St. Leo Parish sits at 710 S. 13th Street in Tacoma and is known for a Roman Catholic life centered on the Eucharist, Ignatian spirituality, and service beyond the parish. Its historic Jesuit identity is expressed through worship, long-running food assistance, formation for every age, emergency support, health ministry, and work with bees and gardens. These ministries connect the conviction that all are welcome at the table with practical care for food access, human dignity, peace, justice, and creation.
Mass Times and the Kateri Circle
St. Leo's regular worship schedule includes:
- Saturday: 5:00 PM Mass
- Sunday: 10:00 AM Mass
- Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday: 12:10 PM Mass
- Saturday: Reconciliation from 4:00 to 4:40 PM
- Fourth Sunday of each month: Native American Mass at 1:30 PM
The fourth-Sunday celebration is the Native American Mass of Tacoma Kateri Circle. This intertribal group provides a safe and welcoming environment for Native Americans to practice and promote Native American spirituality and Saint Kateri Tekakwitha within the Catholic Church. Members come from more than a dozen tribes in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the group takes part in healing masses, traditional giveaways, barbecues, and Thanksgiving dinners for the local Tahoma Indian Center.
At Sunday and weekday Masses, the prayerful assembly is shaped by Scripture, psalms, Eucharist, and the parish's liturgical ministries. Lectors proclaim the readings, cantors sing the psalms, and ushers welcome members and visitors, help with seating, distribute orders of service, and assist people with special needs. The Art and Environment Team helps fashion the church as a clean, welcoming, hospitable, honest, and beautiful place to pray.
Parking for Weekend and Weeknight Gatherings
Visitors attending Saturday or Sunday Mass can use the St. Leo parking lot. Overflow parking is available in the Bates lots at S. 12th and Yakima and in the CCS lot at S. 13th and J Street. For weekday Mass, evening events, and meetings, visitors may park in any part of the parish lot. Street parking is also available, although it is time-limited on weekdays.
Eucharist, Ignatian Spirit, and a Tacoma History
St. Leo's mission is to be a Catholic community centered in the Eucharist, enriched by diversity, committed to Gospel values, and continually seeking to be Christ's servant presence in the world. Its spirit is radical hospitality rooted in Ignatian spirituality. The parish seeks to be poor with the poor, relies on communal prayer, and works with God to transform injustice. Its values include respect for diversity, liturgies shaped by the Spirit working through the people, peace, justice, service, nonviolence, lifelong faith formation, finding God in all things, acceptance of human brokenness, and stewardship of creation.
Founded in 1879 by Fr. J.B.A. Brondel, a missionary priest, St. Leo originally had Belgian-born Fr. Peter Hylebos as its first pastor. In 1901 Fr. Hylebos purchased the current property and built a 2,200-seat church. The Jesuit tradition began in 1911 when Fr. John Cunningham, S.J., became pastor. The next year, Jesuits opened a primary school for boys and girls and a high school for boys.
A fire heavily damaged the large church in 1919. The congregation restored the basement as a temporary church, and it remains the principal place of worship. St. Leo Girls High School closed in 1974, and the grade school closed in 1976 as families relocated to other parishes. During the 1980s, the parish collaborated with Catholic Community Services to renovate the former school building for a hospitality kitchen, Neighborhood Clinic, St. Leo Food Connection, Catholic Community Services programs, and administrative offices. The complex became known as the Tahoma Center.
Food Connection Across Pierce County
The St. Leo Food Connection began in a Hilltop garage in 1982 and continues to distribute nutritious food throughout Pierce County. It requires no proof of need and serves any county resident who comes for assistance. The ministry also works with community volunteers and partner agencies while advocating on local, state, and federal issues affecting low-income people and families.
Direct programs include the St. Leo Food Bank and Springbrook Mobile Food Bank, which serves households in Lakewood's Springbrook neighborhood every Saturday. The Backpack Project provides two days of food each weekend to children at risk of going hungry during the school year. Additional programs supply snacks to after-school groups, distribute food bags during extended school breaks, and provide free weekday lunches to children at local sites during summer.
Food Connection also offers job training in warehouse work, driving, customer relations, and computer skills. Volunteers collect and process food, prepare and deliver children's meals, assist at the food bank, serve on commissions, and participate in community education and advocacy.
Formation from First Grade to Adult Sacraments
Children and Youth
Children's formation begins in first grade and continues through fifth grade, with classes running from fall through late spring. The curriculum is designed to help children learn Catholic faith and tradition while growing deeper in their own spirituality. First Communion is typically prepared in second grade through a one-year process that includes First Reconciliation. Older children who have not received First Communion may join the appropriate age group for preparation.
Baptism preparation includes family participation and a Sunday retreat with godparents for children younger than seven. Older children follow a separate preparation process. The parish describes Baptism as the beginning of full membership in the Christian community and emphasizes the role of sponsors and the congregation in supporting a newly baptized person.
St. Leo Enciendo, the K-12 youth program, includes faith formation classes, sacrament classes, and community life. Enciendo means to light or turn on, and volunteer catechists use religious education, prayer, and shared activities to nurture faith in young people. Middle school and high school groups meet biweekly beginning in the fall and are open to students in grades six through eight and nine through twelve. Service and participation in parish life are part of the youth experience. Confirmation preparation is open to people age 13 and older and follows a one-year path.
Adults and Ongoing Spiritual Practice
Adult formation includes Becoming Catholic, a prayerful and reflective process through which a non-Catholic adult can explore Catholic beliefs and, if desired, move toward Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Adult Confirmation and a Young Adult Fellowship are also part of the parish's adult offerings. Faith formation is understood as a lifelong journey nourished by community, prayer, Catholic tradition, service, and discernment.
