“Why am I Catholic?” Sadly, this question is being asked by many Catholics these days as there is no shortage of stories in the news involving various types of abuse by members of the clergy including bishops.

It has come to our attention that a few parishioners and staff have received fraudulent emails that appear to be from Msgr. Mike. Most of these attacks are originating from Gmail or other free email systems, where someone can pretend to be Msgr. Mike until that account is shut down.

There have been a number of recent news stories from around the country and around the globe revealing reports of sexual abuse of minors by clergy over many decades and how some bishops did not take decisive action to remove them from ministry. That such stories continue to emerge is deeply troubling, to say the least.

Bishop McManus has named Javier Julio as the next Associate Pastor for St. Mary's Parish. Deacon Javier was ordained a priest on Saturday, June 23rd at St. Paul's Cathedral. He will begin his assignment with us on August 1st. You can learn more about Fr. Javier Julio and his journey to the priesthood in a recent article in the Catholic Free Press.

Thank you very much for your prayers and monetary support of our high school teens participating in St. Mary's summer service program this year. At the time of this writing, two groups have completed their service weeks - the first with Young Neighbors in Action, and the second with Habitat for Humanity.

More than 2000 years ago, the disciples of our Lord were gathered together in an upper room, when they heard the sound of a mighty wind, and tongues as if of fire came to rest over their heads. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. And the people in Jerusalem "from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5), were astounded to hear them speak in their native tongues.

Bishop Robert McManus has named Fr. Juan Escudero, our Associate Pastor for the past three years, the new Administrator (“Pastor”) of St. Denis Parish in Douglas effective on July 1, 2018. He will succeed Fr. Ernie Allega who will be retiring.

Our annual Day of Service was held on Saturday, May 19th. Parishioners of all ages participated and despite the bad weather, we accomplished a lot!

All of the rooms and spaces at St. Mary's are witness to the many ways our community gathers for prayer, celebrations, service, meals, education, special events, and much more.  Often times the parish hall and meeting rooms transform in appearance to accommodate and fit the event or activity being hosted.  

St. Mary Parish held our second Light of the World Retreat last weekend with 25 people taking part.

The 8th Annual Lenten Fish Fry was another great event and evening for the St. Mary's community and beyond.  We are so grateful to the Fish Fry Committee for all the hard work and time that they put in during the weeks leading up to the FishFry.  Thank you to those that cooked the over 700 delicious meals and to those that served our guests. [READ MORE]

Through the generosity and support of St. Mary Parish parishioners, great progress has been made in rebuilding the chapel in Bokolo. Here are a few photo updates we received from Fr. Serge from a recent celebration.

We will host the 8th Annual Lenten Fish Fry. on Friday, March 9th! The event was started by parishioners Bob & Judi Terry. They lived in Pittsburgh, PA for many years and attended the Lenten fish dinners hosted by various churches in the area. When they moved to Shrewsbury, they noticed that the Friday Fish Dinners were not as common and decided to bring the tradition to St Mary’s.

St. Mary Parish is proud of its longstanding commitment to quality music for our liturgical celebrations. Our Sunday Masses, weddings, funerals, Christmas & Easter would not be such faith-filled and joy-filled celebrations without music and without the organ.

Fr. Marcin, St. Mary's former associate pastor, stopped by for a visit on Saturday and con-celebrated the 4:30pm Mass with Fr. Mike.