The Church Locator

About St. Leo the Great

St. Leo the Great is a Catholic parish in Racine, Wisconsin, formed by the coming together of eight historic parish communities.

We are one parish. We worship in eight churches. We serve the entire city.

Our Community

St. Leo the Great is home to a diverse community of families and individuals at every stage of faith. We worship in English and Spanish. Our eight churches span the full geography of Racine, from the inner city to the suburbs, and range from century-old buildings with stained glass and deep ethnic roots to more modern worship spaces built for a different era of Catholic life.

What holds us together is four commitments: engage, learn, grow, live.

Our Mission

We exist to make disciples.

Every Mass, ministry, sacrament, and outreach program at St. Leo the Great is ordered toward one end: helping people encounter Jesus Christ and grow in that relationship for the rest of their lives.

Our Name

St. Leo the Great was a fifth-century pope known for his clarity of teaching, his courage in the face of uncertainty, and his ability to hold a diverse community together under one vision of the Church. He is a fitting patron for a parish doing exactly that in Racine today.

One Parish, Eight Churches

Each of our eight churches carries over a century of history in some cases. Irish and German immigrants built some of them. Moravian, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Slovak communities built others. In 1998, five older ethnic parishes came together to form St. Richard of Chichester. Most recently, all eight communities joined as one under the St. Leo the Great name.

Together, the eight parishes that form St. Leo the Great represent over 1,200 years of combined Catholic history in Racine.