October 30, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,


I spoke at all the Masses except the 5pm on Sunday last weekend in regards to Fr Mario Rapose.  I was informed on Tuesday after Fr Mario’s meeting with the Archbishop that he was removed as Associate Pastor of Mary Our Queen because of his relapse from sobriety.  Please pray for Fr Mario as he continues to work on his sobriety – that he may find a lasting recovery.  If you would like to send letters  of encouragement to Fr Mario, please send them to the Parish Office and We will forward them to Fr Mario.  Fr Mario’s presence in our community endeared him to everyone who he worked with.  It is a tremendous loss for our community.


I was planning to take a sabbatical from January to the end of May. At this time, I am not sure that is possible as there are a lot of commitments that need to be fulfilled.  Fr Mario, in addition to his priestly duties, was also our Director of Religious Education.  He graciously fulfilled that role until our Parish becomes a Family of Parishes with St John Vianney in July of next year.  We will do our best to find priest coverage and staffing to provide the needs of the parish.


This weekend Our Tanzania Sister Parish will host a fundraiser and to update us with what is going on with our Sister Parish in Ligera. This includes our First Graduating Class from the Mary Our Queen Education Center that we help build and support.  We are grateful for all the work that is done by our Tanzania Sister Parish Committee and look forward to growing our relationship for the future.


Our replacement of our HVAC units for the Church and Cafeteria are slowly moving along.  The new units have been set and now they are working on electrical and ductwork.  It should be completed in the near future.  We accepted a bid for the replacement of the upper levels of our school’s old steam piping which will be done after the School year in the summer of 2023.  This will take care of the replacement of the steam piping that began two summers ago.


Last week, we presented our Parish Financial Report for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2022 and our Parish Budget Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023.    While we had a budget deficit of $255,316 for the fiscal year which ended on June 30th (which was around what we had forecasted in our budget), there are several positives that can be drawn out of it.  The first is our Preschool whose doors of our new Early Childhood Education and Youth Center was open in the Fall of 2020.  We have seen since its opening continued growth and as a result, we made a profit of $79,638.  We began our new School Year on August 17 with 525 students registered in our K through 8 School Program and with 85 preschoolers, filling over 109 classroom programs for both morning and full day of preschool.  This gave us over 600 students – making it the largest number of students we have registered in our School for the last 10 years.


As our School continues to grow, we have introduced more programs that continue to benefit our student’s growth. We have successfully taken our STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics), as we embark on our second year of a full-time are teacher with Mrs. Jonnie Robinson.  This helps ensures our students will receive a well-rounded education in their development.


As we approach 2023, you will be hearing about our Stewardship renewal plans for our Parish.  This will not be just monetary, but it will incorporate the financial, ministry and spiritual needs of our parish and school community.  We are blessed with an exceptional parish community and my prayer is that we continue to grow in our faith and service together in light of our Pastoral Planning that involves St John Vianney.


God’s Blessings


Fr Marc