The parish of Holy Family was founded in 1905 while the church building itself was constructed in 1925 in a late Romanesque revival style.[4][6] The parish was originally created out of a need to provide church facilities, and school accommodations for the then children of 194 families of this area of East Dayton.[7]
Holy Family would have originally celebrated the Mass in Latin, as the Tridentine Mass was the widespread liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church before the introduction of the Novus Ordo Mass which utilizes local vernacular following the Second Vatican Council.[8][2]
At some point after these liturgical reforms and prior to its current exclusive dedication to the Traditional Latin Mass, Holy Family operated as a "regular diocesan parish" that celebrated the English Rite.[6]
Latin Mass community formation within Holy Family
Despite this shift to the vernacular, a Latin Mass community would later emerge and began to gather "under the wings of the parish" at Holy Family.[6] This community started under Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk.[6] A key figure in its development was Father Mark Wojdelski, whose history with the Dayton Latin Mass group dates back to 2006.[2] He began commuting from Indiana on Sundays to say Mass for the group and would later be appointed chaplain in 2008.[2] Father Wojdelski himself expressed a preference for celebrating the liturgy with the priest facing the altar (ad orientem), rather than facing the congregation, seeing it as directing prayers to God rather than a conversation between priest and people.[2]
At some point, the Latin Mass community temporarily "moved to Holy Rosary for a little while."[6] However, the future of the Tridentine Mass within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was significantly shaped by the papal directive given by Pope Benedict XVI, in his Summorum Pontificum (2007), which affirmed that people should be able to have the Latin Mass and eliminated the requirement for explicit permission from the diocesan bishop to offer it.[6][2]
Entrustment to the FSSP
On July 1, 2010, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr entrusted Holy Family Catholic Church to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), making it the first and only diocesan-approved parish in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to exclusively offer the Tridentine Mass seven days a week. This decision by Archbishop Schnurr was described as an honor to a request for the parish to be dedicated to this form of liturgy.[2]
When Holy Family Catholic Church was established as a Tridentine Mass parish in 2010, Father Mark Wojdelski became its pastor [2] before other subsequent pastors would follow.
Architecture
Carved stone side altar of Saint Joseph inside the church
The church is built in a Romanesque revival style.[4]
Congregation and culture
Portion of wood chip design outside of Holy Family Catholic Church
As of 2017, Holy Family Church draws approximately 350 parishioners to Sunday morning Masses, including attendees from neighboring counties such as Mercer, Champaign, and some from Indiana.[6][2] Parishioners typically observe traditional dress norms, with many men wearing suits and women wearing dresses or skirts, often with lace chapel veils.[2][9] The parish emphasizes reverent silence during liturgy.[9] The congregation includes a notable number of young families, many of whom homeschool their children.[2]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
