John Tizio

Father John Tizio is the kind of priest a parish holds onto. He has a way of becoming part of a place so completely that he is missed long after he is gone, the kind of pastor whose leaving makes children cry and sends grown parishioners asking, years later, when he might come back.

It was never the grand gestures that won people over. He had a little pug that walked the parish school hallway at his side, and he was the priest who blessed the family pets. When he preached, he liked to step out from behind the pulpit and speak from the front of the altar, often with a prop in hand, so the message landed a little closer.

That warmth is something he came by early, in a big Brooklyn family of eight children. He has always known how to make people feel noticed, and across his priesthood it has shown more in how he treats the person in front of him than in any title he has held. He professed his vows as a Redemptorist in 1979 and was ordained in 1985, and the years since have taken him up and down the East Coast, from Baltimore to Long Island and back.

St. Mary's in Annapolis is the parish he served longest, first as an associate and later as its pastor. One of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, it is a historic Redemptorist community in the heart of old Annapolis, with two churches, a school, and thousands of parishioners, the kind of full, busy place where he seems most at home.

Through all the moves, one thing holds steady: he simply likes being among people. He would rather stand close to them than speak down at them, part of the crowd rather than above it. It is the kind of thing that stays with a parish, and it is why, wherever he goes, somebody is always hoping he comes back.