About us
About the Oratory of St. Faustina
The Oratory of St. Faustina is an online Catholic Christian community named for St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish mystic and apostle of Divine Mercy whose message to the world was simple and profound: God's mercy is greater than any sin, any wound, any reason you might have for believing you don't belong. That message is the heartbeat of everything we do.
We are a ministry of the Independent Catholic Christian Church (ICCC), a sacramental Christian church that shares the fullness of the Catholic tradition inclusively with all people.
The Mass We Celebrate
At the center of our worship is the Tridentine Mass, celebrated primarily in English.
The Tridentine rite is the traditional form of the Roman Catholic Mass — one of the most ancient, reverent, and symbolically rich liturgies in all of Christianity. Celebrated for centuries in Latin, its prayers and gestures carry the weight of generations of devotion. At the Oratory, we celebrate this sacred rite predominantly in English, with Latin woven in where it enriches the worship, so that every person can pray with full understanding while still touching the ancient tongue of the Church. We offer a free download of the Ordinary of the Mass so you can follow along from anywhere in the world. This is not liturgy as performance. It is liturgy as encounter, with God, with one another, and with something far larger than ourselves.
What We Believe
We are a creedally orthodox community, grounded in the historic Christian faith. We proclaim the Nicene Creed: that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, and that through his death and resurrection, he reconciles all of humanity to God. We draw on the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, interpreted in light of the Church's tradition, human reason, and the lived experience of Christians across the ages.
We are joyfully sacramental, celebrating all seven sacraments of the Catholic tradition: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick, and we preserve apostolic succession through the laying on of hands. The sacraments are the living moments where heaven touches earth, where God meets us in water, oil, bread, and wine.
We are deeply prayerful. The Divine Office, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, these ancient rhythms of prayer shape who we are and how we move through the world.
Radically Inclusive — Because God's Mercy Is
The Oratory of St. Faustina is radically inclusive — not as a political statement, but as a theological one. The God we worship is the God who runs down the road to meet the prodigal son. The God whose mercy, as St. Faustina wrote, is greater than our weakness and greater than our sin.
LGBTQ+ Catholics and Christians have a full and honored place in this community. We do not ask anyone to hide who they are in order to worship. We ordain gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual Christians as bishops, priests, and deacons, and we celebrate the marriages of same-sex and opposite-sex couples with equal joy and equal reverence. Those who have experienced exclusion or hurt in other faith communities will find here not just tolerance, but genuine welcome at the table, in the pews, and in leadership.
This inclusion is not in tension with our traditional liturgy and orthodox faith. It flows from it. The ancient Mass we pray has always belonged to all the baptized, and at the Oratory of St. Faustina, it always will.
Our Community
We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM Eastern Time on YouTube Live for Mass, and continue afterward in our Virtual Coffee Hour on Zoom, an informal time to connect and be together across distances.
Whether you are a lifelong Catholic who loves the traditional Mass, someone finding their way back to faith, or an LGBTQ+ person of faith who has been told they don't belong, we want to meet you where you are.
St. Faustina heard Christ say:
"The greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to My mercy."
The Oratory of St. Faustina is an online Catholic Christian community named for St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish mystic and apostle of Divine Mercy whose message to the world was simple and profound: God's mercy is greater than any sin, any wound, any reason you might have for believing you don't belong. That message is the heartbeat of everything we do.
We are a ministry of the Independent Catholic Christian Church (ICCC), a sacramental Christian church that shares the fullness of the Catholic tradition inclusively with all people.
The Mass We Celebrate
At the center of our worship is the Tridentine Mass, celebrated primarily in English.
The Tridentine rite is the traditional form of the Roman Catholic Mass — one of the most ancient, reverent, and symbolically rich liturgies in all of Christianity. Celebrated for centuries in Latin, its prayers and gestures carry the weight of generations of devotion. At the Oratory, we celebrate this sacred rite predominantly in English, with Latin woven in where it enriches the worship, so that every person can pray with full understanding while still touching the ancient tongue of the Church. We offer a free download of the Ordinary of the Mass so you can follow along from anywhere in the world. This is not liturgy as performance. It is liturgy as encounter, with God, with one another, and with something far larger than ourselves.
What We Believe
We are a creedally orthodox community, grounded in the historic Christian faith. We proclaim the Nicene Creed: that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, and that through his death and resurrection, he reconciles all of humanity to God. We draw on the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, interpreted in light of the Church's tradition, human reason, and the lived experience of Christians across the ages.
We are joyfully sacramental, celebrating all seven sacraments of the Catholic tradition: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick, and we preserve apostolic succession through the laying on of hands. The sacraments are the living moments where heaven touches earth, where God meets us in water, oil, bread, and wine.
We are deeply prayerful. The Divine Office, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, these ancient rhythms of prayer shape who we are and how we move through the world.
Radically Inclusive — Because God's Mercy Is
The Oratory of St. Faustina is radically inclusive — not as a political statement, but as a theological one. The God we worship is the God who runs down the road to meet the prodigal son. The God whose mercy, as St. Faustina wrote, is greater than our weakness and greater than our sin.
