The latest bulletins can be found below :
2024-04-28 Dominica Quarta Post Pascha
2024-04-21 Dominica Tertia Post Pascha
Thank-you for your prayers and continued support.
PRAY THE ROSARY WITH Fr. Deprey, Fr. Breton, and Fr. Debow (in English or Latin!) :
Our Latin Rosary Prayers can be downloaded here for printing:
Latin Rosary Prayers
ENGLISH:
LATIN:
St. Clement Parish is holding its tenth annual golf day and dinner Tuesday, August 13, 2024 to raise money for the ongoing restoration and beautification of St. Anne Church, a historic stone church located in the Lowertown area of Ottawa and a designated heritage building. St. Anne Church has been home to St. Clement Parish since 2012.
The details may be found in the attached poster:
Attached below is the Registration Form:
Registration Form–English–2024
The golf day is an enjoyable social event for our parish and an important fundraiser. With your help, we can raise many thousands of dollars.
We thank-you in advance for your participation and support !
Our 2023 financial statements are now available for your review, with adjoining comments from our parish finance council. If you have any questions please contact Mr. John Fennelly, chairman of the parish finance council.
Summary & Comments regarding 2023 financials, Apr. 2/24
Visual Presentation of 2023 Financial Numbers, Apr 2/24
Today’s Readings:
http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/missa/missa.pl
Livestreams (Sundays and Major Feasts) :
https://www.youtube.com/@st.clementsparishparoisses8409/streams
You will find more general information on the project itself here:
https://www.saintclement.ca/about
The Real Estate Committee of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall met and passed a motion allowing our parish to continue to the Design Development phase of our Parish Hall project with the Architect. The approval of the Design Development phase is an important step forward in the architectural design process. We would like to thank the Archdiocese for their continued support and encouragement.
Providentially their approval comes as we begin our Pledge Drive for 2024. Your pledges are essential to the process of securing a good mortgage with the Archdiocese, something we hope to work out as soon as possible. So if you have not yet made your pledges, we encourage you to do so now. Our electronic form can be submitted using the following link:
https://www.saintclement.ca/pledge.
Alternatively, you may print off the form using the PDF link below and submit it with the Sunday Collection:
Parish Hall Pledge Form EN FR (PDF)
We have received $415,000 in pledges and donations so far. Additionally, our recent parish dinner raised a further $15,137. 114 parishioners have submitted pledge forms and a further 103 parishioners have already donated to the campaign.
This is 46% of our goal which is a good start. We need to build on this momentum.
We appreciate the support from those who have contributed to the campaign so far. Initially, our pledge drive was seeking pledges for 2023, 2024 and 2025; however, since the pledge drive started late in 2023, we are extending the deadline for submitting your pledge form to Sunday, April 28, 2024. Additionally, we are adding 2026 to the pledge period.
If you have any questions or require additional information regarding either the parish hall project and/or the capital campaign, contact John Fennelly @ 613-867-0144 or send an email to info@saintclement.ca.
Providing for the financial needs of our parish
Our parish continues to incur expenses for such items as electricity, heating, repairs, insurance, etc. Although our financial statements show a very solid financial position for our parish, we can very quickly deplete our resources without access to our regular collections. If you are in a position to do so, we invite you to support our parish financially and on a regular basis.
The following options are available for donating to our parish:
1) By obtaining a parish collection envelope box through our parish office, which can be dropped off during Mass or sent in the mail. The parish will produce a tax receipt for any donations made using it:
Form to get Sunday Collection Box of envelopes
2) Through a monthly direct transfer from your bank account to the parish bank account (Pre-Authorized Giving). The form used to initiate PAD is attached below. If you would like to use this process for your donations please complete the form and mail (or drop it off) to the parish office. If you do not wish to continue this method of giving, it can be terminated upon written notice to the parish. The parish will produce a tax receipt for any donations made using PAD:
3) Using your credit card by going to the St. Clement Parish Web Page stclement-ottawa.org and clicking “Donate to the Parish” link and filling out the required form at the link below. Regular donations using this credit card method can be cancelled at any time at canadahelps.org. Canada Helps itself will send you the tax receipt :
Credit Card donations to St. Clement Parish
4) E-Transfers: The parish can now accept Interac e-transfer payments by email at finances@saintclement.ca. The answer to the question that you provide when you create the transfer with your bank must be “Clement“. You must specify the reason of the payment in the comment area when you create the transfer. Please be sure to provide your full name and address. The parish will then be able to provide a tax receipt.
