Name of Church St. Edward
Address 5788 Thornton Avenue, Newark, CA 94560
Phone number 510-797-0241
Website www.stedwardcatholic.com
Mass times Saturday vigil, 5 p.m. & 7 p.m. (Spanish). Sunday, 7:15 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. (Missa Cantata, a sung Mass in English with some Latin prayers), 11:30 a.m., 12:45 p.m. (Portuguese), 6 p.m. & 8 p.m. Monday – Friday, 6:45 a.m. & 9 a.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. (Latin Tridentine).
Liturgy/Music Reverent and well done, a special focus at St. Edward’s.
Confessions Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m., Monday, 7:30 p.m. First Fridays, 4:30 p.m.
Names of priests All Missionaries of the Precious Blood (C.PP.S.): Father Jeffrey Keyes, pastor. Fathers James Franck and Jaya Babu Nuthulapati, parochial vicars. Since becoming pastor of the parish nearly a decade ago, Father Keyes has attempted to return the parish to orthodoxy after a sharp turn it took to the Left in the 1970s. Liturgical reform has been a key focus, as well as the introduction of traditional music. Father is a musician and has been a student of Gregorian chant. He has worked to make the parish catechetical program reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church.
School Yes.
Special parish groups Altar Society, Little Rock Scripture Study, Knights of Columbus, Legion of Mary, Men’s Club, Portuguese American Pastoral Cultural Center, Pro-Life, St. Vincent de Paul Society
Fellow parishioners A mix, both English and Spanish speakers. There are parishioners who speak Portuguese, French and Farsi. It draws many Catholics from outside the parish boundaries in search of a more traditional liturgy, and driven away liberal Catholics who prefer the 70s-era liturgy that was dominant at the parish. Father Keyes opined, “You either love it or you hate it.”
Parking Ample parking; park on the street or in one of the lots.
Cry room No, it was turned into an adoration chapel.
Additional observations St. Edward is in the southern end of the diocese of Oakland. Father has introduced traditional elements into the church, including representational statues, a new crucifix, new altar cloths, genuine lectionaries and beeswax candles. He placed saints’ relics in the altar. He returned altar rails to the church, which had been torn out decades before. Father had an old photo of the altar rails which he supplied to carpenters in the parish who built new ones.
This looks like and sounds like a very nice parish for the people who attend. I think it also illustrates that people today are more likely to choose the type of parish they attend based on more than geographic boundaries. It is nice that they have that choice. The picture of the inside is of a very nice, well kept church.
Fr. Jeffery Keyes
Is a great pastor. I remember when he was pastor at St. Barnabas in Alameda. A very humble man who is willing to assist anyone rich or poor seeking to grow closer to Christ. I miss him greatly. I heard he held an apologetic conference at his parish through Catholic Answers. He’s courageous in his fidelity to Christ. He had a bible study at 6:30 on Saturday Morning for Men. Fr Jeff you are in my prayers. Thank you for continuing to chose Christ. Go St. Gaspar del Bufalo and the Precious Blood Fathers!
Why bother to have a TLM only on Thursdays? Nice that they still have communion rails (the absence of which, by the way, is one great issue that has been used by historically disobedient bishops to reject having a TLM). Still, you either decide that it is worth obeying the Pope, or not (yes, Benedict pretty much expressed his intent that each and every parish open its doors to the TLM, which, by common sense, requires education, and parish outreach, which few parishes have made — “well, no one wants one,” is how one foppish pastor recently told moi, upon an artful cross-examination). The delay, petty-fogging, weeping, anger, whining, could lead one to a serious identity crisis; but just thinking about the vicious way that the Vatican handled the Franciscans of the Immaculate (Yes, including Francis) makes one grateful for even an occasional crumb, like you have at St. Edward. Still, come on you Traditionalists, make some demands of the good pastor there: “Father, one TLM, each and every Sunday, during “usual” hours;” like that.
The people have been clamoring for a Spanish Mass on Sunday Mornings. But where would we put it? Who would we disenfranchise? Only one parishioner has asked for an Extraordinary Form Mass on Sunday. Our Solemn Missa Cantata, Ordinary Form Sung Mass on Sundays at 10:00am seems to satisfy them. How would I do an EF Mass on Sunday when I have been saying no to the Hispanics for so long. Yes, I would be more than overjoyed to have a TLM mass on Sundays, and maybe in time… But it is not about what I want, but I have always been trying to do what the church asks….
Dear Father Keyes, I must say you are a brave priest to do what you have been doing, such as installing the communion rails again and introducing traditional music, putting up a crucifix and please please make sure to have a regular TLM in your parish Latin will unite all ethnic groups in your parish. And as St Christopher said above please pray for the Franciscans of the Immaculate for they are suffering severe persecution from Roman authorities for their defense of the TLM.
Apparently, Janek, you are not listening to Father Keyes. He is telling you that, even though there is already one TLM celebrated each week, there is only one individual asking for a Sunday TLM liturgy. If TLM were capable of “uniting” the ethnic groups, don’t you imagine that the “ethnicities” would have found it already in that liturgy and then clamor for it in the parish on Sundays? Instead what people are clamoring for is a Sunday mass in their own language. Not someone else’s, whether that is American English or ancient Latin.