LGBTQ+ Catholics and Christians have a full and honored place in this community. We do not ask anyone to hide who they are in order to worship. We ordain gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual Christians as bishops, priests, and deacons, and we celebrate the marriages of same-sex and opposite-sex couples with equal joy and equal reverence. Those who have experienced exclusion or hurt in other faith communities will find here not just tolerance, but genuine welcome at the table, in the pews, and in leadership.
This inclusion is not in tension with our traditional liturgy and orthodox faith. It flows from it. The ancient Mass we pray has always belonged to all the baptized, and at the Oratory of St. Faustina, it always will.
Our Community
We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM Eastern Time on YouTube Live for Mass, and continue afterward in our Virtual Coffee Hour on Zoom, an informal time to connect and be together across distances.
Whether you are a lifelong Catholic who loves the traditional Mass, someone finding their way back to faith, or an LGBTQ+ person of faith who has been told they don't belong, we want to meet you where you are.
St. Faustina heard Christ say:
"The greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to My mercy."
Come as you are. You are welcome here.
Our Clergy
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Fr. Dave was raised Roman Catholic and spent several years in the Seminary preparing for priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. During his time in the Roman Seminary, Dave found and fell in love with the Traditional Latin Mass. Dave would visit Holy Trinity Church in Boston as often as possible, the only parish at the time offering the Latin Mass in the archdiocese of Boston. When his studies brought him to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, his love for Tradition grew by leaps and bounds. During his years in Philadelphia, he was blessed to be able to attend the traditional Latin Mass on several occasions in choir. Fr. Dave found the Independent Catholic Christian Church in 2013, several years after leaving the Roman Seminary, when searching for a church that holds to the traditional Catholic faith and was equally inclusive of the LGBTQ community. The desire to be a priest never left Fr. Dave, and shortly after finding the ICCC, he began his preparation for the priesthood.
After ordination, Fr. Dave pursued training in spiritual direction at the Adelynrood School for Spiritual Direction and is a member of Spiritual Direction International. https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/Fr.Dave Fr. Dave holds a deep devotion to St. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. |
Other Online ministries
St. Mary of Grace Parish
(Novus ordo)
BP. Lyngine Calizo:
Rene Vilatte Press
Official Publisher for the Independent Catholic Christian Church
For our list of publications or to purchase any of our books: Rene Vilatte Press
Fr. Michael Shirk: [email protected]
St. Mary of Grace Parish
(Novus ordo)
BP. Lyngine Calizo:
Rene Vilatte Press
Official Publisher for the Independent Catholic Christian Church
For our list of publications or to purchase any of our books: Rene Vilatte Press
Fr. Michael Shirk: [email protected]
Other ICCC Ministries
Massachusetts
Oratory of St. Catherine of Siena
(BCP Rite II)
Beverly, MA
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oratory-of-St-Catherine-of-Siena/
Mtr. Sandra Hutchinson:
Missouri
Oratory of St. Joseph of Arimathea
(1549 Book of Common Prayer)
St. Louis, MO
For details and further information: http://sites.google.com/site/oratoryofstjoseph/
Fr. Michael Shirk:
Pennsylvania
St. Mary of Grace Parish
(Novus ordo)
www.inclusivecatholics.org
BP. Lyngine Calizo:
ICCC Clergy
Bp. Lyngine Calizo
Bp. Lyngine Calizo serves as presiding Bishop of the Independent Catholic Christian Church, and as Pastor at St. Mary of Grace Parish. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and currently organizes scientific conferences and workshops on cancer research. As a member of the YES! Coalition she developed panels on LGBT issues and spirituality and helped organize the first catholic Mass at the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife.
Bp. Lyngine Calizo serves as presiding Bishop of the Independent Catholic Christian Church, and as Pastor at St. Mary of Grace Parish. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and currently organizes scientific conferences and workshops on cancer research. As a member of the YES! Coalition she developed panels on LGBT issues and spirituality and helped organize the first catholic Mass at the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife.
Bp. Michael Shirk
Bp. Michael Shirk is currently settled in St. Louis, MO with his husband. He holds a BA in French. He has been interested in computers since childhood and works in web development. Experienced in a range of church music from ancient chant to modern hymns, he has served as music/choir director at several parishes and freelances as an organist. He is the Chaplain of the Divine Infant King Apostolate for Traditional Liturgy and the Publisher of Rene Vilatte Press.
Bp. Michael Shirk is currently settled in St. Louis, MO with his husband. He holds a BA in French. He has been interested in computers since childhood and works in web development. Experienced in a range of church music from ancient chant to modern hymns, he has served as music/choir director at several parishes and freelances as an organist. He is the Chaplain of the Divine Infant King Apostolate for Traditional Liturgy and the Publisher of Rene Vilatte Press.
Mtr. Sandra Hutchinson
Mtr. Sandra Hutchinson serves as Chaplain of the Oratory of St. Catherine of Siena in Beverly MA. She has an AB in History from Bryn Mawr College and an MA in Urban Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Professionally, she is a Semi-Retired proofreader,/ Copy editor/production editor.
Mtr. Sandra Hutchinson serves as Chaplain of the Oratory of St. Catherine of Siena in Beverly MA. She has an AB in History from Bryn Mawr College and an MA in Urban Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Professionally, she is a Semi-Retired proofreader,/ Copy editor/production editor.