Anam Cara, the men's spirituality reading group, meets at 7:00 PM on the first Wednesday of each month in William Bichsel Hall. Members select and discuss at least five spirituality books each year. The Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life, or SEEL, is a nine-month program based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. It meets monthly for prayer, spiritual accompaniment, and discernment with spiritual directors from Roman Catholic and other Christian traditions.
Choir, Cantors, and the Liturgical Team
The choir rehearses on most Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM and sings at the Sunday liturgy from September through June, along with Christmas, Triduum, and other special liturgies. Saturday's 5:00 PM Mass is served by a rotating ensemble that can include a cantor, pianist, and additional instruments. Instrumentalists play strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, guitars, piano, and other instruments. School ensemble students, adult hobbyists, professional musicians, and others who read music and have at least two years of significant study may be considered for ensemble roles.
Music ministers rehearse for an hour before each liturgy and add rehearsals for major seasonal celebrations. Beyond music, liturgical ministries include Eucharistic ministers, lectors, sacristans, ushers, and the Art and Environment Team. Lector ministry is open to confirmed adults and youth. Sacristans prepare the church and sacristies, while ushers serve as hosts to both longtime members and first-time visitors.
Care for Health, Home Stability, and Emergencies
St. Leo's Pastoral Care Commission assists the pastor in meeting spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. Its homebound ministry carries the Good News and Eucharist to parishioners in homes, hospitals, retirement communities, and assisted-living and care facilities. Listening, prayer, empathy, caring, presence, and personal commitment are central to that work.
The Health Care Ministry promotes wellness of body, mind, and spirit through screening, teaching, and referral. Its Prayer Shawl Ministry knits and crochets shawls in prayer for people who are ill emotionally, spiritually, or physically. The parish also presents the Five Wishes advance-directive program, which helps people plan for preserving their dignity through a legally valid advance medical directive.
St. Leo Supportive Services provides advocacy, referrals, in-kind support, and limited financial assistance involving employment, home stability, personal identification documents, and medical or prescription coverage. People seeking financial assistance make an appointment before receiving aid. Walk-in service is limited to clothing, hygiene items, and one-time public transit assistance. Volunteer teams serve Tuesday through Friday according to staffing, with each shift including attention to client needs, referrals, clothing, hygiene supplies, and transportation support.
L'Honey, Gardens, and Care for Creation
L'Honey is a collaborative venture between St. Leo and L'Arche Farm that promotes sustainable beekeeping. The parish operates four small apiary sites and produces hive goods during the beekeeping season from June through September. Beekeepers, volunteers, and young people work with the hives and create products such as candles, soap, and hand balm. The program also welcomes educational work with schools and other groups.
A youth garden grows vegetables, herbs, and sunflowers in a small outdoor area that had previously been used for storage. The garden gives young people a concrete way to explore food, community, and care for the planet. L'Honey and the garden express the Society of Jesus's apostolic preference to care for creation in the Pacific Northwest, emphasizing relationships of interdependence, mutual benefit, and responsibility toward living things.
Hospitality and Community Partnerships
St. Leo's Hospitality Ministry prepares and serves food for parish socials, funerals, meetings, and liturgical celebrations. After weekend Masses, volunteers prepare coffee, tea, and cookies, welcome people to remain together, and clean up afterward. This simple rhythm of food and fellowship supports the parish's practice of radical hospitality.
L'Arche Tacoma Hope is a community partner whose core members and assistants are present in parish life and worship. Its work is committed to changing how people with intellectual disabilities are seen and recognizing their inherent value and contributions to the wider community. Catholic Community Services also works in the Tahoma Center and provides a broad range of human services, including assistance connected with poverty and basic needs.
Bichsel Hall, Stewardship, and Shared Leadership
William Bichsel Hall is available for liturgical and sacramental use, religious education, parish business, parish groups and families, and nonprofit organizations. The hall seats 225 people for a meal or 300 for a lecture. It includes a caterer's kitchen, walk-in refrigerator, ice maker, two large projection screens, and men's, women's, and family restrooms. Weddings, funerals, and other parish or community gatherings are among its uses.
Six commissions shape the parish's shared work: Liturgy, Faith Formation, Stewardship, Pastoral Care, Food Connection, and Facilities. The Pastoral Council advises the pastor and staff, hears reports and concerns, and helps direct annual and long-range planning. Its members serve staggered three-year terms and are selected by parish vote or appointment. The Finance Council advises on parish finances and monitors the budget supporting the mission.
Stewardship is understood as a way of life involving time, talent, and treasure, with hospitality, lay ministry, and giving all joined together. Donations can be made through online giving. Fr. Michael Radermacher serves as pastor, Fr. Marc Powell as parochial vicar, Tom O'Loughlin as a deacon, and Deacon Eric Paige as director of pastoral ministries. Jina Darnell leads music ministry. Amy Orm and Abby Diaz serve in faith formation, Candyce Ochoa in Becoming Catholic, young adult ministry, and related liturgy, and Rick Samyn in justice initiatives, Supportive Services, L'Honey, and eco-justice. Dawn Whitman directs Food Connection, and Mary Gorman is Tacoma lead director for SEEL Puget Sound.
Together, these ministries form the present shape of St. Leo: a welcoming Eucharistic community in Tacoma, grounded in Ignatian spirituality and lifelong formation, and sent outward as servants of Gospel values throughout Pierce County.