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On Saturday, October 17, at 9:00 am, Holy Spirit will have an Anointing Mass at St. Vitus Church. During the liturgy, the priests will anoint all parishioners desiring this sacrament at the Mass.

In order to have additional parishioners at indoor weekend Masses, St. Mary’s Church will be opened for an early morning Sunday Mass beginning October 11. Even with social distancing in this church, Holy Spirit Parish will be able to accommodate 136 more people at Mass.

The Family Program, our homeschool Faith Formation, held a drive-through meeting and book pick-up for participating families. Assisting Cathy Frank in matching and delivering the materials available to the families were four youths from the parish.

On September 19th, we will begin hearing confessions at St. Vitus Church instead of St. Camillus parking lot. When you enter St. Vitus Church from 11:00 am until noon, you will celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation, not in the confessionals, but in the cry room, the priest sacristy or the main entry where the original baptismal font is.

After much study and consultation with our pastoral leadership team as well as our Pastoral Council and Finance Council, we are going to begin the transition of moving into churches on September 12th.

This is your last chance to think about ordering our fabulous Stuffed Cabbage Take-Out Dinner and / or our summer offering of our equally fabulous Easter bread.

Inspired by Fr. Mac's interview on KDKA radio last month, an anonymous donor has pledged to match any and all donations to Holy Spirit Academy up to $100,000. There is a link to his interview on our HOME page.

Join us for a new program, FULFILLED: Uncovering the Biblical Roots of Catholicism, presented by Merve Knieriem, the seminariam currently assigned to Holy Spirit Parish. It will be at St Camillus Church, and also on Zoom, on Monday evenings from 7 to 8 pm from August 3 to November 16.

We are very excited about the renewed life the school has been given by Fr. McCaffrey and the Diocese. The outstanding quality of academic excellence continues to grow and the new look of Holy Spirit Academy, with the blue and orange colors and its eagle mascot, shouts, “We are taking flight, bold in the Spirit.”

The three Masses currently being held in the parking lot of the former Sears building in Union Township have served over 2,000 per weekend. We've been blessed with good weather with the exception of one Saturday afternoon storm which forced the cancellation of the 4 pm Mass. For now, Masses there will continue through July. There is a new signal allowing the sound of the Mass to come through your car radio. Tune in through 90.3 FM.

Deacon Matthew Hawkins will be ordained into the priesthood at 10 a.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral on Saturday, June 27. The Ordination will be live-streamed directly from www.christianassociatestv.org. It will be on the front page of that website at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Sr. Barbara Ann Johnston is retiring at the end of June. Due to Covid-19 Restrictions, we can’t celebrate her years of service as we would like to and as she deserves.

For any New Castle residents interested in taking the Home Rule Survey, please copy and paste this link into your browser or click the title of this post to be taken to the survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S8P2KSY

Along with the joy of opening the parish to Masses again, we also have the joy of congratulating Chris Baker (3rd from the left in the picture) of our parish, who has been accepted into St. Paul Seminary to study for the priesthood. In addition, on June 1, we welcomed Merv Knieriem to the parish.

Sr. Barbara Ann Johnston has been a dedicated Pastoral Associate for St. Camillus for 20 years. She will be retiring at the end of June. Due to the coronavirus precautions, we will not be able to have a well-deserved retirement celebration in her honor.

On May 19, the pastoral team met in the morning and the Pastoral and Finance Councils met in the evening. Adoration continues at St. Joseph the Worker site, lower level parking lot, where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed from 8 am to 4 pm. Sunday through Friday. Click on title to see full message.

Gov. Wolf and the PA Department of Education are looking to take most of the funding that Congress wants distributed equitably in COVID-19 relief to ALL schools in PA and across the country. Pennsylvania received $471 million in funding from Washington. But PCC Education Director Sean McAleer says “the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) created its own set of rules to distribute that money that blatantly ignores federal guidance. The end result significantly lowers the amounts to be given to Catholic and nonpublic school students.” McAleer broke down the disparity this way: “the Wolf Administration is calling for roughly $19 million to go to Catholic and nonpublic schools students, while Washington is calling for $66 million. The Wolf administration is misappropriating some $47 million in federal funds and harming families who have chosen to send their children to Catholic and nonpublic schools.” "Catholic and nonpublic school students matter," said McAleer. "We are asking Mr. Wolf And Education Secretary Pedro Rivera to please follow the federal guidelines! In a time when thousands of Pennsylvania’s children and families are suffering and struggling to make ends meet, the administration has chosen to cause further harm by refusing to allocate money as directed by the federal government.” Follow the link below or click the title of this post to log in and send your message: https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/bLoi7nwoDwEslKQVryFTuQ

Do not let your hearts be troubled! See the Sunday message in the bulletin at hsplc.org/fr-macs-messages, to read about the state of the parish, the status of the festival and the sale of St. Lawrence site. Click title for video address.

Holy Spirit Parishioners, the bishop is sending a 50 page document to the priests of the diocese at some point this weekend. We will need to review this document and understand its contents regarding suggestions and requirements for our re-opening.

Over the months, the need for a prayer ministry has been a concern. After many discussions, our prayer network, consisting of prayer requests and members committed to praying for those in need, is now operating. See our website at https://hsplc.org/holy-spirit-prayer-network or Google hsplc.org, When the home page opens, put your cursor over HOME under the logo, the blue bar will drop down. Click on the 3rd choice, Prayer Network, to open it.