Praying the Steps: An Historical Understanding of the Passionists
at Holy Cross-Immaculata Church on Mt. Adams, Cincinnati, Ohio
From Interview of Father Richard Parks, C.P. by Father Rob Carbonneau, C.P.
In 1975 I spent my summer in Cincinnati, Ohio. While I participated in the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center I had the opportunity to live at Holy Cross Monastery on Mt. Adams. This Passionist monastery had been built in the 1870s and overlooked the entire city of Cincinnati. I especially enjoyed walking through the narrow streets of Mt. Adams. On Sundays I went up to what was known as Holy Cross-Immaculata Parish. At that time Father Joe Van Leeuwen, C.P. was the pastor. Right from start he and the local people on Mt. Adams proudly talked about "making the steps." Even though the Passionists closed Holy Cross Monastery in 1976 and returned Holy Cross-Immaculata Parish to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1996 I came to understand that this long time Holy Week devotion held a special place of reverence among Passionists of Holy Cross Province. Since Father Richard Parks, C.P. was the last pastor of Holy Cross-Immaculata I interviewed him on June 28, 2006 in Sierra Madre, California. Specifically, I asked him to share his reflections on this unique Mt. Adams devotion—making the steps. The following summary is based upon that interview.
It didn't take any Passionist very long to hear about "praying the steps" at Mt. Adams. It was a long tradition. Locals also called it "making the steps." Born in 1937, Father Richard Parks, C.P. professed his Passionist vows in 1963. Prior to his ordination in 1970 Father Parks resided at Holy Cross Monastery while he had the opportunity to study psychology for two summers at the University of Cincinnati. Adjacent to Holy Cross Monastery was Holy Cross Parish. Since the mid 1800s it had been home to Irish Catholics on Mt. Adams. Father Parks recalls that it was also home to some fifty Italian Catholic families. Several blocks away was Immaculata Parish where generations of German Catholics had gathered to worship.
By the 1960s the bohemian atmosphere of Mt. Adams attracted numerous visitors. As a result Father Parks remembered that he found walking around the narrow streets engaging. Sometimes, he took the opportunity to wear his Passionist religious habit. He was able to do this on Mt. Adams because many people recognized the garb. The Passionists were well-known and considered part of the hill culture. On the other hand, wearing the habit on streets in other parts of the Cincinnati would have raised a good many eyebrows. Those two summers when he studied in Cincinnati and lived on Mt. Adams allowed him to meet third and fourth generations of Catholics who had lived there, although the 1960s was also the same time that the number of long time Catholic families on the hill began to decline.
A standard topic of conversation in the 1960s—and later in the 1990s when Father Parks was assigned as pastor at Holy Cross-Immaculata—was how easy Catholics on Mt Adams were willing to discuss the Holy Week devotion of making the steps. Whether the people were fallen away Catholics or active Catholics the event of faith was very much a cornerstone of their "very strong but simple spirituality."
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