Photos by Bill Clare
Clergy distribute Communion during the first Mass of St. Damien Parish, Ocean City, on Sunday, April 10. The parish was formed from the uniting of the Ocean City Catholic communities of St. Augustine, St. Frances Cabrini and Our Lady of Good Counsel. Top left, Father Edward Kolla, Father Edward Sobolewski, Father Michael Rush, pastor, and Father Max Fasciglione. Right, worshippers sing.
St. Damien Parish, bringing together the Ocean City Catholic communities of St. Augustine, St. Frances Cabrini and Our Lady of Good Counsel, celebrated its inaugural Mass on Sunday, April 10.
Celebrated at St. Augustine Church, the parish seat, the Mass was celebrated by Father Michael Rush, pastor of St. Damien; Father Edward Kolla and Father Max Fasciglione, parochial vicars; and Father Alvaro Diaz of Hispanic ministry at the parish.
Serving approximately 2,300 families in Ocean City, St. Augustine, St. Frances Cabrini and Our Lady of Good Counsel will all be used as worship sites.
The April 10 celebration, filling the church to capacity with an estimated 1,000 in attendance, was held two and a half weeks after the merger of the three parishes was formalized on March 23.
In addition to uniting the church communities, the inaugural Mass honored the parish’s namesake, St. Damien, who ministered to lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii in the 19th century.
During the Mass, sand taken from Molokai and from beaches near each of the Ocean City churches was blended together and blessed, symbolizing the three churches becoming one and the taking of St. Damien’s name. During Mass the concelebrants wore leis — traditional kukui nut leis that were historically accurate for the time period St. Damien was in the Hawaiian Islands.
A first-class relic of St. Damien was also unveiled. It will occupy a permanent place in the parish.
Calling the inaugural Mass “spirit-filled,” Father Rush said the new parish “is growing spiritually (with worshippers) in unity with one another, as the Catholic community of Ocean City.”
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