The Dominican Province of St. Joseph shared the death of one of our friars, who was Parochial Vicar at Holy Ghost in the early 1990s. May ​he rest in peace. 


Please pray for the repose of the soul of our brother, Fr. Louis Mason. Father Carl Louis Mason, O.P., died peacefully on the morning of February 3, 2025, at Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York.
  
Carl Ralph Mason was born on November 6, 1937, in Ludlow, MA, the son of Joseph Stephen Mason and Pauline Barbara (née Bekech) Mason. He attended Sacred Heart School in Jersey City, NJ from 1943-51, and St. Peter’s Prep from 1951-55. He studied classics at Providence College as a preparatory student for the Dominican Order in 1955, and in 1957 entered the novitiate at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, OH, receiving the religious name Louis.

Father Mason made simple profession in Somerset on August 16, 1958, and went on to St. Stephen Priory in Dover, MA, to study Philosophy from 1958-61. He received his BA from Providence College and made solemn profession on August 16, 1961. He studied Theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC from 1961-64 and was ordained to the priesthood at St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, DC by Most Reverend Russell T. McVinney, Bishop of Providence, on June 11, 1964.

Father Mason was assigned to St. Catherine Priory in New York City in 1965 and served as associate pastor and hospital chaplain until 1972, when he went in the same capacity to St. Andrew’s Church in Cincinnati, OH until 1975. He was elected prior and appointed pastor of St. Rose Priory in Springfield, KY in 1975 and, after serving one term, moved 1978 to Sacred Heart Priory in Jersey City, NJ to serve as associate pastor until 1980.

Father Mason joined the newly established Province of St. Martin de Porres in 1980 and served as associate pastor at St. Peter’s Church in Memphis, TN until 1981, when he was assigned to St. Anthony Priory in New Orleans, LA, serving as prior from 1986-89. After a year as chaplain to the nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, TX, Father Mason was assigned to Holy Ghost Church in Hammond, LA, to serve as associate pastor from 1990-93. He returned to St. Peter’s Church in Memphis in 1993 to serve as associate pastor until 1996.

Father Mason returned to the Province of St. Joseph at St. Louis Bertrand Priory in Louisville, KY in 1996. He served as associate pastor and sub-prior at St. Louis Bertrand until 2003, when he went to St. Catherine of Siena Priory in New York to assist in the hospital ministries. He was elected prior at St. Louis Bertrand Priory in 2004, also serving as pastor of the parish, and after one year returned to St. Catherine of Siena Priory. He remained there in the parish and hospital ministries from 2005-12, when he went to St. Dominic Priory in Washington, DC, serving as Director of the Center for Assisted Living until 2017.

Father Mason continued to assist in the care of elderly friars and other ministries at St. Dominic’s for the next several years. His quiet and faithful presence in the community provided a good example to the deacons assigned to St. Dominic’s for their final year of formation. In 2025, because of failing health, he moved to Rosary Hill Home to be cared for by the Hawthorne Dominican Sisters until his death.

His body was received at Holy Innocents Church in Pleasantville, NY, on the morning of February 8, 2025, with the Office of the Dead celebrated by the Dominican community and visiting friars. His Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated the same day by Very Rev. Allen Moran, O.P., prior provincial. The homily was preached by Rev. Jacob Restrick, O.P. Burial followed at All Souls’ Cemetery in Pleasantville.
 
Eternal rest, grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. Through the mercy of God, may he rest in peace.

This message is being sent out to friends of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

In our Holy Father St. Dominic,

Province of St. Joseph
141 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10065