All around us, and especially on Aquidneck Island, we see everyday examples of how we reach beyond ourselves: checking on a neighbor, volunteering, or showing up for someone who is sick or grieving. We live in a society that often focuses on instant gratification and the individual over community, and yet a simple truth remains: we need one another.
Churches invite us to reflect on our lives and consider how we might connect, serve others and discover what becomes possible when we come together. The need for connection reaches across faith, politics, power and status to something we share. We long to belong.
St. Mary’s in Newport, Rhode Island’s oldest Catholic parish, was established in 1828 to serve a growing congregation that included Irish immigrants working at Fort Adams. Construction of the church we know today began in 1848, supported by the physical labor volunteered by Newport’s Irish Catholic community and financial contributions from Catholic summer residents. For people making a life far from home and facing prejudice, the parish offered a place to belong. Its foundations were both physical and human: people coming together to build something beyond themselves.
Today, the Reverend Mark A. Sauriol, known as Father Mark, is the pastor of St. Mary’s and St. Augustin’s churches in Newport. He often delivers a welcome and very real message of divine disruption to large and growing congregations. At its heart is a hopeful conviction: “We are built for good.”
He speaks of a God of love, compassion and forgiveness who calls us back to Him. The seeds of that message were planted during his early childhood in North Providence.
“I was raised in a religious culture and was able to connect to that culture. Around the age of ten, I started hearing my Nana say, ‘At the end of time, when we go before our God, He is only going to ask one question and it will define who we are becoming: What have you done for the least of my brothers and sisters?’”
His Nana’s words helped shape a path toward serving others.
“My formation as far as the church has a lot to do with being a part of a local youth group when I was 16. Those days, family life centered around the church. …This got me into the church and working with young people. I found I had a gift of working with people my own age. I was hired by the diocese to work as a youth minister at 22.”
“In youth ministry I was dealing with young people who had real human issues. Suicide, being absent from school, struggles related to sexual orientation, feeling estranged from people, needing a dentist. I felt the need to do something significant in the life of young people.”
Along the way, he found role models who supported his calling and encouraged him to attend Providence College. He later pursued postgraduate studies at Seton Hall’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.
“When you become sensitive to the awareness of the suffering of others, you become aware of their needs and you can give more freely. You discover who you are by giving yourself away.”
According to Father Mark, Jesus’s teachings were “radical and disruptive”’ in their time and remain so today.
“The Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus preaches is different from the power status of our time. That is radical and disruptive. Our society is influenced by social media and politics — it doesn’t matter what side you’re on. …Where are young people getting their values from? We are hearing values tied to politics and consumerism.”
For Father Mark, great responsibility brings great power – the power to recognize suffering and do something about it.
“Jesus tells us to take up our cross you will not escape suffering. Much of life is organized around avoiding discomfort and not having pain. Things like love, fidelity and truth are all worth suffering for. Jesus was crucified because he didn’t tell people what they wanted to hear. He touched the untouchable, challenged the powerful and ate with the people he shouldn’t have.”
“I’m blessed to be in the parish that I’m in. I walk out to 600 to 700 people and I’m preaching the gospel. Some people are still uncomfortable that we’re all going to be gathered around the table because it doesn’t fit with the modern-day message that some will be kept on the other side of the wall. …The church might have a particular teaching but Jesus called us to love our neighbor and treat everyone as neighbors. Everyone needs to be cared for and loved.”
He is nourished and inspired by the support of the parishioners at St.Mary’s and St.Augustin’s and has found a place where he belongs.
“This parish has meant so much because it has allowed me to use my gifts and talents with no questions asked.”
St. Mary’s and St. Augustin’s work together and share a commitment to giving, gathering and community. The volunteers’ work extends the parishes’ reach beyond the church walls, giving outward expression to what Father Mark calls “rising above yourself.”
“We have 200 volunteers weekly – choir, social ministries – and we are open to the public. Many volunteers are retired and they said, ‘Put us to work.’ We have two soup kitchens, pasta dinners, a Christmas Bazaar. Sometimes we have more volunteers than we know what to do with, and that’s all good!”
During services, Father Mark often recognizes the volunteers and celebrates the choir, whose music draws applause from parishioners.
His compassion is reflected even in the name he chose for his Great Dane, Winton, named after Sir Nicholas Winton, who helped organize the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia before World War II.
With “the humanity of it all” in mind, Father Mark offers an invitation and message of hope: there is always time to find connection, a spiritual foundation and explore what sustains us.
His closing thought comes from a psalm that speaks of God as a refuge amid turmoil – whether the unrest is in us, our community, or across the world. It’s something he offers you to carry into your own life:
“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm: 46:10
Helen Hames is an Aging Advisor, advocate, speaker and founder of Age Ambassador, based in Newport, RI. She has guided more than 1,000 older adults and families through decisions about aging at home, transitioning to senior living, and navigating the hospital and nursing home systems. Her work centers on understanding what matters most to each person and helping families plan with intention, clarity and compassion. Through writing, speaking and advocacy, Helen educates the community about the contributions and challenges of older adults, available resources and the importance of feeling seen, valued and connected throughout life.
