CSF January 2023: Local News

Msgr. Harry G. Schlitt, 1939-2022

‘Harry treasured his priesthood’

Mgsr. Harry George Schlitt passed away on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, at age 83.

Father Harry began his vocation in the 1960s as the host of a Top 40s radio call-in show for teenagers. He wove Christian teachings into rock music, earning a large following as “the rock ’n roll priest.”

His gifts in sharing the faith through radio, television and the internet defined his entire priestly ministry of 58 years. His most farreaching pastoral legacy is likely the “TV Mass,” created long before COVID-19 birthed live-streamed liturgies. He and his production company, God Squad Productions, broadcast the Mass every Sunday morning in the San Francisco and Sacramento markets.

Father John Ryan, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in Burlingame, said Father Harry had a great capacity to let “the sound and the beat and the magic of music light up the words, especially the holy ones of God.”

Harry Schlitt was born on June 3, 1939, in rural Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He attended Cardinal Glennon College in St. Louis, and later, the Pontifical North American College in Rome. On Dec. 16, 1964, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He served the Archdiocese as communications director, development director, moderator of the curia and vicar general and was on the pastoral staff at eight archdiocesan parishes: Sacred Heart, St. Philip the Apostle, Holy Name of Jesus, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Gabriel, Most Holy Redeemer, St. Veronica and St. Raymond.

In retirement, he was a popular Sunday celebrant at Most Holy Rosary Chapel at the St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael.

The author of two books about his unique priestly path, Msgr. Schlitt wrote that “he was nothing without the Mass.”

“Harry treasured his priesthood,” said Father Ryan.