This notion that we can judge pastors and parishes and bishops and popes from afar, without walking in their shoes, is problematic, to say the least.
“Fr. Keyes:” Since when is doing the right thing with Jesus Christ subject to a vote? The TLM is the Mass of the Ages, not the Novus Ordo, and certainly not a Spanish Mass. You do not have a TLM at St. Edward because you do not want it, there is no other reason (or there are a hundred other reasons). Every Catholic Church should have a TLM, scheduled at regular times on Sunday (certainly this was meant by Benedict XVI, the most disobeyed Pope in recent history). Yet, the Church attacks its own Tradition, like a cancer attacking its own bodily host. What is the reason for this? Why are the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate being made to suffer entirely disproportionately from whatever administrative injustice may have been made by a very few? Make no mistake, this occasion is yours to choose; or you can join with the Tradition-haters in the Vatican, enabled by Francis, which have decided to turn their backs on St. Francis of Assisi, St. John Chrysostom, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, and just about every other Catholic Saint, all of whom worshipped at a TLM. Vatican II was a true revolution, and not a good one, laying waste to centuries of Tradition, in the name of a false ecumenism, one that will never work, until non-Catholic Christian sects return to the Faith, or until the Faith is lost. The wonderful effort by Benedict XVI has kindled hope in many, but without the good faith efforts of pastors such as yourself, these hopes will fail. Of course people are going to want the N.O. mass and in their own language — what could be easier. But you know, and every Catholic knows, that the institutional Church is dying. Catholics no longer know their faith, or care to. And, most clergy no longer have any courage to stand up and teach their faith, preferring to be Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, rather than the Christ who said, “Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.” (Matt. 10: 34) (DRV). We are in a war, Father, and Satan is winning. The Church will triumph, as promised by Christ, but not the Church that we have now. Please institute the TLM now, every Sunday, at an ordinary time, and take the opportunity to teach your parishioners about the true history of the Church, which did not begin with Vatican II; that is, unless you bend the knee to the destroyers of all that the Church has stood for over two millennia. I will pray for you.
St. Christopher, have you forgotten that Benedict’s promulgation on the Extraordinary Form was that it should be offered wherever there is a stable group of adherents asking for it. One person does not a stable group make. Benedict also implored Pastors and Bishops to implement any “TLM” masses in a way that harmonizes the pastoral work of the parish, not divide it. Your own tone against those who use and love the EF of the Mass shows that you, at least, are not interested in harmony of pastoral ministry but in the entire destruction of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.
“entire destruction of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.” This would be a good thing it would remove the protestant influence from the Mass once and for all…Smash the Gaystapo
Sorry I meant to say “Your own tone against those who use and love the OF of the Mass shows that you, at least, are not interested in harmony of pastoral ministry but in the entire destruction of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.
YFC,
Homosexual activism has a familiar tone. Please do not pretend that you are interested in harmony. You reject Church teaching. Pope Benedict XVI also implored the faithful to remove the filth from the Church so please refrain from your selective concerns about harmony. You have been undermining Church teaching by promoting unnatural acts, same sex marriage and homosexual adoptions on this faithful Catholic website.
What a foolish AND windy nag you are…
I tell you I would be very very appreciative to be able to attend Mass at this parish.
I regularly attend a TLM in another diocese, and have been to St. Edward’s Missa Cantata a couple of times, and it is quite reverent, and about as close as you can get to the TLM while still using the Ordinary Form. Music is great too. God bless you and your parish, Father Keyes!
“Your Fellow Catholic”: Your statement is just about par for those that want to use “pastoral” care to smother, no, eliminate any chance for restoration of Catholic Tradition. You should take the time to understand of what you speak: try reading all of Summorum Pontificum, and the instruction, Universae Ecclesiae. Among other things (and this is well discussed in current literature), Universae Ecclesiae says, at par. 14: “It is the task of the Diocesan Bishop to undertake all necessary measures to ensure respect for the forma extraordinaria of the Roman Rite, according to the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.” That is the problem — almost all American bishops (and the fearful pastors that serve under them) have done nothing “to ensure respect” for the TLM. And, how would one “ensure respect?” Well, education would be a first step, in catechism, in preaching from the pulpit, in seminaries; all of this is important so that people can learn what the True Mass of the Ages means. It will also show what dummies Catholics have become. Interestingly, many attendees at the TLM are young couples, and college-age youth that yearn to learn what the Church is really about throughout history. Being “nice” and “inclusive” and “having a conservative hymn” on occasion means nothing.
This parish is past San Jose area……hmmm, if ever I head up that area again and the good Lord allows, I will try to remember to visit this parish for Mass.
after all these months I noticed an error in the article.
we do have a cry room. Monday through Friday it is also a adoration chapel.
Sadly, this is out of date. We had a change of pastor in July 2015 and his first action was to strip a lot of the restored sense of the sacred out of the 10 AM Mass. Chant is hanging on by a thread; sometimes the introit is sung as a prelude.
The explanation: “people didn’t like it”. But it was always 3/4 full and everyone else had their pick of 8 other masses. A few dozen parishoners are going elsewhere now. One sees them in Palo Alto, Oakland, and as far as San Francisco.