Name of Church Holy Cross Chaplaincy (in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel section of St. Anthony of Padua Church)
Address 5770 N. Maroa Avenue, Fresno, CA 93704
Phone number 559-374-5989
Website https://www.fssp-holycross.org/
Mass times All Latin Tridentine. Sunday, 3:30 p.m. Weekdays, 12:15 p.m. Saturdays, 7 a.m. No Mass on Thursdays.
Confessions 30 minutes before Mass. Confessional booths are in the back of the chapel.
Names of priests Fr. Jose Zepeda, pastor. Fr. Zepeda is a member of the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP). All FSSP sacraments are celebrated in Latin using the 1962 Missal. FSSP operates with the blessing of Joseph Brennan, the new Bishop of Fresno. The FSSP priests are orthodox, formed in the traditional way, and are typically good homilists and confessors.
School No.
Music Saint Blaise Schola Cantorum, which sings chant and polyphony during Mass. Volunteers welcome.
Ministries Altar servers, who are always boys in the Latin Mass who help the priest at the altar. Altar boys are much busier in the old rite than the Novus ordo, and say the responses to the priest’s prayers. Many vocations to the priesthood have resulted from altar boys serving at Mass.
Fellow parishioners Those with an interest in the traditional form of the Mass. There is a dress code (e.g. no shorts, cover your shoulders, no plunging necklines, etc.); see the website. Often women attending the Latin mass wear veils.
Parking Ample parking in the church lot.
Additional observations Use an Latin-English missal to follow along; they are typically available in the rear of the church, or bring your own. Holy Communion is kneeling and on the tongue. Click here to watch the Mass being celebrated (although not by Fr. Zepeda): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tryN3lPpQ.
I’d really be interested to see a proper study of how many vocations actually result from boys serving at Mass. Are there any hard numbers to either support or refute this assertion?
Mike M to what end….
mike m: I think it’s a great and pertinent question. I went to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, and I couldn’t find any data on it. Doesn’t mean they don’t have the information, but I just couldnt find it. I did review some of the most current numbers on vocations and reminded myself that priestly vocations are still growing to all time high levels worldwide, that there are more Americans who identify as catholic than ever (and that their percentage within the population has been steady over the decades), and that the number of American Catholic clergy is actually also at an all time high thanks to the growth in the permanent diaconate. Now – those numbers disguise the fact that much of the clergy rolls are filled with aged, infirmed, and retired priests, and that the first rounds of permanent deacons are now beginning to retire.
There is a LOT of data on their website about the role of things like campus ministry in vocational development, and the roll of several months of volunteer service in vocational development.
Mike M, I am not aware of any formal studies on altar boys becoming priests, but the evidence seems to be accumulating which is showing us that parishes which celebrate the Traditional Latin mass with male only altar servers are making vocations at a disproportionate rate to Novus Ordo parishes which allow female altar servers. There was just a recent article stating that FSSP parishes across the country are seeing tremendous growth in parishioners as well as making vocations to the priesthood. Star of the Sea parish in SF hadn’t made a vocation since the 1980s, but since Fr Illo became the pastor there (and disallowed female servers, introduced the Latin mass, and celebrates Novus Ordo ad orientum) they have year after year produced more seminarians than any other of the likely 100+ parishes in the Archdiocese.
Beautiful Mass at St Anne’S Chapel celebrated by the Holy Cross Chaplaincy for Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Rejected our donations after they got locked out of their own Paypal account. Instead of opening their own account they ignored all donations within it (throwing our money into the abyss) and did not include us for envelope creation the next year preventing us from tithing further. We asked at the church what the problem was, but it was not resolved or answered.
I offered Father a donation of our previous tithe amount but was rejected personally as he does not believe in a path to redemption.
So if we are being prevented from giving tithe because we could not give tithe then why would we not be given a method to give tithe? Well, Father Zepeda owns the show and believes there is no such thing as second chances.
Us too. This church does not represent God in our eyes. We’d rather drive further and not to an anti-biblical show. Look elsewhere.