St. Timothy's and St. Rita Churches

Hi everyone,

I have more good news to share!  

As you know, the Catholic parishes in Warwick have been meeting to develop our plans for the future.  St. Timothy's has been an active participant and will continue to do so.

Recently, I was approached by Father Peter D'Ambrosia, the pastor of St. Rita's, to see if we would be interested in coming together with their parish, to which I responded with a very enthusiastic YES!   Yes, we would be thrilled to have our parish families come together.  Our teams had a meeting a few weeks ago, and the overall response was very positive.

Currently, both parishes have a pastor, both parishes have a good amount of activity, and both are financially stable.  Our plans are such that the two parishes will continue to operate as separate entities, realizing that at some point - due to the decreased number of active priests and people attending Mass and the decline in financial stability that results - the two parishes would come together.  The plans we are developing are intended to provide an orderly and minimally disruptive transition.

Thus far, we have identified the following areas that need to be discussed in more detail:

*  The Mass Schedule

*  Religious Education / Faith Formation, including:

          *   Ages 3 and 4, Grades K through 10

          *   RCIA

          *   SPRED

*  Youth Ministry

*  Our Food Pantries

*  Social events - dinners, waterfront festival, craft  shows, picnics

*  Combined Lenten missions

*  Women’s Club, Holy Name Society, Legion of Mary, Knights of Columbus

*  Administration

*  Evangelization

With regard to evangelization, this specifically refers to outreach to various age groups, from children to seniors, to help them to understand the incredible gift of our Catholic faith and the support and fraternity that our parish families provide.

The transition will begin by focusing on things we can do together now, prior to the formal review and approval process.  This would include having social activities together, combining our food pantry activities, and combining our prayer/fraternal organizations such as the Women’s Club and the Holy Name Society.  Additional details will be developed over the summer and into the fall.  Our goal is to have our plans completed and ready for submission to the Diocese prior to the end of the calendar year 2017.

So that's where we are at present.  It's very much a work-in-progress, and it will need Bishop Tobin's approval.  In the meantime, let's hope and pray that this is a win-win for both parishes.  As always, please feel free to talk to me about this topic - or anything else that's on your mind.

                             Take good care, and God bless!

                                               Father Andrew