Please read the  letter from Father Mark Mazza.

April 27, 2014

 Dear Parishioners and Friends,

I am writing to you to officially inform you that my pastorate at Star of the Sea Parish will conclude on August 1, 2014.  At the same time two Oratorians will initiate a new phase in the life of our parish.  Many may have questions about what an Oratory is.  The information inserted in this bulletin of April 27^th and available at the church doors gives a brief summary of the history, purpose, and organization of Oratories in the Church.  Father Joseph Illo, originally from the Stockton Diocese and currently the head of the chaplains at Thomas Aquinas College in southern California has been appointed Pastor; whereas, Father Patrick Driscoll, also a Californian currently in St. Louis, will serve as Parochial Vicar.  I encourage you to offer your usual warm welcome to these fine priests, who are enthused about working among you.

One point that should be made is that though you will have two new priests, the Traditional Latin Mass on Sundays at 11:00 A.M. and Mondays through Fridays at 7:30 A.M. and on other days will continue under the new leadership.  Our parish will remain a place where the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Holy Mass are respected and properly celebrated.  This, again, is the unchanged and firm decision of our beloved Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.  In fact, the archbishop wishes that Star of the Sea become a model of authentic Catholic worship according to the mind of the Church in beauty, solemnity, and reverence.  One of the reasons the Oratorians have been assigned here is to build on the work of this past year to fully present the liturgical tradition of holy Mother Church.

When I first responded to the call to be your pastor back in April 2012, I felt attracted by the words of the old Latin Hymn “Ave Maris Stella; Hail Star of the Sea.”   I have always loved singing the traditional English version, “Hail, Queen of Heaven the Ocean Star”, which I have tried to re-introduce in the parish.  One line reflects the sentiments of all those tossed about on the sometimes turbulent ocean of life, safely within the barque of St. Peter, the Church:  “pray for the wanderer, pray for me.”  I will continue to entrust myself and you my friends to our loving, heavenly, Mother.  In the Latin text certain lines have become for me aspirations to our Lady.  For example, I love to call out to Mary “monstra te esse matrem; show thyself to be a Mother”, and then there is “iter para tutum; prepare a safe way”, and finally “felix coeli porta; happy gate of heaven.”   I will always be one with those who pray to Mary, Star of the Sea.

Yours in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,

Father Mark G. Mazza, Pastor