For more than seven decades, the Catholic Church, especially Holy Family in Orange, has been a mainstay in Leo Castro’s life.
Castro, who will turn 96 in January, has lived in the same house in the city of Orange since 1952, the house he purchased with his wife Helen and where the couple raised their four daughters.
Helen, who died in 2021, and Leo had intended to get married at Holy Family but because their proposed wedding date was to take place during Lent, when Catholic parishes traditionally don’t perform wedding ceremonies, the couple was married in a civil ceremony in 1952.
“So, we went to a house across the street and the judge was there, and he married us right on the spot,” recalled Castro, a retired sheet metal worker.
Two years later, the couple married at Holy Family.
The Castros’ four children, all girls, went on to receive their sacraments at Holy Family and all four had their weddings at the church.
Marcia Fisher, Castro’s youngest daughter, recalled priests and sisters from Holy Family being regular guests at the family’s Sunday dinners.
Msgr. Donald Strange, who served as Holy Family pastor from 1963 to 1978 joined the family for meals, as did the Very Rev. Patrick Moses, Holy Family’s pastor from 2017 to 2022.
“We always had to be on our best behavior because we didn’t know who was going to be here,” Fisher said. “The Catholic Church was really part of our family all the time.”
The Castros’ two oldest children attended Holy Family Catholic School, partly because of their faith, but also to prevent any possibility of the children being forced to attend a segregated school.
“It was really important especially to my father, because he had gone to segregated school and so had my mom in the city of Orange,” said Pat Carlson, the oldest of the four children. “They really tried to allow me the opportunity to excel. They were really concerned about my welfare.”
Of Mexican decent, Leo and his twin brother, Edward, were born in Anaheim and his wife was born and raised in Orange. Still, Leo said he was discriminated against, and he and his wife were repeatedly blocked from buying a house after he returned home from military service in the early 1950s.
“They wanted us to go way down along the tracks,” Castro said.
LEO CASTRO IS PICTURED WITH HIS DAUGHTERS MARCIA FISHER AND ALBERTA SPIELMAN. CASTRO HAS TWO MORE DAUGHTERS NOT PICTURED: NORA PETERSON AND PAT CARLSON, FIVE GRANDCHILDREN AND 12 GREAT GRANDCHILDREN.
The couple persisted and were finally able to purchase a home in a neighborhood with newly constructed homes.
Castro is the only original owner still living on the street in the central Orange neighborhood. The Castros attended Mass every Sunday and Leo and Helen continued attending for years after their children had moved out and raised their own families. Leo and Helen played major roles in organizing Holy Family’s annual Los Posadas festival, a celebration that originated in Mexico commemorating Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging ahead of the birth of Christ.
They also helped with the Holy Family Fiesta, an annual carnival featuring rides, games, food and live entertainment.
Carlson said her father was also called upon by Holy Family to serve as a sort of liaison between the church and the nearby Mexican families living in the Cypress Street Barrio, which was one of the first immigrant communities in Orange County.
“I believe that Fr. Strange saw an avenue through my father in order to reach out to the community, and therefore I think that he relied on my father a lot for that,” Carlson said.
Between 2010 and 2015, Leo Castro served as president of the Orange Barrio Historical Society, a group dedicated to preserving the history of the town’s Mexican American community.
When Chapman University purchased the Cypress Street Schoolhouse, the school Helen attended as a child, and believed to be the last Mexican American segregated schoolhouse in Southern California still standing, Castro met with then Chapman president Jim Doti to discuss the significance of the structure.
VALENCIA HIGH SCHOOL (PLACENTIA) YEARBOOK PHOTO OF LEO CASTRO. PHOTOS BY DREW KELLEY/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
Now used by Chapman as a research center, the schoolhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
When Helen Castro was homebound, Fr. Moses visited the Castros to administer Communion to both her and Leo.
Fr. Moses also administered Viaticum (“Last Rites”) to Helen and presided over her funeral.
“He had been around our house so much and he just said, ‘you know, when you have a service, no matter where it is, I want to be the one to perform it,’” Fisher recalled.
After his wife’s death, Castro continued driving to 7 a.m. Sunday Mass at Holy Family, usually sitting by himself in a front pew.
He was beloved by fellow parishioners and had many friends there, one parishioner said.
After it became known that Castro was no longer driving, several parishioners offered rides.
“He was very grateful and gracious,” a parishioner said. “I would say the number one word I would use to describe him is ‘gentleman.’ I know a lot of wonderful men. But he is the epitome of a gentleman. He has been a devout Catholic his whole life.”
It’s been a period of setbacks for Castro.
Castro’s twin brother, Edward, died this past August. And because of his own health issues, Castro hasn’t attended church in close to two months. Instead, Richard Rozak, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, has been administering Communion to Castro in his home.
“He’s a great example of a Catholic life,” said Rozak.