St. Patrick Parish Priest Announces Departure at 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass

STONEHAM — September 28, 2025 — Stoneham's St. Patrick Parish priest announces his departure during the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass. Fr. Patrick, the celebrant at the September 28 Mass offered as a fourth anniversary remembrance for Dick and Ellie Mandurian, told parishioners at the close of the service that next Sunday, October 5, would be his final Mass at St. Patrick's, with a noon celebration and a gathering in the hall afterward. His homily drew on the Gospel of Luke's parable of the rich man and Lazarus and on St. Augustine's Confessions to argue that spiritual blindness, not lack of information, is the root cause of moral failure, and that "I believe so that I may understand" — Augustine's credo ut intelligam — is the proper ordering of faith and reason. The parish also announced a blessing of the animals at 3 p.m. in the grotto on October 5 and the restart of its confirmation program that same evening at the 6 p.m. Mass.