Designed by Link and Haire, well known architects with offices in Butte and Billings, the church replaced the earlier Catholic Church, a small wood framed building from 1888. Begun in 1915, St. Leo's held its first mass on October 15, 1916 and was dedicated the next month on November 12.
Of late the Catholic Church seems to find itself in hot water on a number of fronts. One of several problems it can't seem to deal with properly is that of gay marriage and it's causing the church to lose parishioners, sometimes en masse. The situation isn't yet dire in the Lewiston Catholic church, but at the same time, it's not that good. As well as the news story quoted in part below, more have come to light from more recent times, indicating that many of the parishioners are siding with the excommunicated couple below and not the church.
Gay Lewistown couple remains in limbo with Catholic Church
SUSAN OLP Billings Gazette Nov 17, 2014
BILLINGS -- Tom Wojtowick can’t quite bring himself to break his ties with St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lewistown.
Three months ago, Wojtowick and his partner, Paul Huff, were dismissed from their volunteer posts at St. Leo’s and prohibited from receiving the Eucharist. They had been active members of the parish for 11 years.
The action came after the Rev. Samuel Spiering, newly arrived administrator at the parish, learned the pair had married in a civil ceremony in Seattle in 2013. The action is opposed by the Catholic Church, which holds that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Wojtowick and Huff, both active in the community, own a small ranch together outside of Lewistown. Spiering called for the two men, who had been together for more than 30 years, to separate and divorce.
Wojtowick and Huff were willing to write a restoration statement that, in part, would support the concept of marriage in the Catholic faith as between a man and a woman. But they refused the more drastic action of permanent separation.
Huff has left St. Leo and attends St. James Episcopal Church. A number of other former parishioners departed St. Leo’s for the Episcopal church, Wojtowick said.
From the Helena Independent Record