Fr. Peter Weiss, S.S.J., honored for his ‘faithfulness’ at Funeral Mass

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

To Emanuel Hudson – a 1984 graduate of St. Augustine High School and a trombonist in his alma mater’s “Marching 100” band – the night of Thanksgiving 2021 perfectly summed up the dedication of Josephite Father Peter Weiss.

Upon learning that St. Augustine’s gym had caught fire that evening, Father Weiss – a 30-year teaching veteran at St. Augustine and a beloved New Orleans Fire Department chaplain – was among the first on the scene. Hudson arrived later to find the priest juggling a fireman’s radio, a police radio and his cell phone, so that he could receive constant updates.

Although the one-alarm fire at the gym was quickly contained, Father Weiss asked Hudson to accompany him to inspect the neighboring band room, a place close to Father Weiss’ heart as director of St. Aug’s Color Guard.

“He would not leave (campus) until he made sure that none of the uniforms were messed up, none of the instruments were messed up, that there was no smoke inside the band room,” Hudson recalled. “And even after that, he still stuck around! I think Father Weiss left at 1 in the morning.”

A tireless, tenacious advocate

On Jan. 19, Father Weiss, a Josephite priest for 42 years, was honored for that trademark faithfulness and servant-leadership at his standing-room-only Funeral Mass at All Saints Church in Algiers.

Father Weiss died Jan. 12 at age 70. He served as pastor of All Saints twice, most recently from 2014 through the time of his death.

“We are here, this day, to celebrate the life of a fire chaplain, an FBI chaplain, a fun-loving and funny jokester, a spiritual father to many, a person who was faithful,” said Josephite Father Henry Davis, pastor of Corpus Christi-Epiphany Church in New Orleans and a friend of Father Weiss’ since the early 1980s.

During the homily, Father Davis recalled that Father Weiss always had his prayer books “at hand” and would give special attention to the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart prayer that directs members to develop their gifts and use them for the good of others.

“Every day (Father Weiss) did that – he challenged you to do your best, to do your good,” Father Davis said.

Father Davis first met Father Weiss when the former was a teenage parishioner of St. Peter Claver Church in New Orleans. Father Davis and his friends had heard that the “tall, thin, blond-headed priest with a fuzzy mustache,” then the associate pastor at nearby Corpus Christi Church, occasionally would take his parishioners to lunch. Father Weiss agreed to treat the teens, piling young Davis and his pals into his station wagon and maintaining his composure even when the teenagers loudly asked him, in front of the waitress: “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, can we have some pizza?”

Although the title of “Daddy” – used by a group of African-American teens to address a white man – initially confused the waitress, Father Weiss played along and answered, “Yes, my children! You can have pizza!”

Father Davis said Father Weiss’ wry sense of humor planted the seeds of his own vocation that very day.

“If this man could be happy around us, being himself, then surely maybe I could do the same thing, being a Josephite priest,” Father Davis said. “He (conveyed to me that) you could be happy no matter what you do, serving God.”

Teacherly wisdom

When Father Davis went on to become a priest and a sophomore theology teacher at St. Augustine, Father Weiss took Father Davis under his wing again. When he asked the elder priest for tips on how to hold students’ attention in the classroom, Father Weiss’ answer was startling but effective: eat a half of a lemon at breakfast, go to school and “remember that face you made” when you ate the lemon “to let the kids know you mean business," Father Weiss advised him. Then, pray together, create an outline for the day’s lesson and have the students “write until their hands can’t write anymore.”

Father Davis also leaned on Father Weiss’ pastoral support when his sister died unexpectedly.

“He said, ‘Henry, go and pray to the Lord – the Lord will give you the strength that you need,’” Father Davis said. “Peter was always fun-loving and funny, but more importantly, he was faithful to his priesthood.

