Here’s the question I have about this thread.
Why is the OP posting on CAF, an international Catholic forum, in order to inform parishioners whom he surely knows by now as friends, about the situation in their parish?
Why doesn’t he merely meet and talk with his friends in the parish, or email them directly, to discuss the situation in the parish and the options for Mass that are available in their area? Why put out an announcement to people who, for the most part, will never be in his town?
Here is the paragraph from the OP that I am wondering about:
“After over twenty years of having the Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday at St. Martin DePorres, in Jensen Beach, Florida, it has been announced in the bulletin that June 27, 2012, the Latin Mass will be indefinitely suspended. This means no more Latin Mass.
Since the nearest Latin Mass I know of is 90 miles away, I encourage all who attended this Mass to consider attending the Divine Liturgy at Sts Cyril and Methodius, in Ft. Pierce, Florida. It is only 19 miles north of St Martin DePorres and is in full Communion with the Holy See. Below is a link to a map of how to get to this wonderful Byzantine Catholic Church. I hope to see you there!”
Of course, maybe this area is in a hugely popular tourist area of Florida that receives a lot of visitors. If so, then I understand the purpose of this thread.
I realize that if the parish has several hundred people, it might be possible that the OP does not know all of them. But surely after 20 years, he knows quite a few of them, and hopefully considers these people his closest friends (other than his family) because they share a love for traditional Catholicism.
And surely these parishioners have some kind of communication system–a phone tree, a directory of phone numbers or emails, a website for the parish or various family websites, Twitter accounts, etc. Surely they all meet for meals or homeschooling or other social events.
If the OP truly doesn’t know anyone else at that parish, then I think maybe that’s a problem. Being part of a parish means more than just attending a Mass and leaving. Shouldn’t parishioners be involved with each other in various ministries and programs in the parish? How about the choir? The religious education program? The evangelization program? The pro-life outreach? Supporting various missions and apostolates? Ministries to help the local poor?
If nothing else, this thread is a good wake-up call for the rest of us. If something dreadful happened in our parish–and definitely losing your Mass is pretty dreadful!–would we able to get hold of others and network/pray with them and figure out a charitable and viable course of action? Do we even know the names of the people who sit with us at each Mass so that we could look them up in the phone book or online?
