From the Desk of Fr. Thomas - June 2025 Newsletter

June - the Month of the Sacred Heart. St. Augustine confesses to the Lord God “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee.” In her Little Treatise of Infinite Love, Ven. Mother Louise Margaret Claret observes “devotion to the Blessed Eucharist and the devotion to the Sacred Heart, in reality, are one in the same.”

This year, in the most poetic way, the Feast of Corpus Christi fell on June 19, the feast day of one of my

President Gabriel Garcia Moreno. Read the Catholic Family News article by Fr. Couture, on Ecuador's Consecration to the Sacred Heart.

favorites, St. Juliana Falconieri. If we could but have the trust of St. Juliana, we could move mountains. On her deathbed and unable to swallow, St. Juliana asked the priest anointing her to spread the corporal on her chest, and let the Blessed Sacrament be close to her heart. This is the faith that the Almighty uses to teach us true love. The Host miraculously absorbed into her breast and she passed from this world, as St. Paul would say, having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Another historical champion of the Sacred Heart was the President of Ecuador, Garcia-Moreno. As I teased in last month’s newsletter, I made a pilgrimage to the deeply Catholic capital city of Quito, and visited a basilica erected in honor of the Consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart, made by the country's president and archbishop in 1874. Church and State in perfect union.

June was also a big month as far as Pompeii Rising Restoration Project updates:

The City’s historic team walked the property, and after formally reviewing our plans, issued a demolition permit for the outbuilding. We also have secured all the approvals to appear before the Jacksonville Historic Commission in July, which is the big one, so lots of prayers, please. I also had very constructive and very positive back-to-back-to-back meetings with Dr. Alan Bliss, Councilman Peluso, and SPAR Director Michael Haskins, giving updates as we gear up towards construction.

This month’s final update comes from our parishioner, Bob the Pew Man. I’ve asked Bob to carry out Operation Benchwarmer: the search to procure the right seating at the right cost. I now invite Bob to update us in his own words:

Attached are the photos of the thirty-two (32) long and thirty (30) short pews we purchased from the old Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Trenton, NJ, built in 1927. On June 11th, the original oak and sycamore pews were professionally removed by McPhail Church Services. They will be refinished and modified to our specifications in a warehouse just outside of Fayetteville, NC. Currently, March 2026 is the projected timeframe when the finished pews will be shipped to Our Lady of Pompeii and installed. New padded folding kneelers will be fabricated and attached as well.

Antique pews installed in New Jersey. The new layout will have more appropriate spacing.

Being built in the same era, the style fits Our Lady of Pompeii very well. The pews in Trenton were roughly 31 inches from the back of one pew to the back of the other. The spacing was similar to our current layout at St. Michael’s which, in my opinion, is too tight. The new schematics will increase the room between each pew by 4 inches. In comparison, the future clearance between each bench will feel like a super highway. This will provide much desired leg room for managing children, family paraphernalia such as car seats and diaper bags, and for bigger guys like me. We maximized the seating capacity while still leaving room to comfortably walk through the church. This is an exciting project and something I believe will draw people's eyes right to the Altar upon entry.

Great news from Bob! Our prayers are being answered. There is still much more heavy lifting to do. Children who just received their First Holy Communion are now eligible to enlist in Our Lady’s Rosary Crusade! Please ask your children if they would like to be a part of something incredible. I know we can hit 10,000 Rosaries by the Crusade’s one year anniversary this August.

I would like to end on a personal note of thanks to Fr. Leith for manning the helm at St. Michael the Archangel for the past year. As you’ve heard, next month, we will be swapping assignments. He will take over my duties of priestly ministry in Florida’s panhandle. This will allow me to be a little closer to this project as I return to Jacksonville for our construction year. I’d like to thank Father for all of his insight and contributions and ask for his prayers.

In the Divine Heart,

A picture I took of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii found in the Dominican Church of Santo Domingo, in Quito, Ecuador. This devotion has been growing for years.

The schema for the pew layout. Aisles allow for comfortable access.

The Basilica of the National Vow. Read the next installment of the story. Ecuador was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, too.

Today’s mailbag comes from the mother of a family who recently moved to Jacksonville. I talk to a lot of people who have moved to our city because of a naval assignment, a good job, or to be close to family, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a family moving to Jacksonville just to be close to the new church. I am always in awe of the level of devotion and dedication of those who hear Our Lady’s call.

Dear Fr. Thomas,

 

Attending the groundbreaking ceremony for Our Lady of Pompeii was such a blessing to our family; what an honor to take part in the beginnings of a church - and neighborhood - restoration! As brand-new Springfield residents, we walked down the street for this event, pausing to talk to an inquiring passerby who noticed "all those big families!" gathered that evening. This neighborhood now holds the soil into which our young family is planting its roots, as we await the chapel's re-opening next year. The Mass is obviously the most important reason we moved to Springfield, but we'd like to share a bit more of our relocation story.

With a precocious shrug, our toddler stated aloud: "If Our Lady of Pompeii wants us to move, we will!" Chuckling at her confidence, I passed the four-year-old's message on to our realtor. It was 5:27pm, one evening in April. Another message had just reached our realtor as well, confirming that our house purchase offer had just been accepted and signed by the seller. That message's timestamp: 5:27pm. A cynic might laugh in surprise and say "what a coincidence," but we'd like to think that our daughter had a celestial nudge that day... and that Our Lady did indeed want us to move to Springfield.

 

To give a bit of background, the purchase of this “Old Holy Rosary” church piqued our interest a few years ago, out of architectural curiosity. Over time, we followed the project's progress, and noted its location within an historic residential area; this pushed us to consider its significance in our lives more seriously. A passion for traditional architecture and urbanism is central in our home, as we were both educated and employed in this field. More simply, we love beautiful buildings and walkable towns, which are often found in older areas, built when good design, quality construction, and traveling by foot were commonplace. If we moved near this church, we could settle our family in a neighborhood where traditional design once again complemented the traditional Mass, as it did decades ago. What better way to expose our six children to the principles of good urbanism, than to raise them in a (formerly and future) Catholic neighborhood built upon those principles? In Springfield, front porches and shade trees line the narrow streets, encouraging walking and neighborly interaction. Tucked between houses, you'll find the occasional small office, shop, or restaurant serving the locals. Reintroducing the traditional Mass into such a village atmosphere makes perfect sense to us, and this helped guide our decision to move. The church of Our Lady of Pompeii, in its early years, would have been attended by parishioners living within a comfortable walking distance. We also want to walk to Mass, as they did.

 

Will our family stay for a decade, or a century? That is for God to decide. For the time being, we are simply here to live alongside our neighbors, letting Our Lady use our family as she sees fit, as we stroll the sidewalks for our evening rosary. We are not the first Catholics to move to Springfield, nor are we the last; we have hope that Our Lady of Pompeii will guide others here as well, to aid in the restoration of her neighborhood for Christ.

Two screenshots sent to us from Joe Pellicer, our Realtor, who noticed something truly remarkable. The same moment of our daughter's precious statement of confidence in Our Lady of Pompeii was the binding moment of the purchase of our new home.

I love hearing from you. Do you have an OId Holy Rosary or an Our Lady of Pompeii story to share? Email me at info@pompeiirising.org.