October 3 2020

Dear Parishioners,

The renovation of our church floor is progressing smoothly.  Demolition has been completed and the tiles will be put in place very soon.  Thank you for you support and interest. Joe Alonso from Infinity Construction is responsible for the church floor renovation.  It was brought to my attention that Joe Alonso’s grandfather used to worship here at St Mary’s many years ago.  He is quite eager to see this project perfectly completed. 

Over the last several weeks I have had meetings with the Diocesan Campaign Office.  We are going to try to finish up this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal at St Mary Parish.  We need your help to make sure we meet our parish goal of $16,512.  All the funds received over goal will be returned to St. Mary Parish in order to continue restoring and repairing our aging buildings.  With every parishioner’s help and generosity, we will be able to air condition our church and replace our aging heating system installed in 1957.  These are important and necessary restoration projects which will keep our parish alive and maintain it as a beautiful place to worship our God.  

On the weekend of October 3-4 we will be conducting an in pew solicitation for everyone who has yet to make a pledge to the Annual Catholic Appeal.  This year’s theme is “We Are the Church, Together”.  Let us join and help support all of the good work performed by our Diocesan Agencies throughout the year.  

Thank you for your generous help and contributions especially during this difficult time of world-wide pandemic.  Your generous prayers and donations will help us and many suffering families throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn to receive the necessary financial aid and assistance so desperately needed.          

Best regards and many Blessings,

Father Chris 

June 14 2020

Dear Parishioners,

            I hope that this letter finds all our parishioners healthy and happy as we continue to make good progress mitigating the corona virus through social distancing and being safe.  We have had great success with live streaming the 12 noon Mass each Sunday.  We have had many positive responses from those who are tuning in each Sunday.  I realize that it is not the same as being in church but through the miracle of Facebook we can almost be present in church.  The experience of being in an empty church and imagining all of you out there watching is certainly an experience I never imagined possible.  But I have sort gotten more used to the whole experience am looking forward to being with you virtually each Sunday until the day we can open again for our weekday and Sunday Mass.

Very soon we are planning to be connected through our website with the assistance of De Sales Media to use our permanently mounted camera located on the church balcony in order to continue live streaming Sunday Mass.  The camera can zoom and turn so that the viewer sees all the parts of the Mass.  We are confident that the sound and picture quality will be improved.  We are incredibly grateful to our Director of Music Justin Bischof and his colleague Brian for their expertise and knowledge of Facebook so that we could be able to live stream Sunday Mass for you.  They did spend much of their personal time in planning and making this project a success. Many thanks! 

In the meantime, we are keeping busy here at St Mary Parish.  Many chores have been accomplished and you will see some improvements when you come back to Mass.  Please pray for peace and harmony in our city and throughout our country.  Let there be an end to hatred and prejudice.  Stay safe so we continue to bring down the numbers.

Best regards and many Blessings,

Father Chris    

May 22 2020

Dear Parishioners,

We all know that we are living in difficult times and we long for life before the Coronavirus made it presence felt around the world.  There are some directives which we need to understand and prepare to adopt to our present way of life with all its challenges.  I was reading an article in our recent Diocesan Newspaper, The Tablet.  The article deals with Bishop DiMarzio’s initiative to seek a roadmap to reopen churches after Coronavirus. Our Bishop is looking ahead to a time when churches will swing open their doors and once more welcome parishioners for Holy Mass.

Preparing for post-coronavirus life in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Bishop has formed a special committee to help him develop a roadmap detailing how churches will be able to reopen and what changes will be necessary to the Mass.

For one thing, parishioners will be asked to sit six feet apart in church in every other pew.  All pastors have been asked to consider how many parishioners may be in church based on this safe seating directive.  Parishioners will have to adapt to churches having a new and different look.  Parishioners will probably be asked to wear face masks and gloves to avoid the possible spread of COVID-19.  More will be communicated when the facts become available.

Bishop DiMarzio said that the fact that the opening of churches is even being discussed is a sign of hope.  The priests and pastors of the diocese have been meeting with Bishop DiMarzio by way of ZOOM calls in order to communicate and offer encouragement during these difficult times.  

Please be assured of our prayers for all the parishioners of St Mary Parish.  We are very much looking forward to opening our doors once again as soon as possible.

Best regards and many Blessings,

Father Chris