On June 14 – the day America marks as Flag Day – Bishop Timothy Senior made a pastoral visit to Mercersburg to celebrate Holy Mass for the faithful at St. Luke the Evangelist Mission Church in the far southwestern corner of Franklin County. No church in the diocese is located farther west than St. Luke’s, which began as a mission back in 1946, as Holy Mass was celebrated in a private home and then at the Mercersburg Inn before a church was built in the late 1960s.
It is a mission church of St. Mark the Evangelist in Greencastle, which is located 12 miles east. Father Augusty Valomchalil, pastor, warmly welcomed Bishop Senior on his first visit to the mission. “We may be a small church community, but we have a big heart,” Father Augusty said during his welcome.
“This is the favorite part of my job as a bishop,” Bishop Senior told the St. Luke’s faithful. “The opportunity to be out with the people of the diocese brings me great joy.”
Bishop Senior also spoke to the momentous happenings at the USCCB’s spring plenary assembly where the U.S. Catholic bishops consecrated the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus just a few days before Bishop Senior’s visit to Mercersburg.
(Photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness
