Fr. Richard Miles: 'A spiritual shepherd '

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Father Richard Miles was honored May 29 in advance of his approaching retirement for his 30 years of ministry as pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Kenner at a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond inside a packed church.

“No one knows how many thousands and thousands of lives and hearts you have touched over those years,” Archbishop Aymond told Father Miles, as he asked parishioners to join him by extending their hands and offering a post-Communion blessing.



Father Miles, a former Lutheran minister who was ordained a Catholic priest in 1984, said his major goal when he came to Our Lady of Perpetual Help was “the spiritual renewal of the parish.”

Over three decades, he transformed the small church, bringing into the sanctuary the hand-carved wooden altar from the closed, 19th-century Holy Trinity Church in New Orleans and filling the worship space in Kenner with statues and paintings of the saints.



"A church should be like a window to the kingdom of God,” he has said.

Father Miles opened a perpetual adoration chapel in 1994, which he called the spiritual powerhouse of the poarish.

Our Lady of the Perpetual Help – not the largest parish in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, by far – has the busiest Mass schedule in the archdiocese. Father Miles, who will be succeeded July 1 by Father Charles Dussouy, has had the practice of hearing confessions before each Mass.

On Saturday, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, he preached on the powerful witness of the sign of the cross. He said he revels in his Catholic faith when he goes to dinner and sees a family making the sign of the cross before eating.

“It’s a beautiful witness to the faith when we believe that God is our Father, we believe that God is our Savior and we believe the Holy Spirit guides and directs us in this life and ever draws us closer to the Father and the Son,” he said. “Don’t be ashamed to be a Catholic. Too many of us are shy about making public demonstrations.”

Father Miles is retiring to Michigan, where his younger sister Jenny lives.

He said he was amazed by the outpouring of love from his parishioners.

"It wonderful," he said. "I'm a convert, you know, and I have been well-received by the clergy and the lay people in this parish and in this archdiocese."

Ralph Vitale, church sacristan and grand knight of of the Knights of Columbus' Stoulig Council, said Father Miles has been a spiritual father to him and other parishioners.

"I look at him as a priest and a brother in Christ, but he's more of a brother to me, personally," Vitale said. "Father is a good shepherd, and doesn't know how to say no. Is he loved? All week people have been crying because they're telling him goodbye."

Dominican Sister of Peace Mary Michaeline Green said Father Miles was a priest who loved the Eucharist.

"He is known for his love for the Eucharist and for hearing confessions," Sister Michaeline said. "He'll get to heaven doing that."

pfinney@clarionherald.org