Twists of providence help parish get a new shrine
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 20, 2006
Redford Twp. – Call them blessings.
Call them twists of divine providence.
Fr. J.J. Mech is clear about one thing – it's not luck, but the Lord who has given Our Lady of Loretto Parish a shrine to honor the parish's namesake.
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Photo by Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. J.J. Mech, pastor of Our Lady of Loretto Parish, created the tiles for the shrine that houses the donated statue of the parish's patron. | "I'm just glad with the way it turned out," said Fr. Mech, looking at a shrine featuring a statue of a bronze-faced Blessed Mother and Christ Child.
The shrine — also a result of donation, volunteerism and Fr. Mech's artistic skill in making tiles — was unveiled last year alongside the church's sanctuary.
The story of the shrine started in 1955. Detroit resident Gus Zoppi, a native of the Italian city of Loreto, commissioned a statue of Our Lady of Loreto, a famous depiction of the Blessed Mother.
As tradition goes, during the crusades in the 12th century, angels carried Christ's boyhood home from Nazareth to the small village of Loreto, Italy.
Indeed, a humble home hewn from stones native to Nazareth stands in Loreto still today, underneath the dome of a giant basilica. And a statue of the Blessed Mother resides there, too, with the Christ Child in her arms.
 The mystery “t”
Loreto, the Italian city, is spelled with a single “t.” Yet Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Redford Township spells the name with two. According to Fr. J.J. Mech, the parish’s pastor, no one’s yet been able to explain where the extra “t” came from. | Zoppi, who made the trip to his native Loreto to commission the statue, hoped to spread his devotion to Our Lady by presenting the replica to his Detroit parish.
That's where the story takes its first twist.
"The original statue of Our Lady of Loreto was made out of cedar," Fr. Mech explained. "It's a solid statue of wood. Over the centuries, it had darkened."
Accordingly, the artist whom Zoppi commissioned to make a replica of Our Lady of Loreto gave the replica statue the same dark skin.
Unfortunately, it was an issue when Zoppi brought it to his church in Detroit.
"At the time they didn't want it because the face was dark," said Vittoria Robasin, Zoppi's daughter, now a parishioner at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Troy.
"My dad got kind of upset about it," she said. "We kept it in our home for many years."
In fact, they kept it until after their father's death a decade ago, and even until 2003, when Gus Zoppi, Jr., happened to be passing by a small parish church on the corner of Six Mile and Beech Daly roads, far from his home on the east side of the metro area.
One year before Our Lady of Loretto Parish's 50th anniversary, the parish was offered the statue.
"We've always wanted a statue of Our Lady of Loreto," said Fr. Mech. "But because it was expensive, we couldn't find one."
With the excitement of the statue of Our Lady coming to the church, Fr. Mech's creative wheels already were turning.
Fr. Mech, an enthusiast when it comes to Pewabic pottery, set to work making blue and honey-glazed tiles that complemented the statue, and the décor of the 50-year-old church.
He formed, glazed and fired the tiles for countless hours, with plenty of trial-and-error learning. Parishioners and their friends volunteered in building a base, refurbishing candle holders and preparing a space alongside the sanctuary.
With a curtain covering the wall behind the statue for the 50th anniversary, Cardinal Adam Maida blessed the shrine to Our Lady of Loreto during the parish's jubilee celebration in October 2004. Work on the tiles continued.
"One of the things I love about Fr. J.J. is that he's very visual," said parishioner Mary Cline, who helped Fr. Mech with a last-minute effort to fire a tile in her home kiln before the 2005 Easter Vigil. "And with the fact that parishes are closing around us, and he was putting his heart and soul in this – it was a great boost to the parish."
While work continued on the shrine, Fr. Mech, through his ministry on the formation team at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, was able to make a private visit to the House of Loreto in Italy.
Stones he brought back from the trip were placed within the stone frame of the parish shrine.
The final push to finish the shrine took place in Lent last year. Secretly, with help, Fr. Mech tiled the back of the shrine. For the Easter Vigil, a glossy blue background flanked the statue, highlighted by an outline of a house which matched a design on Mary's garments in the statue.
On four corners of the square-shaped backdrop were symbols of the Blessed Mother.
Fr. Mech said the shrine is symbolic of the parish.
"I wanted it to look homemade because all of us are so imperfect," he said. "But people stand back and look at it all together and it's like our parish. We all have our little flaws, but as a whole – oh, man, are we a powerhouse of a parish!"
He added that, with Gus Zoppi's commissioning of the statue – ironically, in the year Our Lady of Loretto Parish was founded – the parish's willingness to roll up its sleeves, and his own God-given passions, everything was in the right place.
"The statue was meant to be here," Fr. Mech said. "Mr. Zoppi didn't even know this parish existed, yet it was meant to be here."
Zoppi's daughter agreed.
"I hope my dad is watching from above," Robasin said. "Because I'm sure this is what he wanted."
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