Name: Spicuzza, Anthony Paul
Born: 10/27/1921
Where Born: Indianapolis, Indiana
Ordained: 06/11/1946
Where Ordained: St. Meinrad
Served From-To: 1946-2001
Died: 07/22/2001
Where Died: St. Francis Hospital, Beech Grove, Indiana
Buried: Calvary Cemetery-Priests Circle, Indianapolis, Indiana
The Criterion Friday, July 27, 2001 Page 3 – By Mary Ann Wyand
Father Anthony Spicuzza was pastor in Brazil for 40 years
Father Anthony Paul Spicuzza, the pastor of Annunciation Parish in Brazil for four decades, died on July 22 at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove. He was 79. Father Spicuzza had been ill for more than a year. At the time of his death, he was the oldest active priest administrator in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. A memorial Mass was celebrated at Annunciation Church at 11 a.m. on July 25. The funeral Mass was celebrated at 4 p.m. on July 25 at Holy Rosary Church in Indianapolis, which was his home parish. Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, celebrated both eucharistic liturgies and was the homilist for the funeral Mass. Father Michael Fritsch, a son of Annunciation Parish and now pastor of St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington, was the homilist for the memorial Mass at Annunciation Church. Interment was at the Priests’ Circle at Calvary Cemetery in Indianapolis. To fill the requirements of canon law, Father Spicuzza resigned as pastor at age 75 then asked Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein’s permission to continue to serve the parish as administrator
Father Spicuzza was born on Oct. 27, 1921, and ordained at St. Meinrad Archabbey on June 11, 1946, by Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter. During his 55 years of priestly service to the Church in central and southern Indiana, Father Spicuzza had only two parish assignments. He was associate pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Richmond until 1961, when he was appointed pastor of Annunciation Parish in Brazil. Msgr. Schaedel remembered Father Spicuzza as “a faith-filled and very faithful priest who loved the Church and his priesthood. “His personal life consisted of a very simple lifestyle, a devotion to prayer and the sacraments, and a willingness to be of service to his beloved parishioners,”
Msgr. Schaedel said. “He was proud of his Italian heritage and his roots in his beloved home parish, Holy Rosary, the Italian church of Indianapolis.” Msgr. Schaedel said Father Spicuzza also was a very generous man. “I suspect that only long after he is gone will we ever begin to hear even a sampling of the stories about his generosity to people he encountered of all ages and from all walks of life,” he said. “Only God will ever completely know the goodness of this gen- tle, loving priest. I would hold him up as a faithful servant of God to be a role model for all of our seminarians.” Surviving are three sisters, Josephine Healy, Anna Marie Below and Rosemary Page, and three brothers, Larry, Paul and Gus Spicuzza. †
