Kitchener Latin Mass Community

 

In 1988, Fr. Lloyd Ryan began saying the Latin Mass at his parish in St. Clements Ontario, which is where our community has it’s official origin. 4 years later, Fr. Ryan was due to retire at the mandatory age of 75 and was able to say Latin Mass every Sunday at the Carmelite Monastery near St. Agatha, Ontario. Fr. Ryan passed away on February 18, 2003+

Bishop Tonnos gave our small group permission to have the Latin Mass said, but we were required to find our own priest. Fr. Martin Mikulski, the Pastor of the German parish at St. Mary’s in Kitchener, offered to say the Mass for us in September 2004 at St. Agnes Church in Waterloo, where he resided at the time. We began using collections envelopes in 2005.

Not too long after, Fr. Joe Hearty, a member of the the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) group in St. Catherines, made arrangements for us to have the Latin Mass said at St. Anne’s in Kitchener, being a personal friend of Fr. King, the Pastor at St. Anne’s. Soon, Fr. Howard Venette, Fr. William Lawrence, Fr. Edwin Neufeld, Fr. Robert Novokowsky and Fr. Joseph Poisson were travelling from St. Catherines to offer Latin Mass for us.
At the end of May 2011, the FSSP withdrew control of the Kitchener Apostolate, with Fr. Poisson offering the last Mass before departing on his assignment to Nigeria.

Fr. Duffy, Fr. McGrath, Fr. Oehring, Fr. Mikulski, Fr. Bradley Markus and Fr. Lobsinger rotated Sunday’s to continue offering Latin Mass to our community during the time of transition. Fr. Wayne Lobsinger at Blessed Sacrament parish offered to administer our collections in a separate account, and we formed the Una Voce Hamilton, Kitchener Community as a legal entity for this very purpose. Fr. Duffy, Fr. Mikulski, Fr. Lobsinger and Fr. Oehring continued to say the Latin Mass for us until June 2013.

Not too long after, we had a new Bishop, Bshp. Douglas Crosby, who applied the principles of Summorum Pontificum, which was written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in July 2007. He assigned Fr. Mikulski as the community’s pastor.

From 2014 to 2020, Fr. Mikulski & Fr. McGrath rotated Sunday’s to offer Mass Sunday.

In July 2018, the community departed St. Anne’s and moved to the beautiful and historic St. Mary Our Lady of Seven Sorrows church in downtown Kitchener. Sadly, during the Covid 19 insanity, the community was evicted from Our Lady of Seven Sorrows.

Currently, the nearest Mass in the Extraordinary Form is in Linwood. We hope and pray the Mass returns to Kitchener/Waterloo.

Deo Gratias! +