Hundreds flock to St. Paul’s for Easter Sunday morning mass
Sunday, April 5, marked the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Easter Sunday, as Butler County residents flocked to churches for services.
One of the largest services took place at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in downtown Butler, which packed in roughly 800 parishioners and also broadcast its service over Armstrong cable.
“It definitely should be heavier than normal,” said usher James Welty ahead of the service. “There should be more people here today than on a normal Sunday.”
St. Paul is one of five churches in All Saints Parish, which also includes St. Andrew in Center Township, St. Conrad in Butler Township, and both St. Michael the Archangel and St. Peter in Butler. All held Mass on Sunday morning, with St. Conrad holding two. Three of the six services — at St. Peter, St. Paul and the second at St. Conrad — were overseen by Fazio.
Welty said St. Paul is the largest church of the five in terms of capacity.
“This church will hold 800,” Welty said. “I would say St. Conrad’s might be the next biggest, but this is by far the biggest.”
As is Catholic tradition, Fazio donned white robes to symbolize the start of the Easter season.
During his sermon, Fazio, in connection with the theme of resurrection, recounted a previous conversation with his flock.
“In the last week, I've asked a number of people, ‘When have you felt most alive?’ And I got a variety of answers,” Fazio said. “There was a sense of, ‘I feel most alive when I accomplish something or I overcome something and I'm together with those with whom I love the most, I feel most alive.’ And those moments don’t last forever. And how we enter into and cherish those moments has to include some type of reflection of prayer or thanksgiving to the Lord.”
The Easter morning service was preceded by an Easter vigil Saturday night at St. Paul.
“That’s a beautiful ceremony,” Welty said. “It’s a candlelit mass. Everybody has a candle. They turn all the lights off.”
