New Apostolate Responds to Vandalism with Prayer

Many of you may have heard about the act of vandalism that took place at St. Mary Church, our new apostolate in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, a number of weeks ago. Flowerpots and candles at Our Lady’s statue outside the church were broken, and the stained glass of one of the doors was smashed. It appears as though the perpetrator was possibly attempting to break into the church, but thankfully they did not.

In response to the act, the St. Mary Polish-American Society, in conjunction with the Latin Mass community in the area, held a prayer service at the church the afternoon of Sunday, July 22nd. Led by Fr. Scott Allen, FSSP, the chaplain for the Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia, over a hundred souls gathered to pray the Rosary, a litany to Our Lady and the regularly-scheduled novena to Our Lady of Częstochowa in the presence of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Afterwards, those in attendance gathered in St. Mary’s Hall for a social, which provided an opportunity for both longtime attendees of the church and members of the Latin Mass community to get to know one another in anticipation of their future as a Fraternity apostolate. The local ABC news station covered the event, and both it and NBC Philadelphia ran segments on the vandalism incident.

The Polish-American Society is a group of St. Mary’s attendees who have care of the church, which has remained open for occasional Masses and events after the merging of St. Mary’s parish with another parish several years ago. They have been very supportive of the Fraternity’s impending administration of St. Mary and we are grateful for their devoted care of the church and their positive response to our arrival. At the prayer service, Fr. Allen announced that Fr. Carl Gismondi, most recently the pastor of FSSP San Diego, will be assigned as pastor of St. Mary beginning in August.