3rd Sunday of Easter

Dear Friends in Christ,

1. On Friday 16 May, Bishop Guglielmone will ordain two transitional deacons for service in our diocese and eventual ordination to the priesthood. They are Richard Wilson from St. Joseph’s, Anderson and our own Roger Morgan. The diaconal ordinations are at 6 pm at St. Joseph’s, Columbia, and all are welcome.

2. On Friday 30 May, Bishop Guglielmone will ordain Deacon Javier Heredia to the priesthood for service in our diocese. That Mass will be at 6 pm at the Cathedral Church in Charleston, and all
are welcome. Also being ordained to the priesthood this month is Deacon Michael Ruminski of the Archdiocese of Hartford. Father Ruminski is the son of our parishioner Peggy Ruminski, but
he will exercise his priestly ministry in Connecticut where he grew up.

3. After seven years of service to our school, Sister Marie Isaac, OP is being transferred to a school in Illinois where she will service as principal. Godspeed, Sister Marie Isaac! To replace her as
science teacher in our middle school, the Dominicans are sending us Sister John Agnes, OP, who holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and two master’s degrees — one in teaching and
one in administration. The Nashville Dominicans are among the finest Catholic school teachers and administrators in the country, and we are blessed beyond all telling to have their remarkable
service in our school.

4. We believe that after many months of searching and patching, we have finally repaired the leaks in the roof of the sanctuary that have caused damaged plaster in several places. We had to
replace ceramic tiles with copper caps and flashing on the rear walls of the nave and sanctuary, and removing the tiles revealed the disintegration of the topmost bricks and mortar on both walls.
We now have new masonry in place on both walls, and in addition to the copper flashing, we have sealed the bricks and joints on the remainder of both rear walls. Now that the roof is secure, we
have scraped away the damaged plaster to expose the wall underneath and allow everything to dry thoroughly. Once we are certain that there are no further leaks and that the walls are completely dry, we will patch the damaged areas and then repaint them.

5. In addition to that work, we are looking at the possibility of replacing damaged wainscoting throughout the church, repairing and/or replacing damaged doors to the church, patching the
crack in the plaster that runs down the entire west side of the nave, and then repainting the plaster which was last painted twelve years ago. All of that work, of course, will be paid for from our capital
giving for 2014, and I’ll be writing to you soon about our needs for this year. Thank you for your generous commitment to St. Mary’s.

Father Newman