Welcome to Fr. Wenceslas Abalos!
Fr. Wen, our new associate pastor
arrived on September 7th. He comes with
a varied experience of ministry here in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Most recently he has served as one of our
full-time priest-chaplains at our downtown hospitals. He also served as associate pastor at St.
Maria Goretti Parish in Scarborough and Pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish
in Oshawa. Our paths crossed during some
of his years at the hospitals as I served as Director of Chaplaincy for the
Archdiocese for a time.
Re-entry into parish life is a
big change, and our parish, as numerous as it is, will take time to get to
know. Please feel free to take time to
introduce yourselves to Fr. Wen. Among
the things that I have discovered, he too trolls the newspaper for the crossword
and he’s faster than I am.
It is last chance time for our
pilgrimage. We need to have a sufficient
number to make a “go” of it. It
represents a great opportunity, and I hope if you are trying to decide that you
will think about making a decision.
I will be travelling around the
Archdiocese soon on the circuit of regional CWL meetings so you may not find me
around as much on weekday evenings as I usually am.
A number people have called about
the change in First Communion dates to a weekday night rather than Saturday
night. The reason is simple. More people are getting married at the parish
– they’ve tripled. Also, we receive regular
requests for funerals on Saturday morning.
This makes the weekend Mass schedule crowded. The move to weekdays is simply a reflection
of how active the parish is.
Our plans for a sales terminal
and the ability to donate by debit to the parish are progressing. Look for something in the next six weeks or
so.
Fr. Bob
