WHY SO MANY OF US GRIEVE HIS PASSING

Why would a community of all ages and all denominations, Catholics, practicing or not, and non-Catholics, grieve the passing of a humble parish priest?

For some, it was his deep commitment to his faith. For others, it was his uncanny ability to see beyond the sinner to the essence of the person’s spirit.

For most, it was because Father Louis M. Solcia loved everyone — and he told them that God loved them, too.

Whether a Catholic in good standing, a new convert or someone returning to the church after decades of absence, if Father Louie said that God loved you — that’s all anyone needed to hear. Father Louie, who died at age 91 on March 2 after a lengthy illness, wore his priestly robes over 60 years with honor, believing in his mission: pray for the sick, lay hands on the dying, comfort the sorrowful, correct the errant, and give unwavering love to every soul your life touches.

As associate pastor at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Little Italy, he was subject to the law of the church — but he took his role as “father” to heart. Some define a “father” as a motivator, teacher, counselor and patriarch. That was Father Louie.

As counselor, he had an uncanny talent to see through any subterfuge, right to the heart of the matter. With a passion for compassion, he met you where you lived — in that place where you needed to hear the truth. He didn’t mince words. He didn’t sugarcoat the message. His advice was rock-solid, irrefutable, honest. No one could “motivate” like Father Louie. The line outside his confessional often stretched down one aisle and up the other in the church in Little Italy. His famous admonition — “Do not give up because God isn’t giving up on you” — was relayed often enough to inject hope and inspire change. Father Louie didn’t hold back. He was passionate about keeping his children on the straight and narrow. Father Louie was an old priest from the old order of priests who did not shirk from a duty to tell the truth when the truth needed telling.

If the law was broken (church or state), Father Louie said so, straight up with strength but always with compassion. “There is a reason for the law,” he would say. “It is to guide us so that we do no evil.”

Father Louie was passionate about protecting his children from evil. “Do good and our father in heaven will see it and bless it,” he often said. His rule was simple: “Love God because God loves you.” In Father Louie-speak that meant “do good, don’t sin, but if you do sin, ask God to forgive you, and he will. Then, don’t do it again! That’s very important! Now, God bless you — real good!”

Father Louie was also a teacher. His office followed the “Father Louie Library Filing System” — not the Dewey Decimal System. He had more publications — books, pamphlets and leaflets on the lives of saints, motivational discourses on how to live an exemplary life, prayer cards crammed into every nook and cranny of his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves — than the basement of the Library of Congress. Visitors to his office never left empty-handed. He would hand them Padre Pio leaflets — Padre Pio is the healing patron saint of Italy — and Father Louie believed devoutly in God’s healing power.

Father Louie knew what you needed. Bringing people together was his talent. Never happier than when surrounded by children, teens or young and older adults, he delighted in sharing stories of his youth in Italy, always colored with humor and an uplifting message. “You are family — one big Italian family whether you are Italian or not!” he would say. “Love one another — remember that.”

T. S. Eliot once wrote, “We don’t actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.” Father Louie didn’t have to fear being forgotten. With the passing of a great person, a community mourns. Father Louie was many things to many people: priest, confessor, spiritual guide, healer, storyteller and life counselor. But to me, and to those mourning our loss, he was and always will be “Papa.”

Rest in peace, Father Louie, and may God bless you — real good!

Father Louie was many things to many people: priest, confessor, spiritual guide, healer, storyteller and life counselor.