Ftr. Haydu to celebrate Mass May 29

The Rev. Fr, Mark Haydu will celebrate an 8:30 a.m. Mass on Thursday, May 29, at St. Paul in place of the regular Morning Prayer and Communion.

Fr. Haydu, an Akron native, was among 48 men from the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in January, 2008, in the basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome..

Father Haydu, 35, was born on July 15, 1972 in Akron, and was baptized and confirmed at St Matthew’s parish. He is the sixth of seven children. After a year of studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville, he did one year of missions in Guatemala and Mexico, followed by a year of studying nursing at the University of Akron. He entered the Legion in June, 1993, did his novitiate in Cheshire, and went to Rome in 1996 to begin his bachelor’s degree in philosophy. From 1998 onward, he spent several years serving as an assistant of novices in Spain, the United States, and Ireland. In 2001, he returned to Rome to complete his studies while also serving as an assistant to the theologians in Rome. More recently, he worked for the General Secretariat at the Legions headquarters in Rome, and in 2007 began working at the Governors Office in the Vatican, in the department of the Patrons of the Arts of the Vatican Museums.

The Legionaries of Christ is a Catholic religious congregation founded in 1941 by the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. (1902-2008) who died January 30. They carry out educational, missionary and social work in more than 20 countries.