Today on what was to be the last Mass celebrated at St. Anselm Rectorate is now the first Mass to be celebrated as St. Anselm Church. This is a wonderful celebration for us and we are grateful to have Father James DiPerri as our Mass celebrant with concelebrants Father Brent Otto and Father Leo Shea.

We give thanks to Cardinal Sean O’Malley who prayerfully considered the situation at St Anselm. The Cardinal amended the decision for the good of the archdiocese and the good of the St Anselm community. St. Anselm will remain open as a church for sacraments, weekly Mass and pastoral work. The Cardinal is working out who will be assigned as the Chaplain of St. Anselm Church so this agreement is of course is based upon the availability of priests and assignment of a Chaplain.

Additionally, the Cardinal appointed Father James DiPerri as the Delegate of St. Anselm through Easter. You all will recall that Father DiPerri is well known to St. Anselm having served in a similar role from August 2005 to May 2006 while we were in our first vigil. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Father DiPerri for working with the Cardinal and the St. Anselm community to soothe the situation and arrive at the best solution for all involved at the archdiocese and the community. Father DiPerri’s primary responsibility will be to coordinate communications between St. Anselm and the Cardinal through Easter and to have financial oversight until the appointment of a Chaplain.

We expect to have one weekend Mass and until we have a Chaplain assigned, we will announce the time of that mass each week based upon the availability and schedule of the priest who will be celebrating that week. Our rectory is staffed Monday to Friday and Caroline Llewellyn will be available there to answer the phone and provide information and assistance as needed.

In addition to the sacramental and pastoral plans for St Anselm, the Cardinal assured us that the property of St. Anselm will not be sold or subdivided. Our community will continue to be responsible for the funding of all staff, priests, building maintenance and expenses as before. If we were not able to cover such costs, the archdiocese will close St. Anselm and the assets would be the property of the archdiocese. It is therefore critical that we continue to be a vibrant, financially stable church. We cannot pass the basket due to COVID, but you can put your donation today in the boxes in the church parking lot. You can of course all mail your offertory donation to the St. Anselm rectory at 100 Landham Road. The future of St. Anselm is in our hands, so let’s step forward and embrace this phase of our church.

Lastly, in addition to thanking each and every one of you who made today possible I would like to give special thanks to my colleagues on the Lay Leadership Committee Don Charsky, Jamie Hanson, Chris Kenney and Gail Trainor. We know that “with God All Things are Possible”. We will be working with all of you to plan the path forward and reestablishing our important committee structures. Please join us in building a bright future for St. Anselm Church.

Thank you and God Bless Cardinal Sean and God Bless St. Anselm

Cynthia Deysher
Lay Leadership Committee Member