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Holy Family's first pastor returning for jubilee

The founding pastor of Holy Family Catholic Community in Inverness is returning to the suburbs this week to mark his 50th anniversary as a priest. The Rev. Medard Laz will celebrate his jubilee at the 5 p.m. Saturday Mass at the church established in 1984.

“Serving at Holy Family Parish Community was truly the high point of my 50 years as a priest,” said Laz, 75, who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he helps at local parishes and keeps up with an online ministry he started, TreatsfortheSoul.org.

Since leaving the Northwest suburbs in 1995, Laz has worked in national ministries, including co-founding Rainbows — a support group for children in single-family homes — and Joyful Again for the widowed, as well as conducting humanitarian aid in Haiti.

Yet his impact on Holy Family resonates, said its current pastor, the Rev. Terry Keehan.

“He had a very big vision for what Holy Family could be and has become,” Keehan said of the parish that now serves more than 4,000 families, or 15,000 people. “He just has a way of empowering people.”

Laz was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago in May 1969. His first assignment was as an associate at Our Lady of the Brook in Northbrook, which had opened a year earlier. He then served at St. Francis Borgia in Chicago.

In 1984, Holy Family became the first new Catholic church in the suburbs in 16 years.

“Cardinal Bernardin wanted to try something new and different,” Laz said. “He wanted to present our faith in a more vibrant and creative way.”

Laz said he loved the challenge. He and lay leaders in the new parish began by interviewing families in the neighborhood. Their first liturgies were celebrated in the cafeteria at Fremd High School. Within weeks, they drew 700 people to each service.

“We used a lot of audio visuals and skits before or after the homilies,” Laz said. “I tried to make every Sunday different from the one before.

“It was my vision to make faith relevant to people's lives, to make it vibrant and exciting and central to their joys and struggles.”

At the same time, Laz and the parish's architectural committee began meeting to design the church building itself.

“We wanted the outside of the church to look old English, reflecting the name of the town, Inverness,” Laz said. “But inside, we wanted to utilize a very modern use of the space, make it warm and friendly, with huge windows.

“We wanted people to look up into the sky and think of heaven and all of creation.”

The parish dedicated the church building on May 1, 1988. Still in the works was the statement piece of art in the sanctuary, the “Cross of New Life”

The acrylic sculpture measures 12 by 16 feet and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. It was dedicated in 1997, two years after Laz left Holy Family, but he was actively involved in its design, which features Christ suspended over the altar steps with outstretched arms.

“It's as if Jesus is reaching out from the cross, breaking through the bonds, with compassion for all who seek him,” Laz said.

Laz stays in touch with the parish and said celebrating his jubilee there was a natural.

“I've been honored to help set the tone and the direction of the parish, and I have been blessed a thousand times in return,” he said.

Since leaving Holy Family Catholic Community in Inverness, the Rev. Medard Laz has dedicated time to humanitarian aid in Haiti. He visited the Caribbean nation here with Andy and Florette Sokulski of Chicago. Courtesy of Food For The Poor, Inc.
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