“Peter was my brother – my brother from another mother,” he added. “He loved to sing, he loved to kid and he loved to preach, especially at the baccalaureate Mass at St. Augustine High School for those seniors,” said Father Davis, recalling how Father Weiss would always end his homilies with the first line from St. Aug’s alma mater: “Rise, sons of the gold and purple!”

“Peter loved his God; he served the Lord faithfully,” Father Davis said. “We’re all gonna miss you. Rest in God; Peter, rest with the Lord.”

Got things done

The only child of Henry and Dorothy Weiss, Father Weiss was born in Summit, New Jersey, on June 26, 1951, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Equipped with a sociology degree from Xavier University of Louisiana and a master of divinity degree from Washington Theological Union in Silver Springs, Maryland, Father Weiss was ordained a priest on May 26, 1979, serving numerous African-American communities throughout his priesthood.

His ministerial reach was wide, his assignments including Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Houston, Birmingham, Alabama, and Crowley, Louisiana. But the bulk of his priesthood was spent in New Orleans, a ministry that included 30 years as a theology teacher, primarily to St. Augustine’s upperclassmen. In 2020, Father Weiss was appointed St. Augustine’s chief religious officer, charged with supervising all theology teachers and programs to ensure the high school’s religion courses were effective, relevant and inspiring, while continuing to meet all the requirements of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. 

Father Rodney “Tony” Ricard, St. Augustine’s campus minister/theology department head, a 1982 St. Aug graduate and pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in New Orleans, described himself and Father Weiss as “brothers in spirit – his ying to my yang.”

“I was the visionary, and he was the operator – I’d come up with visions and he’d figure out how to make it happen,” said Father Ricard, expressing gratitude to his late friend for helping him “to be a better priest, to be a better man and, especially, to a better leader for our children” at St. Augustine.

Father Ricard told congregants that he would receive no less than five phone calls from Father Weiss each day, even when Father Weiss was vacationing on the Jersey Shore with his family and Simon, his beloved pet Schnauzer. Father Weiss would also call Father Ricard, chaplain of the New Orleans Saints, after every game. If the Saints won, the call would be immediate; if they lost, Father Weiss would wait an hour “to give me his condolences,” Father Ricard said.

“He was always thinking ahead, always planning ahead,” Father Ricard said. “When he wasn’t at the school, he was calling about school,” to inquire about how classes went and plans for the following day.

“One of the things that I think he leaves for us is an understanding of what it means to be dedicated as a man of God – to truly be a servant of God – and to bring all that you have to the table,” Father Ricard said.

Meticulous care in every arena

As director of the Color Guard, Father Weiss implemented close-order military drills and served as the band’s uniform manager and on-site medic. In gratitude, a clutch of band members played “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” as Father Weiss’ casket was carried out of church.

Class of 1981 member Ray Johnson – St. Aug’s band director and Father Weiss’ work colleague of three decades – said the priest was the Marching 100’s “spiritual leader” who always took great care to ensure that every band member looked sharp during performances and would faithfully hang up their uniforms afterward. During parades, Father Weiss would carry a sewing kit and walkie-talkies to address any uniform or medical emergencies that might crop up.

“He did everything for us – handled our uniforms, handled our Masses when we traveled out of town,” Johnson said.

Royce Duplessis,  a student in Father Weiss’ eighth-grade theology class back in 1996, recalled his teacher’s “bubbly” but “very strict” demeanor.

“You could tell he really loved what he did,” Duplessis said. “He taught us the importance of confession, the importance of repentance and second chances (and the understanding) that the Lord does forgive.”

A watchful shepherd

Father Weiss’ pastorate at All Saints was carried out in two tenures — from 2002-06 and from 2014 through his death. He was first assigned to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1980, when he was named associate pastor of Corpus Christi (now Corpus Christi-Epiphany) Church. Before serving the people of All Saints, he was parochial vicar of St. Raymond-St. Leo Church and pastor of Blessed Sacrament-St. Joan of Arc Church, both in New Orleans.

