By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Our small southern Maryland parish has had more than one reason to experience some uncertainty about our future lately.
As I’ve related here in a previous column, we had to evacuate the church and set up for Mass in our parish hall last Lent. Our 100-year-old church ceiling needed urgent repair and, as a result, it was unsafe to remain in the church until repairs could be completed. Then Traditionis Pastores landed like a bomb in our lives, declaring that Traditional Latin Masses may not any longer be offered in parish churches like ours.
Will it be possible to use our church once it’s restored?
Our archbishop has given permission to continue liturgically as we’ve been doing thus far for a period of prayer and reflection on the new restrictions. We continue to hope and pray for a mild and generous application of the motu proprio in our case. Meanwhile, the work on the church continues.
I don’t believe I’ve used this space before to ask for financial help but I’ve decided to do so now. We would like to raise funds to pay for the work in the church. We’ve already made a very good start as our Go Fund Me page has reached nearly $10,000 in the first few days after launch this week, adding this to a previous robust effort by parishioners raising more than $20,000.
Our parish has offered the Traditional Latin Mass since 1989 under the terms of Ecclesia Dei, as our Church has grown in the understanding that the divine liturgy, handed down by the apostles from Christ, is a matter of divine Revelation and cannot ever be abrogated. We have grown into a de facto “personal” parish with Traditional sacraments and Holy Mass offered every day following Summorum Pontificum in 2007.
We are undertaking a large project to restore our church. Our 100-year-old plaster and lathe ceiling was cracking and deteriorating as the keys and lugs through large sections had broken over time. The ceiling was in danger of falling.
We are restoring and preserving the original ceiling and also repairing and painting deteriorated plaster throughout the church interior.
The project will cost $243,000 and we have raised about $30,000 so far. We are seeking additional funds to replace an original wooden pine floor that was taken out during insurance work following a 2010 fire and replaced with plywood and carpeting, and with chandelier lighting more appropriate for a church setting.
Rorate Caeli and Fr. Zuhlsdorf have blogged about our fundraiser, assisting us greatly in getting the word out, for which we are thankful. Please also share our Go Fund Me page or the page about the project on my blog A Priest Life, the URL for which you can find following this column.
Please consider supporting our parish, one of only two in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., which offer Traditional Mass daily and sacraments in the Traditional Latin Rite.
You can donate by sending a check made out to St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and mailing to us at P.O. Box 306, Benedict, MD 20612.
Our GoFundMe page is found at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/s-francis-de-sales-church-restoration?qid=a6cdd96da270557b126d2210e9016909
You can also use a credit card at our website. Please note that a percentage of your donation will be subtracted for applicable fees. You can do so at this link: https://www.stfrancisbenedict.org/donations/
You can see photos of the work at A Priest Life along with the following description:
Wood straps were fastened to the underside of the plaster and lathing to prepare for applying the compound which served to recapture and reattach the plaster to the lathing. After the compound was applied over the lathing and ceiling plaster in three treatments and then cured, the wood strapping was removed and fastening holes filled.
The next step will begin soon to repair interior plaster damaged by earthquake and water penetration resulting from a hurricane-nor’easter combination. Missing plaster will be replaced and cracks filled. The entire interior will be restored to pristine condition and painted.
Thank you for your kind consideration and for the generosity of your prayers for the successful completion of the project. We hope to be back in the church for Holy Mass to honor Our Lady of Fatima on October 13. Please join us in praying through the intercession of our patron, St. Francis de Sales.
Thank you for reading and considering my request on behalf of my parish family. More information can be always obtained at apriestlife.blogspot.com or at stfrancisbenedict.org
Pleas also join us in Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, for this and so many other needs we can only fully entrust to her.
“O Immaculata, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, we come to thee in this bleak hour. The forces of evil, enemies of thy beloved Son, rear their heads with overweening audacity. Our families are under relentless attack, the unborn are slaughtered by the millions, our children are scandalized and corrupted, vice is glorified and sanctioned by law, our most fundamental liberties are being speedily curtailed. Good is now called evil, and evil good (cf. Isaiah 5:20).
“Nor is this lamentable situation confined to the secular world. In our beloved Church, founded by thy Divine Son, the cause of Truth and Justice is often brushed aside; priests who stand up for the moral law are silenced and besmirched; religious communities devoted to traditional observance are pressed to compromise or written off as outdated; the Sacred Liturgy handed down by Tradition is under overt attack.
“In this hour of fierce trial and impending persecution, we entrust to thee our woes. Thou hast assured us that, in the end, thy Immaculate Heart would triumph. This promise consoles us, and we are ever mindful that we must make ourselves worthy of such a victory by the sanctity of our lives.
“Our Lady of Victories, on this day, as we honor thy glorious victory over death and look up with joy to the eternal crown of victory which rests upon thy beloved head, we are filled with confidence that thou dost not forget thy beloved sons and daughters, still laboring in sorrow in this vale of tears.”
For the full text of the consecration prayer visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xydZq6tFURpkB1nULmHm45LoUXNulSaH/view
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