Father Lee W. Gross

Father Gross was born Oct. 28, 1944, in Rapid City, S.D., and spent most of his childhood in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Hempfield High School in Landisville, Pa., in 1962, he enrolled at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. After earning his bachelor’s in 1966, he enrolled in Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. He graduated with a master’s of divinity in 1970 and was ordained a Lutheran pastor that same year.

In 1974, he joined the Episcopal Church and a year later he entered seminary. The following year, he was ordained an Episcopal priest. Father Gross served in Illinois churches from 1976 to 1985 before entering into full communion with the Catholic Church in 1985. He became a priest through the pastoral provision, a process instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1980 to enable Episcopal priests to become Catholic priests. He was ordained to the priesthood at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester by Bishop John R. Keating April 3, 1987, just a week after he was ordained to the diaconate.

Father Gross served as parochial vicar of Sacred Heart (1987-91) and St. Agnes Church in Arlington (1991-95). While at St. Agnes, a priest friend asked Father Gross if he would be interested in teaching in the seminary. He was very interested, but felt it was unlikely he would be able to teach considering he only had degrees from Protestant seminaries and never attended a Catholic seminary. “God has a divine sense of humor, so he got me for 26 years in a Catholic seminary,” Father Gross told the Catholic Herald in a 2021 interview.

For a year he taught liturgy courses as an adjunct professor at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. In 1995, he took on a full-time administrative position at the seminary as dean of men, or head of student life. In 2003, Father Gross earned a degree in sacred theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore and became an assistant professor of liturgy and systematic theology at Mount St. Mary’s in addition to remaining dean of men.

After the Vatican granted him the faculties to celebrate the Byzantine rite, he celebrated the Divine Liturgy, or Mass, for the Byzantine Catholic Mission of Montgomery County, Md., a mission of Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church in Annandale. For many years he wrote Gospel commentaries for the Catholic Herald. In 2021, he retired to the St. Rose of Lima Priests’ Retirement Villa in Annandale.

On the eve of his retirement, Father Gross told the Herald he was grateful God brought him to the Catholic faith and that he was able to impact the lives of so many lay Catholics through the men he taught. “I love teaching and I enjoy the classroom, but it was more than just academic work. You’re preparing priests,” he said. “In a way, I feel like I’ve had something to do with quite a number of the Catholic faithful, that I’m helping to hopefully form good and holy priests.”

A viewing will be offered Nov. 3 at 10 a.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at noon at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria.

Obituary published in the Catholic Herald at: https://www.catholicherald.com/article/local/fr-gross-longtime-professor-at-mount-st-marys-seminary-dies-at-age-78/