Please join us this Monday evening, October 5, for a tour and talk at St. John Chrysostom Antiochian Orthodox Church. We’ll learn more about the Orthodox Church and their liturgy, we’ll learn about the history of this small community in Fort Wayne, and we’ll get a tour of a very interesting church building. The church is located at 402 Badiac Road, just off of Coldwater north of Dupont. Meet at that location at 7 p.m. or join us for a carpool from the St. Charles parking lot at 6:30.
Good news: Bishop Rhoades has approved the final plans for the Borromeo Center. Construction will begin very soon on our new building, next to the rectory and across the drive from the Community Room. The project will begin with a lot of earth moving. We will fill in the current drainage area and create a large new drainage site behind the rectory. Unfortunately, many trees will be lost in this project, but we will replace them. We hope to have the building finished by mid-summer.
You will see in the back of the church a new cabinet being installed on the wall by the baptismal font. There will soon be some important content in that cabinet. Warren and Susie Wilhelm were collectors of relics, and after Susie’s passing, their family has given to the parish a relic of the True Cross. With it is a document from the Vatican, stamped and signed, verifying that it is an authentic relic and that it can be used for public veneration. The document was signed in 1955 by Fr. Bernardinus a Senis, the Postulator Generalis in the Vatican. Relics of the True Cross point us back to St. Helena, who travelled to the Holy Land in the early fourth century, where the cross was found and verified through a miracle. While scientists and historians may argue over the authenticity of such a relic, it has been a source of veneration for many centuries and it does point us to the central truth of our faith: on the Cross Jesus offered himself for the salvation of the world. Our parish also has a documented first-class relic of St. Charles Borromeo which we will display for veneration in the same cabinet.
We received a note of thanks for Catholic Charities for the many donations made through their blue barrel. Those donations will benefit many individuals across our diocese. Thanks also to the many parishioners who sponsored me and other walkers in the St. Vincent de Paul Society Walk for Hope. We raised a lot of money. It will be used to help people in need in our city.
Finally, please note that the annual priest Continuing Education days are upcoming. All three priests will be attending. We will have no evening Mass on Oct. 13, no Masses on Oct. 14, and no morning Masses on Oct. 15.
