Dear parishioners,
A few months ago, Pope Francis promulgated a document titled Traditionis Custodes, which placed severe restrictions on the celebration of the Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962, typically referred to as the traditional Latin Mass. Immediately following the promulgation of this document, bishops from across the world submitted questions to the Holy See about the implementation of this document. While these questions were being submitted to Rome, Bishop Thomas granted Divine Mercy Parish permission to continue with our First Saturday Latin Masses until those questions were formally responded to. With the Vatican’s responses to these questions having been given, Bishop Thomas recently issued a missive to the priests of our diocese detailing how Traditionis Custodes will be implemented in the Diocese of Toledo.
Bishop Thomas explains in his letter that, “All public celebrations of the Mass which, up until now, have been celebrated according to the Roman Missal of 1962 are no longer permitted except at Saint Joseph Parish, Toledo, and the downtown “chapel” of Saint Michael the Archangel Parish.” Sadly, this means that we will no longer be able to have our monthly Latin Masses. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
I would also like to make everyone aware that I will be away for two separate occasions in June. First, I will be away on Tuesday, June 14 and through the morning on the next day because I will be attending an event with priests from our diocese to discuss how we can better promote vocations to the priesthood in our parishes across the diocese. Therefore, there will be no morning Mass on June 14 and 15. Second, I will be away June 21-23 for the biannual Diocese of Toledo Priest Convocation. Therefore, there will be no morning Mass from June 21-23.
As I mentioned last weekend at the end of Mass, we received permission from Bishop Thomas to move forward with a feasibility study for the purposes of our parish long term planning initiative. If you are contacted by CCS Fundraising to participate in this study, then please know that this is real and is not a scam! Please know that it will not be possible for CCS Fundraising to interview everyone in the parish. So, it is possible that you might not be contacted by them. The study will be carried out through the month of June. Once completed, CCS will compile the results and present us with recommendations based on the data they were able to gather. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.
Blessings to you all,
Fr. Ammanniti
