Dear Parishioners:
We said a Final Farewell and Thank You to Father Mahoney last weekend. He officially begins his Pastorate at St. Pius X Church on Monday, July 1. Over the last week, he has moved his belongings to his new Rectory. We wish him all the best and offer our promise of prayer.
Priestly Ordination Mass at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Providence. RI.
One of the newly ordained Priests of Providence, Father Joseph Brodeur, is from Father Mahoney's new parish. They are good friends, and Fr. Mahoney vested Fr. Brodeur at the Ordination Mass. Please pray for Fr. Brodeur and Father Jairon Olmos, who was also ordained yesterday. We wish them continued blessings as they begin their priestly ministry. Ad multos annos!
The Catholic Charity Appeal has ended for this year. I thank the over 400 parish families who supported us in surpassing our parish goal of $190,000. This year, we had 460 families pledge gifts totaling $257,827. Although our total was $20,000 less than last year's final total, and we had twenty fewer donors, OLM still had the highest parish total in the Diocese.
In the name of the poor and needy who benefit from the Catholic Charity Appeal, I thank you for your generous support. I also thank our Charity Appeal Chairs, Michael and Lee Mita and Jerry and Kim O'Connell, for their tremendous leadership of the Appeal here at OLM. If you have not yet made a pledge, there is still time to do so.
Next weekend, we welcome Father Rocco Puopolo to OLM for the Annual Mission Appeal. He will preach at all Masses on behalf of the good work of the Xaverian Missionaries. Fr. Rocco is the Director at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston, MA, and was ordained in 1977. He served in Sierra Leone, West Africa, for 12 years. I know you will give your usual warm welcome to Fr. Rocco. The Second Collection next weekend is for Xaverian Missionaries. There is no envelope, so please be prepared to support the Second Collection with a check payable to OLM and write "Mission Appeal" in the memo.
Xavierian Missionaries serve in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Catholic missionaries have been traveling the globe for centuries, preaching the Gospel, educating other cultures about the Catholic faith, and assisting the poorest of the poor with great support. Missionaries go into the world's most remote and poorest regions and make Christ and His Church known.
Pope Francis has said: "Every Christian is called to be a missionary and witness to Christ. And the Church, the community of Christ's disciples, has no other mission than to bring the Gospel to the world by bearing witness to Christ. To evangelize is the very identity of the Church."
Thus, each of us is called to be a missionary in our local communities and support the missionaries in other lands. We must evangelize locally with our families, coworkers, and neighbors. Likewise, we must aid the men and women who serve the missions throughout the world. Each year across the Diocese, missionaries go to every parish to preach about the good work of evangelization in foreign missions. It is an opportunity for us to recognize and support missionaries. So, I urge you to please be generous to the Xavierian Missionaries next weekend. And I thank you in advance for your generosity.
This coming Thursday, we celebrate Independence Day! It is a day to celebrate our freedom and liberty from the shackles of British Imperialist oppression. A day we proudly remember our founding fathers who fought to free us from the tyranny of the King of England. As American Catholics, we should be mindful of the debt we owe our country as we mark the day the Second Continental Congress declared our independence from Britain.
Please join us for Mass on July 4th at 8:30 am. We celebrate our religious freedom and offer prayers specifically for the United States. We pray that our nation might be sanctified through conversion to a deeper love of God and neighbor. We pray for a deeper knowledge and understanding of moral truths and more dedication to virtuous living in our nation. St. Pope John Paul II said: "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."
I wish you and your family a Happy Fourth of July! God Bless America! Be well. Do good. God Bless