilled from multiple generations and the commitment to leadership from parishioners, said Shaffer, who helped plan a series of festivities for the centennial celebration.

In its most recent years, the parish has struggled through a shortage of clergy and frequent changes in leadership.

Charlotte Locklear, who has been a parishioner for 47 years, recalls when a lay leadership core group of parishioners was formed in the early 2000s to keep the parish together and running smoothly at a time when the parish lacked a pastor for two years.

“Without this group of parishioners, we would not have been able to survive,” Locklear said.

When a local business closed in 1980, many people stopped at the parish office and asked the receptionist at the front desk for food. Parishioners gathered to discuss ways to help those hungry people and came up with a food pantry idea, which later evolved into a soup kitchen.

St. Rita Supper Table, a soup kitchen ministry instituted in 1980, has served 200 to 300 people weekly.

Mary Catherine Haines, who has been a parishioner for 75 years, and her parents were some of the early supporters and longtime leaders of the ministry.

“It never ceased to amaze me when we needed something and someone would come in the door to help,” Haines said. “There were many miracles along the way.”

Haines’ parents cooked and she was an active member of the ministry. When her parents died, she took the cooking role until she physically could not continue with it. 

A teen who opened the door of the rectory to hungry people back in 1980 took over the ministry. Stacey Nagel was touched by the people asking for food at the rectory and decided to volunteer at St. Rita’s Supper Table.

“I think that’s where the love for the poor became a thing in my heart and in my mind,” she said. 

David Nagel, her husband, volunteered at St. Rita’s Supper Table since he was a child, attended St. Rita School and was an altar boy at the parish.

The Nagels have been loyal parishioners of St. Rita for generations. David Nagel’s family has been in the parish three generations before him.

The parish downsized in 2018. The hall, home of St. Rita’s Supper Table, along with the school and convent buildings were emptied for potential sales. 

St. Rita Supper Table became Soup for the Soul, an independent soup kitchen run by Stacey and David Nagel. Its location moved to Dundalk United Methodist Church and eventually to its current location on Willow Spring Road.

St. Rita Parish, made up of 626 registered families, continues with outreach ministries such as St. Rita’s St. Vincent De Paul Society, which has been active for the last 16 years in the parish and has eight core members.

Debbie Bullington, president of St. Rita St. Vincent de Paul Society and parishioner for 20 years, said the ministry is “spiritual first.” She noted that volunteers pray before serving the people and before packing the bags. They also pray with the clients for their problems and needs in private, upon request.

“Sometimes people come to get the food and they are full of things to say,” Bullington said. “Praying and paying attention to those clients individually is what makes us unique.”

The food pantry ministry continued operating constantly throughout the pandemic, serving approximately 70 people twice a month with options for pick up at the parish and home delivery.

St. Rita was established June 2, 1922, beginning as a mission church of St. Luke in Edgemere. Steady jobs at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Sparrows Point helped birth St. Rita’s parish. The first generation of parishioners cleaned the grounds and helped build the first wooden structure church in 1922.

By 1947, the parish had a second church built to accommodate the growing parish, which is the building still in use today.

St. Rita School served the community from 1926 to 2006. The parish became part of a pastorate with Sacred Heart of Mary in Graceland Park and Our Lady of Fatima in Baltimore in 2017 under one pastor.

St. Rita has been served by 12 pastors and three pastoral life directors.

The faith community celebrated its 100th anniversary throughout the year starting June 2, 2021. The parish held two healing Masses, movie nights and a Christmas concert. A basket was placed near a St. Rita statue inside the church, where parishioners could leave Mass petitions related to the anniversary and for revitalization of the parish. Parishioners prayed a novena to St. Rita May 13-22, accompanied by several activities including a St. Rita festival, dedication of a tree in memory of departed clergy, talks about St. Rita and a living rosary. Eucharistic adoration and confessions were offered to the community May 13-21. The culmination of the anniversary was a Mass and dinner May 22.

“St. Rita will always be our home,” Stacey Nagel said. “We hold our faith very dear and near, and we hope to pass it on to future generations.”

Email Priscila González de Doran at pdoran@CatholicReview.org

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