Category: Uncategorized

On behalf of our parish community, I would like to extend my sincerest wishes for a peaceful Christmas 2025 and a blessed New Year 2026. For me, New Year’s greetings are not like impossible gifts that we wait for without doing anything, but they are an encouragement to take control of our lives so that they may be better, with God’s help, yes, but not without us. We must take control of our lives, without waiting for our wishes to fall from the sky.

This year has been marked by challenges, notably the project to install air conditioning in our church with all that this project entails, namely the extension of our electrical line from one phase to three phases, the generator, the stained glass doors and windows, and the project to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the parish. These two major projects have filled the life of the parish throughout the year and kept us very busy. We give thanks to God even though they are still in progress.

As for the celebration of the parish’s 50^th anniversary, we have postponed it until June 20 and 21, to allow time to complete and finish the project to install air conditioning in the church and to beautify it. It will be the most beautiful gift for this 50^th anniversary when all this work is completed. I invite us all to redouble our commitment and determination. Together we will succeed.

We would like to thank all those involved in parish life at every level. Thanks to your generosity and commitment, we are gradually managing to raise the funds needed to achieve our goals. May the Lord reward you a hundredfold! (There is an expression in my language that says: “It is through their determination, together, that termites have built a mound of termite hills.”)

The jubilee year, dedicated to hope, is coming to an end with wonderful achievements and celebrations in our parish every month: youth meetings, the 20^th anniversary celebration of Columban Hall, visits to the sick, celebrations for the elderly, pilgrimage in Rome, St Joseph Workers’ 30^th anniversary, and more. Of our parishes and patron saint’s day (for which we extend our sincere gratitude to the CPP (Parish Pastoral Council) team, the Haitian community, the finance committee, and all the ministries). Thank you to all of you, parishioners, for your commitment in every way, especially for your patience and tolerance

At the start of this new year, I wish for each of you to live your lives as active participants and to turn to God, asking him to show us his love. Unity and communion, that is our motto. This is my wish for you, and my prayer to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit for each of us.

Happy New Year!

Rev. Fr. Modeste Digwou
Parish Administrator

On behalf of our parish community, I would like to extend my sincerest wishes for a peaceful Christmas 2025 and a blessed New Year 2026. For me, New Year’s greetings are not like impossible gifts that we wait for without doing anything, but they are an encouragement to take control of our lives so that they may be better, with God’s help, yes, but not without us. We must take control of our lives, without waiting for our wishes to fall from the sky.

This year has been marked by challenges, notably the project to install air conditioning in our church with all that this project entails, namely the extension of our electrical line from one phase to three phases, the generator, the stained glass doors and windows, and the project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the parish. These two major projects have filled the life of the parish throughout the year and kept us very busy. We give thanks to God even though they are still in progress.

As for the celebration of the parish’s 50th anniversary, we have postponed it until June 20 and 21, to allow time to complete and finish the project to install air conditioning in the church and to beautify it. It will be the most beautiful gift for this 50th anniversary when all this work is completed. I invite us all to redouble our commitment and determination. Together we will succeed.

We would like to thank all those involved in parish life at every level. Thanks to your generosity and commitment, we are gradually managing to raise the funds needed to achieve our goals. May the Lord reward you a hundredfold! (There is an expression in my language that says: “It is through their determination, together, that termites have built a mound of termite hills.”)

The jubilee year, dedicated to hope, is coming to an end with wonderful achievements and celebrations in our parish every month: youth meetings, the 20th anniversary celebration of Columban Hall, visits to the sick, celebrations for the elderly, pilgrimage in Rome, St Joseph Workers’ 30th anniversary, and more. Of our parishes and patron saint’s day (for which we extend our sincere gratitude to the CPP (Parish Pastoral Council) team, the Haitian community, the finance committee, and all the ministries). Thank you to all of you, parishioners, for your commitment in every way, especially for your patience and tolerance.

At the start of this new year, I wish for each of you to live your lives as active participants and to turn to God, asking him to show us his love. Unity and communion, that is our motto. This is my wish for you, and my prayer to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit for each of us.

Happy New Year!

January 1st 2026

Rev. Fr. Modeste Digwou

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria
On July 5, the Catholic Church remembers Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria. A renowned preacher and promoter of Eucharistic adoration, he founded the order of priests now known as the Barnabites. In 2001, the future Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote the preface for a book on St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, praising the saint as “one of the great figures of Catholic reform in the 1500s,â€� who was involved “in the renewal of Christian life in an era of profound crisis.â€�The Italian saint, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “deserves to be rediscoveredâ€� as “an authentic man of God and of the Church, a man burning with zeal, a demanding forger of consciences, a true leader able to convert and lead others to good.â€�Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born into an Italian family of nobility in Cremona during 1502. His father Lazzaro died shortly after Anthony’s birth, and his mother Antonietta – though only 18 years old – chose not to marry again, preferring to devote herself to charitable works and her son’s education. Antonietta’s son took after her in devotion to God and generosity toward the poor. He studied Latin and Greek with tutors in his youth, and was afterward sent to Pavia to study philosophy. He went on to study medicine at the University of Padua, earning his degree at age 22 and returning to Cremona. Despite his noble background and secular profession, the young doctor had no intention of either marrying or accumulating wealth. While caring for the physical conditions of his patients, he also encouraged them to find spiritual healing through repentance and the sacraments. Anthony also taught catechism to children, and went on to participate in the religious formation of young adults. He eventually decided to withdraw from the practice of medicine, and with the encouragement of his spiritual director he began to study for the priesthood. Ordained a priest at age 26, Anthony is said to have experienced a miraculous occurrence during his first Mass, being surrounded by a supernatural light and a multitude of angels during the consecration of the Eucharist. Contemporary witnesses marveled at the event, and testified to it after his death. Church life in Cremona had suffered decline in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The new priest encountered widespread ignorance and religious indifference among laypersons, while many of the clergy were either weak or corrupt. In these dire circumstances, Anthony Mary Zaccaria devoted his life to proclaiming the truths of the Gospel both clearly and charitably. Within two years, his eloquent preaching and tireless pastoral care is said to have changed the moral character of the city dramatically. In 1530, Anthony moved to Milan, where a similar spirit of corruption and religious neglect prevailed. There, he decided to form a priestly society, the Clerics Regular of St. Paul. Inspired by the apostle’s life and writings, the order was founded on a vision of humility, asceticism, poverty, and preaching. After the founder’s death, they were entrusted with a prominent church named for St. Barnabas, and became commonly known as the “Barnabites.â€�The priest also founded a women’s religious order, the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul; and an organization, the Laity of St. Paul, geared toward the sanctification of those outside the priesthood and religious life. He pioneered the “40 Hoursâ€� devotion, involving continuous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. In 1539, Anthony became seriously ill and returned to his mother’s house in Cremona. The founder of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul died on July 5, during the liturgical octave of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, at the age of only 36. Nearly three decades after his death, St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria’s body was found to be incorrupt. He was beatified by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1849, and declared a saint by Pope Leo XIII in 1897.
Source: Saint of the Day