God Working Through His People to Save a Latin Mass Parish
More than 100 Catholics prayed the full Rosary at St. Barnabas the Apostle in O'Fallon on Sunday
More than 100 Catholics prayed the full Rosary at St. Barnabas the Apostle in O'Fallon on Sunday. The prayer service lasted more than an hour under a rare and beautiful sky the color of Our Lady’s mantle, asking for divine help to save St. Barnabus from the Archdiocese’s wrecking ball. Led by hermit priest, Father David Kemna, the faithful prayed all 15 decades of the Rosary, alternating between Latin and English.
My wife and I learned of the event last Sunday when Jim Murphy handed us a flyer announcing the event as we left Holy Mass in Richmond Heights, Missouri. Jim is a founding member of Save Our St. Louis Parishes (sostlp.org), an organization dedicated to “taking up space” for Our Lord by keeping parishes open and functioning throughout the St. Louis Archdiocese.
Before the Rosary, several speakers addressed the faithful, including Ken Battis, president of Save Our St. Louis Parishes, parishoners, and a young server named Diego Zamacona who expressed his deep love for the Latin Mass because of its beauty and reverence. Another parishoner, a father of three, moved to St. Louis Archdiocese from Chicago in search of a Latin Mass parish.
Save Our St. Louis Parishes has procured a canon lawyer to help Catholics fight arbitrary parish closures. In the past week, that lawyer has met with over 50 parish representatives and priests. Their efforts have already forced the Archdiocese to delay announced Catholic school closures.
To learn more about Save Our St. Louis Parishes, visit their website:
Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.