Francine Collins, a member of All Saints’ parish council, remembers her pastor’s knack for calling forth parishioners’ gifts and talents – his intentional bid to ensure that the same small subset of lay people didn’t end up filling every ministry. Father Weiss invited all to serve and always saw the potential of “The Little Church under the Bridge,” she said.

“Father was our preacher extraordinary, our Energizer bunny who couldn’t keep still, who could do more by 9 o’clock than most of us could do all day,” Collins marveled.

Although he was a “prankster” who enjoyed making people laugh, Father Weiss took the pandemic very seriously, regularly checking in with his parishioners to see how they were faring, Collins noted.

“He was not OK until he saw us coming through those doors,” Collins said. “He knew that the greatest gift from COVID – and our healing from this – would be to be side-by-side, to come into (All Saints Church), come home and ‘be church.’”

Collins praised Father Weiss for always being a “very prepared” preacher who prayed on Scripture with a dedication that made his homilies readily understandable to congregants.

“He didn’t mind telling us about ourselves, about what we needed to change,” she said. “He  gave us that prophetic message, and we will miss that.”

Filled multiple roles in community

Father Weiss’ NOFD-issued boots, windbreaker and cap, on display during the Mass in front of All Saints’ St. Mary’s Altar, were poignant reminders of his service to first responders and to those whom they aid. Before the Funeral Mass began, a bell was rung 15 times by the NOFD Honor Guard, to announce that the priest had answered his “Last Alarm.”

A certified first responder, volunteer firefighter and an NOFD chaplain since 1993, Father Weiss became known for his uncanny ability to calm survivors and their families at the scenes of fires.

“I asked him, ‘How do you do it? What’s your technique?’” said NOFD Superintendent Roman Nelson, calling Father Weiss an “advisor, mentor, friend and brother” to the men and women of the NOFD. “He said, ‘There’s no secret; we call it a ministry of presence. All I do is be present with them.’

“It’s (that) presence that we’re going to miss most – his smile, his laughter, the calm and peace that he brought to others,” Nelson said.

Father Weiss filled yet another civic role – as chaplain of the local field office of the FBI from 1994-2022, and earlier, as chaplain to the FBI’s field offices in Washington, D.C., Birmingham and Houston.

Douglas Williams, an FBI special agent based in New Orleans, said Father Weiss was an integral part of the bureau’s employees’ assistance program who would come every Thursday to get to know staffers and minister to them. Recent examples of his care included daily hospital visits to a sick employee for two weeks straight, Williams said.

“He was always there when we needed him,” Williams said. “We will deeply miss his smile, his kindness, his comforting words and, most importantly, his friendship.”

Loving and generous cousin

Roy Weiss, Father Weiss’ younger cousin by 11 years, recalled how his cousin Peter would take him to Brooklyn’s fire stations beginning at age 5 and excitedly teach him about the equipment. He spoke of Father Weiss’ love for the New York Mets and his habit of procuring half-price Broadway play tickets to give to his cousins and their wives. During family beach vacations, following his ordination, Father Weiss’ nickname became “Dunk the Monk.”

“It was wonderful to have an in-house priest,” Weiss said, noting that amid the weddings, baptisms and burials Father Weiss performed for the family over four decades, his cousin-priest would always remind him of the time he accidentally dropped Roy as an infant.

“He would say, over the years, ‘Hey, if I didn’t drop you on your head, who knows how you would have turned out?’”

Father Weiss is survived by another cousin, Bill Freeh, and by aunts Elizabeth Weiss and Lee Buckley.

Bishop John Ricard, superior general of the Society of St. Joseph and former bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, was the Mass’ principal celebrant; Archbishop Gregory Aymond served as concelebrant.

Interment was at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3. In lieu of flowers, donations to St. Augustine High School ( www.staugnola.org) or to The Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart ( www.josephites.org) are requested in Father Weiss’ memory.

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