Revered for deep connection with Fort Worth parishioners, Father Stephen Jasso dies at 88

The Rev. Stephen Jasso, a longtime pastor at All Saints Catholic Church in Fort Worth’s historic north side, advocate for immigrants and influential presence in the daily life of the city, died Friday. He was 88.

Jasso had Lou Gehrig’s disease, but the cause of his death was not released. Jasso died at a hospital, said Pat Svacina, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.

“I think I’ve given the best years of my life to this parish, this school, the diocese and this city,” Jasso said in a December 2018 interview. “I now find myself in this bed with an illness that has no cure. Here I am today but until when, I don’t know. I’ve given my best to this city but it’s given me much more, honestly.”

Bishop Michael Olson wrote in a statement that Jasso had “watched over the Lord’s flock with a Shepherd’s care.”

“Father Jasso’s service extended beyond the confines of All Saints parish to men and women of all faiths in Fort Worth and throughout Texas,” Olson wrote. “He was a vigilant advocate for immigrants and the disenfranchised in our community. His counsel was respected and valued by those in local and state government and public service.”

Five months after Jasso announced his retirement as pastor of All Saints Parish in December 2017, he learned he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Jasso remained in the role of parochial vicar.

Jasso was a fierce advocate for immigrants in the United States. He was troubled by the way the government has treated Central American asylum seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border.

“It’s not human,” he said. “I think that’s where we’re failing. Because those people are coming with dreams looking for a better life ... I think we’re failing God and everyone else by not taking care of one another.”

Jasso was revered for the personal relationships he built and nurtured with his parishioners.

Former city councilman Sal Espino, who served on the body from 2005 to 2017, said Jasso had been a voice of reassurance on difficult votes. Over breakfast meetings, Jasso urged him to make the call that Espino believed was in the best interest of the city.

“He really did love serving God and serving others,” Espino said Saturday.

Espino was one of Jasso’s closest community partners and friends. Espino and his family have attended All Saints since 1972, the year they emigrated from Ciudad Juarez to Fort Worth.

In 1994, Jasso invited Espino to serve on the finance committee for the Dieciseis de Septiembre festival to celebrate Mexico’s independence day. Jasso would ride a horse in the parade every year wearing a traditional charro outfit topped with a sombrero.

Both Espino and his wife joined the organizing committee, and Espino and Jasso became good friends.

For Gladys Perales, Jasso was like family. She remembers when her own father died, Jasso came to the hospital at 2 a.m. to pray. She said she doesn’t know of too many other priests who would do that.

As a single mother raising her daughter Madison, she often turned to him for guidance. Madison has a strong faith, and Perales said that is due to her upbringing at All Saints with Jasso.

“[When they first met], she thought he was Jesus’ cousin because it was Catholic school and she was uber excited,” Perales recalled. “The way he reacted to her when she asked him if he had met Jesus, and how he went along with it, just great.”

A representative of Sundance Square, the downtown commercial sector, wrote in a statement that Jasso’s contributions left “an everlasting impact.”

“Father Jasso lived a loving, selfless life devoted to those less fortunate.”

In addition to immigration, Jasso was passionate about education and teaching his parishioners to be leaders. For the last 21 years, The Father Jasso Tuition Assistance Fund has helped several local families afford a Catholic education at the All Saints School.

“Education is a basic factor of all growth. Growth without education doesn’t go well,” Jasso said. “And an education without values, crumbles. Values are what make us strong.”

He was most hopeful about Fort Worth’s future.

“Fort Worth is one of the cities that has progressed the most in the last 20 years,” he said. “It has a marvelous power for growth because Fort Worth has the space to grow and be a bigger city than Dallas, or any other. We have good leadership in the city, very good, kind, compassionate people. I think it’s a city where a lot of people can come to live.”

Jasso was born in Waco to parents Domingo Jasso and Leonor Gonzalez de Jasso on Nov. 26, 1932. He grew up in a family of migrant workers with 14 brothers and sisters.

He completed his elementary education in Waco, Kopperl and Austin and earned his high school diploma from the United States Armed Forces Institute. He served in the Korean War from 1953 to 1955, and in the active reserves, where he was promoted to sergeant first class.

Jasso entered The Franciscan Order in 1957 and studied at the Franciscan Seminary in Mallorca, Spain, for three years and then at the University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy, for four years. He was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome on Feb. 21, 1965.

He had served as a pastor and in other ministry positions in Mexico City for nearly 30 years. In 1994, at 62 years old, he was named pastor of All Saints Catholic Church in Fort Worth in 1994.

This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 4:49 PM.