St. Paul VI Parish: Fr. Tiano Introduction

good afternoon everybody it's good to be with you my name is father christopher tiano and i am the new pastor of saint paul vi parish a parish formed by the former parishes of divine mercy christ the bread of life parish and our lady of mount carmel parish it's really exciting to be part of this new municipal model that's going across the church in hartford in the archdiocese of hartford it's really exciting to re reinterpret and read revision what we do as church here in hampden and what it means and how it all comes about and in excitement there's also the sense of fear of the unknown and fear of what we're doing and fear of of a lot of different things change is difficult change is difficult and if we're honest sometimes it's difficult and irksome you know talk to me i still can't find my boots and then it snowed talk to me i'm still not quite sure for the first couple days in hampden i wore black pants and a brown belt because i couldn't find my black belt change is always a challenge but you know saint paul vi our new patron said uh in 1975 in his in his apostolic exhortation on evangelization in the modern world the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the church it is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the church her deepest identity she exists in order to evangelize pope francis quoted that quote in his document on evangelization and it's a quote from saint paul vi that you'll hear me quote an awful lot if you're looking for or what my raison d'etre as your pastor could possibly be it's to form a parish that evangelizes that brings the message of salvation to this city and beyond to this town and beyond that brings the message of salvation to a world that needs to hear this message we each week gather around the altar and welcome christ in the sacrament of the altar we each week celebrate the sacraments with one another we each week read and break open the word with one another and we have to bring though that word and sacrament to a community that so desperately needs to hear it that's what we're doing my friends that's what we're doing and i know it's frightening i know it's scary i know we're going to have to exit our comfort zones all of us every single one of us but isn't it wonderful when you look at the finished product of what we're doing we're bringing christ to the world we're bringing christ to the world i'm from derby that's that town two exits away on on the parkway i grew up there i went to catholic school i went to catholic high school out of deference to those since this seems to be a notre dame in west haven town i won't tell you the name of the high school that i attended let's just say it begins with an f and ends with prep i went to school a college in washington dc i studied in seminary in boston my first assignment was saint ann's in new britain and i bring this up 1989 1989. there were four masses a day there were five masses on the weekend there were there were three of us assigned to the parish and a fourth priest who lived with us it was a different world it was a totally different world saint anne's has now been incorporated into another parish and in a few years those two churches will be incorporated and turned to another parish it's just what we're doing across the archdiocese and it's all right it's all right after saint ann's i studied a bit in rome and i received a degree in spiritual theology like our former pastor following that i was editor of the catholic transcript i was also pastor of parishes at the same time following my stint at the transcript i served as pastor in our lady of victory in saint john vianney parishes in west haven following that i was pastor of the tourings and cluster of roman catholic parishes following that i was named the director of religious education and evangelization for the archdiocese and then i was sent to following my term finished there i was sent to derby as pastor every single assignment i've had has been either more than one parish or a parish and an archdiocesan job every single one that's been the reality of my life and it's exciting and it's wonderful and we're going to do great things now normally when i come into a parish i listen i listen i have meetings i have parish meetings but because of kovid and especially because of omicron and and it's it is serious out there just be careful we we we can't have i think safely the parish meetings so we're going to look towards probably zoom meanings for us to gather together and i'll give a few opportunities for those for different times for people to join together so we can talk to each other about the decisions that are going to have to be made in the future i am meeting with the finance counselors of each of the parishes as together the former parishes together so we can figure out where we are and to form a new finance council for saint paul the sixth parish and i am also meeting we're going to have a meeting with the former parish councils of each parish together so we can birth a parish council out of the three parish councils that are together it's it's a big task but it's not my task it's our task and we will do very well with our task when i was a kid as a seminarian i wasn't really a kid but when i was a young seminarian i remember coming here to saint rita's for a presentation we were downstairs and i think it was right after they renovated the downstairs to make a the the chapel and the meeting room behind the chapel and i remember sitting there looking around thinking this wouldn't be a bad place to be little did i know that it would also be coupled with our lady of mount carmel and blessed sacrament and ascension i don't think i'm pointing you in the right direction for any of them i think mount carmel is that way right yeah so it is it is what it is i am excited to be able to work with my friend monsignor joe i am for excited to be able to work with father maurizio and the three of us and our deacons uh in the three in the three former parishes and all the faithful stewards we are going to do great stuff we have two wonderful schools we have a wonderful faith formation program we have great things going on already in hampden and we are only going to build upon that i am asking you for two favors the first is immediate i'm in the white honda and i have to get to mount carmel to celebrate the five o'clock mass so let me out first when you see me but the second is is is more more just in general i'm not sure what we're going to do until i talk to people so i can't offer answers and i know people have questions and they're legitimate questions but i can't offer answers yet and for us to speculate amongst ourselves when decisions haven't been made when we haven't even spoken to each other is not a good thing to do so let nothing i've said tonight be misconstrued as a decision has been made you know let nothing that i said tonight be misconstrued as anything but you know we will have to make adjustments to what what we do and how we do it but until then until then we operate the way we've been operating at least for a while great to be here great to be here at christmas the church looks beautiful it's wonderful i think i'm on oh i'm being filmed i forgot uh i should have known i saw chris and that's that's his job it's great that's that's a wonderful thing as well we have reached out that's the one thing of this coveted crisis that i think the catholic church has really embraced is our streaming of masses and streaming of services and i hope that in a in a very real way that that that really helps people embrace the faith in in a more profound way it's good to be with you tonight know that i am symbolically shaking each and every one of your hands and symbolically wiping my hand with a cleaner right afterwards and offering you some as well let's stay safe out there let's be the uh let's let's protect one another during during this crisis and i'm so happy to be with you god bless

Channel: Hamden Catholic

Views: 133

Keywords:

Id: wDyiglDmgRc

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022