SPRINGFIELD, IL — Monsignor John Ossola, who served as rector at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for over 20 years and was a popular high school religion teacher and youth leader, died at Reflections Memory Care in Chatham July 4.
He was 87.
A wake service will be held at Church of the Little Flower, 800 Stevenson Drive from 4 to 7 p.m. July 14 with a funeral mass at Little Flower at 11 a.m. July 15.
A native of Collinsville, Ossola was named pastor emeritus at Church of the Little Flower in Springfield, his last assignment as a Roman Catholic priest, in 2014.
In retirement, Ossola had been living at St. Aloysius parish before moving to St. Joseph’s Home, where he also was chaplain.
Ordained by Bishop William A. O’Connor in 1964, Ossola was granted the honorary title of “monsignor” by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002, when the diocese marked its sesquicentennial. The title is given to priests who distinguish themselves by exceptional service to the church and came with a recommendation from then-Springfield Bishop George Lucas.
Ossola served as pastor at St. Mary’s parish in New Berlin and St. Katharine Drexel parish in Springfield. He had other assignments at the Cathedral, Blessed Sacrament and Little Flower, all in Springfield, and at St. Paul’s in Highland.
Ossola’s longtime caretaker, Mike Armstrong, said he had a sense of humor that was “second to none” and always enjoying being in the mix at parties.
Armstrong joked that he was the kind of priest of who probably had “very thin social boundaries.”
“He would sometimes show up at people’s houses that had a pool and they would come home and he’d be in the pool,” Armstrong recalled.
Armstrong himself wasn’t immune.
Ossola showed up at Armstrong’s wife’s 65th surprise birthday party.
“It was unannounced and it was mainly just our families, but he showed up, and he was the life of the party,” Armstrong remembered.
Ossola taught religion and served as campus minister at Sacred Heart Academy and Griffin High School (now Sacred Heart-Griffin High School) and the now-shuttered Ursuline Academy in Springfield.
Ossola became president of the Ursuline Academy Foundation after the operator of the 150-year-old co-ed high school, Springfield College in Illinois/Benedictine University, hastily announced its closing.
The foundation, which is still ongoing as the Ursuline Academy Alumni Foundation, aimed “to preserve Ursuline’s heritage and further the religious education based upon the principles of Catholicism and the Ursuline Sisters.”
Along with other chaperones, Ossola took students on trips to Europe and oversaw mission trips with groups to southern states.
Ossola was often invited to celebrate the marriages of his former students and went on to baptize their children, Armstrong said.
“He probably performed more marriages than any other Catholic priest in Sangamon County,” Armstrong said. “All these students who went on trips with him, they wanted him. He was always the one to say ‘yes.’
That extended to baptisms and funerals, even, Armstrong said, when other priests might not do them.
“He said, ‘You know, that may be the last time I am able to grab the person spiritually I always want to let them know that they’re always welcome and I try to be my best at those ceremonies,'” Armstrong recounted. “I think that is John Ossola to the ‘t.'”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Longtime Roman Catholic priest, educator from Springfield dies at 87
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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By Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register | USA TODAY Network
