Farewell To Father Joe

Farewell To Father Joe

We bid farewell to Father Joseph Lee on Saturday June 27th, 2020 as he departed from our parish after 11 years as our spiritual leader and priest of Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

Father Joe presided over mass at 8:30 AM and afterwards was escorted by the Knights of Columbus Color Guard to a stage under the bell tower where he would address the congregation parked in their cars in the east parking lot.

Before Father Joe’s emotion filled final address, the crowd heard from other speakers including Father Eugene Okoli, Deacon Paul Wood, RCIA Director Lindee Greer, and BK Steve Zehnder. Lindee Greer presented Father Joe a framed photo of himself taken during the final moments of the installation of the new corpus in the sanctuary, which Father Joe was instrumental in making a reality.

Finally came a parade of over 150 cars honking their horns and bearing signs of love, good wishes and gratitude for Father Joe’s devotion to our community. Parishioners had waited patiently in line in their cars for over an hour to drive in the parade past the tent in front of the community center building to bid their last farewell to Fr. Joe.

Our thanks to all the knights for participating in Father Joe’s Farewell event on Saturday and over the last few days. It was a lot of work but we got it all set up, and torn down and put away by noon-ish Saturday. 

I believe Father Joe will take away a good lasting impression of the Knights of Columbus from Holy Spirit Catholic Church.