The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
HARTFORD -- Mary Radley and family have a second home in Hartford. They share it with at least 22 other households in Sebastian County, some hailing from nearby Huntington, Hackett, Mansfield and Greenwood. More are welcome, especially children.
There's a tradition to uphold -- one defined by devotion, donations and labor.
St. Leo the Great Church stands as testimony to this active stewardship. It's been this way for more than 100 years, since the Central Coal and Coke Co. donated a 50-by-150 tract at Locust and Ludlow streets along with a sum of money for construction of the first church of any denomination in the coal-mining town bracketed by Poteau and Sugarloaf mountains at the northern edge of the Ouachita National Forest.
"We depend on each other more here, not so much in a social way but in a spiritual way," Radley said.
On a breezy November afternoon, Radley and three other members of St. Leo's Parish Council sat down with pastor Msgr. Richard Oswald to discuss current needs: replacing or refinishing the church doors, fixing a water leak in the paneling behind the altar, replacing a broken window outside the adjacent parish hall and painting an outbuilding.
"He's going to paint the shed for $40! That's a great estimate," Deacon Tony Picciano, a council member, said during a review of bids for the various work.
"There's a real sense of ownership," Msgr. Oswald said of St. Leo's congregation. 'They take care of the place, physically, and see that things are done in terms of ministry."
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Radley said she hoped a Filipino family, who live across the state line in Oklahoma, will join St. Leo's -- adding three children to a parish whose youngest active churchgoer, she said, is either 16 or 17.
"Unless the Filipinos come, I'm finished," Radley added, referring to her role as director of religious education. St. Leo's has no more candidates, after Msgr. Oswald confirmed three on Pentecost Sunday, May 27.
In contrast, then-Bishop Andrew J. McDonald came to Hartford on Oct. 1, 1972, for his first confirmation.
"I noted that the children almost outnumbered the adults in the congregation," Bishop McDonald wrote of the experience. "Two families alone have 23 of these children."
The spirit of stewardship prevails, however, and is readily apparent.
In the 1980s, St. Leo's church members, relatives and friends pitched in to add the parish hall, applying white stucco to its exterior as well as that of the tarpaper-shingled church. The Sisters of Mercy at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith donated two stained-glass windows, including one portraying the church patron, Pope Leo I. St. Michael's in Van Buren, having built a new church, gave St. Leo's their old pews and Stations of the Cross.
More recently, in January 2006, a Bentonville woman whose grandparents attended St. Leo's donated the bells that chime in the church bell tower. This year, a Fort Smith couple answered Picciano's notice in the church bulletin for an organ.
All this is fodder for the parish scrapbook, which Radley inherited and updates. This informal history includes a list of donors and donations -- everything from a coffee maker for the parish hall to the religious statues of Jesus and Mary that adorn the small courtyard outside.
Visitors are welcome to thumb through three photo albums of memories as well.
"We're a family here," Radley said, her voice breaking a bit with emotion. "We have a more intimate knowledge of each other's personal lives than in a bigger church."
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