Cleansing Fire

Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church

Update on Latin Mass Community / STA

December 15th, 2014, Promulgated by Diane Harris

These updates on the Latin Mass Community at St. Thomas the Apostle Church ScreenShot368 are only temporary until that community has its own website. Then we will add their website address to the “links” here.

(You might want to revisit the “Useful Links” if you haven’t been there in a while.  Basic resources, in particular, have been updated. Suggestions are welcome.)

Meanwhile, as a community service, here is some information announced yesterday, Dec. 14, at Mass at STA.

1. Registration:  Those who previously registered at St. Kateri Tekakwitha parish and now want to be members of the Latin Mass Community (which includes the English Mass at 9AM and the Latin Mass at 11:15AM each Sunday), and have their donations counted for that Latin Mass Community and receive a year end contributions statement,  should put name and address on the bright colored registration forms found at STA, and write in large letters across the form “Latin Mass Community.”  They need not fill in anything else, and they will be transferred at St. Kateri to the Latin Mass Community registration.  They should also use the Latin Mass (blue) envelopes in all collections.

2. Mass Scheduling:  To have a Mass said for a particular intention, call 585-484-1810 (or email lmcommunity3@gmail.com ) and leave a message including the name of the person for whom the Mass will be offered, if the person is living or deceased, date and time of Mass desired (9AM or 11:15AM) and a phone number to reach you.

3. Christmas Confessions: Will be held at STA on Monday, December 22, 2014, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.  Confessors will include Fr. Bonsignore, Fr. Helfrich, and Fr. Van Lieshout.

In other news, children’s clothes and toys for ages newborn to 14 years will be collected on December 21st at the STA entrances. Info: 467-8747.  

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7 Responses to “Update on Latin Mass Community / STA”

  1. Rich Leonardi says:

    Is Fr. Helfrich the “Mr. Helfrich” who taught at Aquinas in the early 80s? I know he was discerning a priestly vocation way back when, but I lost touch with him at some point in college. If it’s him, send him my regards! 😉

  2. Diane Harris says:

    It is Father Peter Helfrich. I believe he has a brother, Father Fred Helfrich, who is also a priest. I don’t know his prior connections.

  3. dmf says:

    A change regarding “Breaking news” — there are 3 priests hearing confession at STA on the evening of Monday, December 22nd: Fr. Bonsignore, Fr. Peter Helfrich, and Fr. Peter Van Lieshout. Please ignore prior comment regarding others.

  4. Diane Harris says:

    More exciting news:

    Transitional Deacon Matt Jones will be giving the sermon this coming Sunday, Dec. 21st at the 9AM Mass [corrected]. Isn’t it ironic (and a meaningful sign!) that December 21st is the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle on the Traditional Church Calendar. Yet another reason for celebrating at STA this weekend.

  5. Diane Harris says:

    The website for The Latin Mass Community (English and Latin Masses) at St. Thomas the Apostle (STA) Church is http://www.skt-lmc.org/ The notices from weekly bulletins, including the collections, are published there. However, the site is still somewhat skeletal, and volunteer(s) are being sought (see Ben’s note below: “volunteers have answered the call”).

    This coming Sunday will be the first community meeting since leaving St. Stanislaus, and the reopening of STA. It will be held in St. Thomas Church at 10:15AM (right after the Novus Ordo, and before the Extraordinary Form Mass is held.)

    Presentation of financial results is expected. Since collections and attendance are published in the weekly bulletins, some of us have been collecting the figures, and the results look good toward the $200,000 goal. After the official figures are released I will update the following summary; but here is an approximation of what we expect to see.

    The two forms of Mass have been held on 23 Sundays, and 4 Holy days (Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Mother of God (Circumcision), and Ash Wednesday) — which are expected to be reported (results through May 3rd). Since then, there was an additional Sunday (May 10) and the Ascension, which results are not published yet.

    It appears from the bulletin data that the following APPROXIMATES the results we expect to hear: A little over $103,000 in collections, over 10,600 attendees, and an average of nearly $10 per person contributed in the 54 Masses held. Since we are not yet quite half way through the first year (YTD) of operation, the goal still seems realistic. Nearly 60% of the collections and nearly 55% of the attendees come from the Novus Ordo Mass. And the EF Mass attendees have increased from the reported 100-120 at St. Stan’s to about 185 average on Sundays at STA, showing the excellence of Bishop Matano’s decision to move the venue.

    The discussion should be quite interesting. I hope we have a good turnout. This is being posted to give folks the chance to think about the kind of questions they might have on Sunday.

  6. Ben Anderson says:

    However, the site is still somewhat skeletal, and volunteer(s) are being sought.

    Just an fyi that volunteers have answered the call and a new site should be up soon.

  7. Diane Harris says:

    Here is an update to the update. Indeed we did receive a financial report this morning. I imagine when the new website is up that will be accessible there.

    In the meantime, here is a summary of what we received. The period covered was November 30, 2014 through March 31, 2015; i.e. 18 Sundays compared to the 23 used in the previous comment (which was through May 3rd.) In both cases, 4 holy days were also included.

    Collection income for the 18 Sundays covered was $80,406.09, well above the budget for that period of $64,291.68, although somewhat offset by other expected income not realized. Operating expense was $6873.73 less than budgeted, so the good news is that cash flow was significantly positive, with a “gain” of $14,954.77. (This is based on starting at “zero”, without TLM’s prior balance from St. Stan’s being included; i.e. it represents the actual results at STA.)

    Father said he welcomes questions dropped into the collection basket, and promises to answer all such input. Again it was reiterated that after The Latin Mass Community has been functioning for three years at STA, it will be reviewed for the decision on its future by Bishop Matano.

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