All Souls Day Masses at Catholic Cemeteries bring people peace in grieving

Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, blesses a 12,000-pound replica statue of Michelangelo’s “Pieta” at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Dickinson on Sept. 22. Mount Olivet will join two other cemeteries in hosting Masses for All Souls Day on Thursday, Nov. 2. (Photos by James Ramos/Herald)

DICKINSON — “Blessed are those who have died in the Lord; let them rest from their labors,” recites one of the prayers for the dead.

Praying for the souls of the departed to be blessed with eternal life in Heaven is the main point of All Souls Day that always lands on Nov. 2. This year, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston will celebrate All Souls Day Masses with four Masses at three different cemeteries.

• Mount Olivet Cemetery and Mausoleum, 7801 Gulf Fwy. at Hughes Rd. in Dickinson, will host two Masses. Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, will celebrate the first Mass at 10 a.m.
• Then at 7 p.m., Father Larry Wilson, pastor of Shrine of the True Cross in Dickinson, will celebrate an evening candlelight Mass, also at Mount Olivet.
• Father Jude Ezuma, pastor of Holy Family Parish of Galveston-Bolivar, will celebrate a 10 a.m. Mass at Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum, located at 2506 65th St. in Galveston.
• Father Joseph Limanni is set to celebrate a 10 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum, located at 3502 North Main St. in Houston.

All Souls’ Day was first instituted at a French monastery in Cluny in 993 AD and quickly spread throughout the Christian world.

It was St. Odilo, the abbot of Cluny in France, who in the 10th century, proposed that the day after All Saints’ Day be set aside to honor the departed, particularly those whose souls were still in purgatory. On All Souls Day, the souls of the faithful departed are commemorated. For more, visit www.ccadgh.org or call 281-337-1641. 

New ‘Pieta’ statue welcomes visitors to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Dickinson

DICKINSON — On Sept. 22, Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, blessed and dedicated a new 1:1 life-size replica of Michelangelo’s “Pieta” statue at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Dickinson that was a gift of Mary Ellen and Charles T. Doyle. The 12,000-pound statue, which gleams brightly in the sun, is located right at the entrance of the cemetery and is visible from the Gulf Freeway.

The replica also honors the pastors of two nearby parishes, League City’s St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal and Queen of Peace in La Marque. A trio of crosses stand tall behind the elevated art, which Bishop Dell’Oro said he hopes would “accompany those who come with sorrow and grief.”