Pastoral Letters

November 24, 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus,

Greetings of love and peace to all of you!

As we are approaching the end of the liturgical year, it will be appropriate to stop and think about our journey of faith, especially in the midst of COVID; it may have been the most challenging year for many of us, trying to find hope and strength. As a matter of fact, we have come to terms with the powerful message that comes from our Eternal Father, as He keeps telling us more emphatically and unambiguously: “Return to Me”. May we find true joy in getting back to our Father who would undoubtedly protect us under His wings of eternal love!

I am personally disappointed to know that we need to go backward as far as the opportunity to come together to worship in a very limited group. However, this is not something that is completely new to us; we have gone through it earlier. We will make this journey together.   

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, in a very unusual way though, it is with great joy that I want to express my sincere sentiments of gratitude to every member of our parish family for everything that you do. It is in that spirit of family that we need to build our parish; your participation in all the ministries and generous contribution to support those ministries evidently vouch to that fact. THANK YOU!

In the last four months, you have seen three financial reports (quarterly and annual); it is an attempt to be transparent enabling everyone to be aware of our financial status. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, I/we will be happy to answer.

The preparations for the Centennial celebrations are on. We will have the solemn celebration of the Eucharist with Archbishop Sample on Sunday, September 5, 2021. The parish councils are planning for many other events and actions, to mark it special and historical. Please stay tuned.

As you may know, the old rectory has been sold and I have moved into the new rectory on Baler Way. I have a long list of people to thank: Jeff Wiren for coordinating both the sale and purchase of the house(s), the donors who contributed generously, the members of the Finance Council, the generous and good-hearted parishioners for their hard work in preparing the new house and the members of our Knights Council for moving things between the houses. The financial details of the entire transaction of selling and purchasing the rectory will be included in the next quarterly report. 

May we look forward to the preparations for Christmas and New Year, hopefully with the renewed energy! May the Holy Spirit empower and guide us! 

Wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

United in Christ,

Fr. Amal   

1. During the ‘freeze-time” (until December 2)

• The number of participants for all the Mass, will be 25. 
• We will have additional Mass at 12 noon, during the week.
• Minimum liturgical ministers will be serving.
• We will have music for the 10:30 am live-streamed Mass on Sunday.
• We will allow 25 more people in a satellite location (parish hall) to attend Mass, with the benefit of receiving Holy Communion. It is available for the Saturday Vigil at 5:30pm and Sunday at 8:30 & 10:30 am Masses.
• Everyone is expected to sign up for the mass.

2. Post-freeze-time (after December 2)

• We are closely following the updated guidelines from the Archdiocese which diligently works with the State and Health department.
• You may look for the updates on the parish website
• We will also communicate via email.
• You are always welcome to call the parish office during the office hours to get more information.

Message from Archbishop Sample on wearing masks:  

“It has come to my attention that in some parishes the wearing of masks during Mass is not being enforced. I have received multiple complaints about a number of parish situations in which persons are coming to Mass without masks or removing them once they enter the church building. We did not set this requirement arbitrarily nor for any political motivation. We put it in place because the state mandated us to do so and because the best medical evidence (supported by medical professionals, including devout and faithful Catholic physicians) tells us that wearing masks, social distancing and sanitizing are the most effective ways to curb the spread of COVID-19. We have repeatedly asked that this be done, as a matter of Christian charity and concern for your neighbor. Now I am telling you Pastors, that you have the right and the duty to enforce the s

tate-wide mask mandate in your parishes. If people come to Mass without a mask, they should not be allowed to enter. If they remove their masks inside the church, they should be asked to put them back on or leave. Failing to follow this requirement puts their fellow parishioners at medical risk and puts everyone’s ability to worship in jeopardy. I must insist that you take this message seriously. We are continuing to work with state authorities to protect our right to worship. Now that I have gone public with my objections to the new restrictions, it is important that we clearly be seen to be following state requirements with respect to those things we know slow down the spread of the virus”.