Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How to go about having a child baptized?
A: 1) Parents who request to have their child baptized at San Francesco Catholic Church need to provide the Parish Secretary with all pertinent information about themselves, including religious affiliation, the name(s) to be given their child, date of birth, name(s) of godparents(s) etc.
2) It is required of one of the godparents to produce a letter from the Pastor of his/her Catholic Church stating that he/she is a member in good standing of said parish.
3) Both parents and godparent(s) commit themselves to reading and familiarizing themselves with their assumed duties (provided in digital form) in their respective roles for the Catholic upbringing of the child.
4) The parents are to sit down with the Pastor for a short meeting prior to the day on which the Baptism is to take place. The Sacrament of Baptism is usually celebrated on Sundays at 1:00 p.m.
5) The Parish Secretary will inform the parents about the amount of the suggested donation for Baptisms.
Q: How to plan a Catholic Wedding?
A: 1) The future couple should contact the Parish Office at least six (6) months in advance. The Parish Secretary will inquire if the wedding is possible to be held in a Catholic Church. The ideal situation is the wedding between two Catholics in which both future groom and future bride were never married before in any form and do produce recent (less than six months from the wedding day) Baptismal Certificates from the parishes where they were baptized. In the back of the certificates there will be record of possible reception of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. The wedding date between two Catholics both never married before, is the only type of wedding for which the wedding date can be set. (See #5 for other situations)
2) The couple is required to attend a tutorial designed to prepare them for a life as husband and wife united by the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. At the end of the tutorial, they will be given a certificate of participation. Furthermore, they will be encouraged to pore over all that is offered by the following new website: AOD.org/marriage prep.
3) In the course of the six months, the couple will have to meet with the Pastor several times to discuss handouts about Christian Marriage, become aware of rules and protocol relative to the wedding and to prepare the wedding Liturgy as well as other pertinent matters.
4) Weddings are celebrated either on Friday’s afternoon 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. or Saturday’s afternoon at 2:00 p.m. or no later than 3:00 p.m. In keeping with the spirit of Lent, weddings scheduled during that sacred season ought to reflect that spirit by having a reduced number of flowers and only moderately festive music. There is a fee of $ 500.00 payable to San Francesco Church prior to the wedding itself. A $50.00 deposit is required with return of application form.
5) If either the future husband or wife is not Catholic, i.e. he/she belongs to a different Christian denomination (Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.), or practices a different religion (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.) or was married before to a different person, or is divorced, or is otherwise not free to marry in a Catholic church, the future couple should contact our parish nine months (9) in advance because dispensations must be sought and attained before the wedding can be witnessed and blessed in a Catholic church. For this reason, the couple must not set the date of the wedding before having received the official approval from the diocesan Curia.
Q: What is the timetable for children to receive their First Communion, First Reconciliation and Confirmation?
A: The usual way is by enrolling in our Religious Education Program at Grade 1. Thus, by the time they are in eighth grade they will have received all the Sacraments of Initiation into the Catholic Faith.
Q: How can a young person or an adult prepare for the Sacrament of Confirmation or to join the Catholic Church by enrolling in the OCIA?
A: Given the small size of our parish, special religious education programs can be set up on an individual basis or in very small groups.
Q: How to request a Holy Mass for a specific intention?
A: There are two ways in which this can be done: you can give the information to our Parish Secretary over the phone or in person (Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.). Or you can fill out completely the information on the Mass Intention envelope: Mass for whom, living or deceased, for which date and Mass time requested, requested by, stipend and, equally important: your phone number! Please give Mass intention request envelopes to our Pastor rather than placing them in the offering baskets.
All requests reaching our Parish Office prior to the 15th of a month will be published in the following month’s Bulletin.
Although no one will be denied a Mass Intention request, the usual stipend for a Holy Mass intention is $10.00; any stipend exceeding it will be gladly accepted and appreciated. The stipend for Holy Mass intentions should be made separately. Please, DO NOT make your Holy Mass intention payment part of a check that includes other payments or donations to our Church. A separate check for your Holy Mass intention would make our bookkeeper’s work that much easier. Thank you.
Q: What are the steps to be taken for a Funeral?
A: 1) Contact the Funeral Home of your choice. In turn, they will contact us to find a day open for the Funeral and for a time for two or three among the next of kin of the deceased to meet with the Pastor of San Francesco at least two days before the Funeral so that the details can be agreed upon, the most suitable readings picked, readers found, and an organist/cantor contacted.