PROVIDENCE – Father Kenneth R. Letoile, O.P.’s installation Mass at St. Pius V parish on April 27 was a homecoming of the sweetest kind.
He grew up in the parish, graduated from its elementary school, then from LaSalle Academy and then from Providence College before being ordained a priest in 1974. Providence truly is Father Letoile’s home town. His mom is still a member of the parish and lives in the home where he was raised. He said he is “very happy to be back and part of this local church.”
Following his ordination, Father Letoile has served parishes in South Carolina and New Jersey. He then spent ten years as the pastor of St. Pius V before being transferred to St. Gertrude parish in Cincinatti, Ohio.
Now, much to his surprise and delight, the Dominican father is back in Providence. “Cincinatti feels like a long way from Providence. I dearly missed it while I was in Ohio,” he said.
It has been nearly a decade since his last assignment in Rhode Island, but Father Letoille said the church is very much the same, and he is glad for it. “I very much missed the dimensions that make Providence and Rhode Island the special place that it is,” he said. He added that he was “mentally prepared for a lot more differences than I’ve discovered.
“The welcome has been warm and enthusiastic, from the children in the school, the parishioners who knew me as a youngster to the parishioners I?journeyed with in the ‘90s and the new people in the parish,” Father Letoile said.
Many of the people who were parishioners when he grew up at St. Pius V, and even more who were parishioners when he was the pastor during the 1990s are still loyal members of the parish. “I’m amazed at the number of people who are still in the same place,” he said.
Father Letoile returned to Rhode Island in March and since then has celebrated the funeral Masses of the mothers of three of his childhood friends from St. Pius V Elementary School. “It just seemed as part of God’s plan that I would be back and able to be present to these families,” he said.
He also feels a special connection to this year’s class of Confirmation students, most of whom he remembers and who remember him from elementary school during his first tenure as the church’s pastor. “Jesus has called me back in time for their Confirmation.”
As much as his re-installation at St. Pius V is a homecoming and a chance to reconnect to his roots, Father Letoile said it is also a new beginning. “I think any time a new pastor is received it’s an opportunity for a new beginning for that pastor as well as for the parish,” he said.
He is looking forward to working with the elementary school and the four young Dominican sisters from Tennessee who are teachers there. Building up enrollment at the school, which now has 210 students, is a priority.
He also hopes to incorporate some form of adult education into the parish life, especially as he delves into the meaning of the upcoming year of St. Paul. “It’s important for me to refocus with the members of the parish our mission at this time, so that will involve some planning and listening,” he said.
The collaborative relationship between his parish and nearby Providence College is another asset Father Letoile looks forward to exploring. The college’s new president, Father Brian J. Shanley, is a good friend, he said.
Father Letoile said that the homecoming celebration was merely in preparation for his ultimate homecoming. “In one way we are all looking forward to the time when we will be welcomed home into the Father’s house, and that grace has occurred to me in returning to St. Pius. In some way it’s in anticipation of that moment,” he said.
