St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill, the second Catholic parish in Washington, will launch a year of bicentennial observances Sept. 25 with a 4 p.m. opening Mass.
Father Gary Studniewski, the 23rd and current pastor and a retired Army chaplain, said the bicentennial is a time to look forward as well as back. “It is exciting to celebrate a proud history and so many faithful people that have contributed to making St. Peter’s what it is today,” he said. “Our bicentennial will do much to motivate people to be a part of our mission and to inform what that mission looks like well into the future.”
He noted that for 200 years, St. Peter’s “has extended the mission of Christ to parishioners, visitors, Congress members, and neighbors, with far-reaching influence.”