May Crowning procession

CHESTER  Staff and parishioners of St. Lawrence Martyr here carefully placed a statue of the Blessed Mother in the back of a pickup truck on May 10, Mother’s Day, and took her on a journey through Chester Township, Chester Borough and beyond. They were on a mission: to give parishioners, who are sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, an opportunity to honor and pray to Mary on this special day.

For six hours Sunday afternoon, Father Nicholas Bozza, St. Lawrence’s pastor, accompanied a May Crowning procession that traveled around to the homes of 28 parishioners, who had made a request for the stops beforehand. The priest followed Thomas Fuscaldo, a parishioner, who drove his pickup with a 30­-inch-high statue of Our Lady of Fatima mounted in its bed, during the image’s 60-mile-long route.

At each stop, parishioners, such as Connie Wieczorek, and their families emerged from their homes to honor the Blessed Mother by placing flowers — or pictures of flowers made by children — in special containers in the truck bed. Then, Father Bozza led them in praying a part of the rosary in either English or Spanish, depending on the family, and gave them a blessing. People snapped photos on their cell phones as the statue of Mother Mary rode through the streets and visited homes, Father Bozza said.

“When the statue of the Blessed Mother came to our house, it felt like, ‘She’s finally here after waiting and anticipating’ — like at a wedding when the bride finally arrives,” said Wieczorek, who welcomed Mary at her Chester Town­ship home with three other adults and three children —all at safe social distances. “I appreciate that St. Lawrence takes extra and creative efforts to convey that all the ways that we practice our faith are important,” she said.

A loudspeaker in the truck played songs in Portuguese that are heard at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, such as a special version of “Ave Maria,” at each stop. At first, Father Bozza planned to use a Fatima statue from St. Lawrence Church. However, fearing that it would be damaged on the long route, he decided to acquire a new and smaller Fatima statue from the World Apostolate of Fatima at the National Blue Army Shrine in Washington, N.J. The priest’s use of a Fatima statue also recognized St. Lawrence’s longstanding devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. Children in some homes, like the Wieczorek residence, crowned the Blessed Mother to honor her, the pastor said.

“Mary is the focus of the day. We honor her because she is the mother of the Lord and our mother too. She brings us to Jesus. We crown her and recognize her as Queen of Heaven and Earth,” said Father Bozza, who noted that the procession lasted more than six hours, starting at

2 p.m. “The essential mission of the Church is to evangelize. We need to help people make a connection to Jesus and to the Blessed Mother. Bringing Mary to people’s houses to pray to her with them helps them make that connection. It was a fun, exhilarating day. I could see the parish doing this again,” the priest said.

The May Crowning is one of several initiatives that St. Lawrence has taken in the age of the coronavirus to “try to help people maintain a connection with God and to their parish and to reach out to people with other needs in this pandemic,” Father Bozza said.

On Easter, St. Lawrence started another of those initiatives: a procession of cars to see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. People drove in their cars up to the Blessed Sacra­ment, displayed in a monstrance on a portable altar outside the chapel of the church. With their windows closed, they sat for a prescribed amount of time — 30 seconds on Easter and 15 minutes last Saturday — to see Jesus, pray and receive his blessing at a safe social distance from others. The procession of cars lasted all day — from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — last Saturday. The parish plans to continue this outdoor adoration for 12 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays. Because of the pandemic, it is adoration “by appointment.” Like for the May Crowning Procession, people signed up using the app, SignUp Genius. They quickly filled the time slots for last Saturday when the faithful were allowed to sit outside in a chair for Adoration, Father Bozza said.

“It was a good feeling to see so many people come. Some cars were filled with families. Many people dressed in their ‘Sun­day best.’ It was a beautiful way for people to spend time with Jesus,” said Kathy Galdi, a parishioner, who helped set up for the procession with the Blessed Sacrament and the Mary Crowning Procession with her husband, David, a candidate for the Perma­nent Diaconate in the Diocese. She noted that volunteers, called Companions of Jesus Christ, signed up for an hour each to “adore Jesus from a distance and help parishioners maintain social distancing.”

David Galdi called the procession with the Blessed Sacrament a “peaceful and powerful experience. I felt such joy in my heart to be in his presence.”

“People are hungering for the sacraments and for a feeling of being physically close to the Lord especially as in the Eucharist. Even though they can’t receive him now, they can be in his presence and pray before him in the Blessed Sacrament,” Father Bozza said. “At St. Lawrence, we want to give people as much as we can sacramentally without putting them at risk,” he said.

Other St. Lawrence outreaches during the crisis include the Lifeline daily email newsletter, which keeps parishioners up to-date on the latest information; daily Mass that is livestreamed; and use of teleconferencing technology to conduct daily praying of the Divine Mercy Novena and Chaplet, parish meetings and classes, Father Bozza said.

In addition, a team of volunteers had called all St. Lawrence parishioners, who are 70-years-old or older, asking them if they needed any help. Later, the Galdis created the St. Lawrence Help Hotline for parishioners to make requests. In one instance, a 90-year-old woman asked for help with picking up groceries, medications and mail at the post office. In another instance, an unemployed woman needed help, because she did not receive her unemployment check and because she was recently diagnosed with a serious illness. “This is a great outreach. We get to help people, many of whom are isolated,” Kathy Galdi said.