Monthly Mass for Canonization of Bl. Joseph Vaz on Sunday, February 23rd The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute warmly invites all San Francisco Bay area Catholic Goan, Mangalorean, and Sri Lankans to attend our next “4th Sunday monthly Mass” on Sunday, February 23rd at 12:30 p.m. at St. John the Baptist Church in El Cerrito for the Canonization of Bl. Joseph Vaz.
We ask all Joseph Naik Vaz Institute supporters in various countries to join the Prayer campaign throughout Goa, Mangalore, and Sri Lanka such as the Holy hour recently organized by the Bl. Joseph Vaz Society of Fatima Shrine, Padiwatte, Kandy, for the success of the Canonization process. The date, February 23rd, has a very special historical association with Blessed Joseph Vaz and his mission to Sri Lanka. It is a very big annual Feast at the Church of the Miraculous Cross (Cruz dos Milagres) in Old Goa where there was an Apparition of Christ on a miraculous Cross on February 23rd, 1619. It was at this Church that Blessed Joseph Vaz joined a group of Goan priests who wanted to establish a native religious Congregation. He formed them into an Oratorian Congregation and built a Convent and Hospice next to it. It was his Goan Oratorians that smuggled themselves into Sri Lanka (as he had done) to minister to the abandoned Catholics there during 140 years of Dutch persecution. The present Archbishop of Goa, Archbishop-Patriarch Pedro Ferråo, has been restoring these historic structures. Come prepared to sing with the lively Multicultural Choir at St. John the Baptist Church at that 12:30 p.m. Mass! Lunch will follow at Little Hong Kong restaurant near St. John's church. Church: St. John the Baptist Church, 11152 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, California, 94530 Time: 12:30p.m. St. John the Baptist Church is within walking distance of the El Cerrito Del Norte Bart station. For further information, please email josephnaik....@gmail.com Thank you. Joseph Naik Vaz Institute http://josephnaikvaz.org/