Cardinal Timothy Dolan returns to St. Louis for parish’s 100th anniversary celebration

RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. - Little Flower Catholic Church hosted a celebration for its 100th anniversary on Saturday evening, with hundreds in attendance, including Ballwin native and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

​“I was only 35 years old when I came here, and I loved it,” Dolan said. “I flourished, I said this is what I've always wanted to be, a parish priest, you know, to be close to God's people, to the kids, to the elders, to the school.”

​According to the Archdiocese website, Dolan was named Archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. He had served as Archbishop of Milwaukee, appointed to the position by Pope Saint John Paul II on June 25, 2002.

​Dolan said he was honored to be a part of the anniversary celebration held in Richmond Heights, where he served the community and parish for two years.

​“People were together, they knew one another, they loved one another, they grew up together, look, they come back here, this is a neighborhood where people stick around,” Dolan said.

​Cardinal Dolan served as chairman of Catholic Relief Services and is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America.

​While Dolan admired the unity in the community in Richmond Heights, he said there is an absence of it around our country, following the shooting in a Minneapolis, MN, catholic school earlier this week that killed two and injured 17.

​‘There's a sense of isolation. Now. People feel alone. They feel by themselves. They don't feel connected. It can't happen in a parish like this, can't happen in the neighborhood like this. We need to revive that,” Dolan said.

​Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Dolan participated in the Conclave that elected Pope Francis in March 2013. He also participated in the Conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV in May 2025.