5) Donations of Securities and Mutual Funds may also be donated using the link below: Canada Helps will send you the tax receipt:
Securities & Mutual Funds – Canada Helps
Thank you to those already using one of these options for your donations. You can be assured that the confidential personal information you provide, particularly for online giving, will be kept in a secure place in our parish office.
If you have any questions or require further information please contact our parish secretary, at 613-565-9656 or email office.st.clement@rogers.com
In Christo,
Fr. Erik Deprey, FSSP
Pastor
FORMED is a Catholic resource with thousands of Catholic movies, programs, audio, and books. Through your donations we have been blessed to have been able to offer a one-year subscription accessible to all parishioners free of charge.
https://watch.formed.org/browse
There are 3 ways to access our parish subscription:
1) Click on this link using your computer and follow the prompts. Choose St. Clement Parish and indicate your email address. The rest is self-explanatory: https://signup.formed.org/
2) Download the app to your smart TV (search “Formed, Catholic”. Formed is usable on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Chromecast. (note: you will need to first register at formed.org/signup before logging into the app).
3) Download the Formed app to your mobile device (iOS or Android) via App Store or Google Play Store.
We are grateful for the donations which made this one-year subscription possible ! If everyone contributed just $10 toward this service, we can continue offering it on a yearly basis.
Your donation can simply be placed in the Sunday collection, earmarked “Formed”. Or you could do the same using our Canada Helps platform under the “Weekly Offering” link, just adding a comment that it would be for Formed:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/st-clements-parishla-paroisse-st-clement/
Thank-you and God Bless!
In Christo,
Fr. Erik Deprey, FSSP
Subscribe to our Flocknote email for periodic updates and information on the parish schedule, news and events using the link below:
For You make me glad by Your deeds, Lord;
I sing for joy at what Your hands have done.
– Psalm 92: 4
Looking back on the years that have passed since 2012 when they first assumed stewardship of Saint Anne Church, parishioners of Saint Clement will have many reasons to give thanks for the abundance of blessings showered on their achievements.
Those many achievements – some small, others big – all share in common faith, prayer and the generosity of countless volunteer hours. To this must be added the unstinting financial support of a community of faithful anxious to see their historic 19th century church return to something of its former self.
The first project of note – the return of the bells in time to celebrate Easter 2013 delighted many and incredibly, caught the attention of national media outlets. A year later, Saint Anne’s former sanctuary lamp underwent careful restoration and after an absence of many years, was returned to its rightful place before the tabernacle. That same year parishioners’ generous response to an appeal launched on July 1st 2014, after the Mass celebrating the feast of the Precious Blood, made it possible, within just a few days, to cover the costs of installing a magnificent Limoges Stations of the Cross.
The undertaking of projects of greater scope came shortly after with the installation in 2015 of a fervently desired altar rail. Made of cherry and spanning the church’s 70-foot transept, it is the result of the skilled work of two talented parishioners. In 2018 that same team successfully met the challenge of creating a faithful replica of the original stairs that made it possible for Saint Anne to once again be fitted with a traditional pulpit. Several months later they would go on to ensure the installation of a new hardwood floor in the sanctuary.
Before and after Videos:
https://www.statuerestorers.com/restoration-videos
The result of a different set of gifts, the restoration of the church’s statuary has greatly pleased parishioners with every new workshop delivery. The statues of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary as a Young Girl, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and the one of Our Lady above Mgr. Myrand’s altar, all whitewashed in the 1960s, have benefitted from the work of talented parishioners who have successfully returned them to works of art worthy of the devotions they inspire.
One other much appreciated arrival came in 2018 and was thanks to the generosity of benefactors who gifted the parish with the two statues of the Adoring Angels which had originally stood, one on either side of the High Altar in the chapel of the Monastery of the Precious Blood. Today they are thus once again united with their altar and in their intended places.
Perhaps the project dearest to parishioners to take place since the move to Lower Town was the one that saw the fulfillment of an ardent, long-held wish of theirs: the restoration of the altars of the Precious Blood carried out between 2019 and 2021.
Inexorably tied to parish identity, the altars have accompanied the people of Saint Clement Parish since the very beginning. Conceived in the last years of the 19th century for the second chapel of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, the altars have remained at the heart of the parish’s liturgical celebrations.
What can only be described as an act of providential intervention occurred in 2019 when unexpectedly, Saint Clement Parish was able to reunite two important Lower Town landmarks: Saint Anne Church and what is without doubt one of Ottawa’s finest ecclesiastical buildings – the church’s former rectory, located at number 17 Myrand Avenue.
Since 2019 the former rectory has benefitted from much needed attention in terms of new roofing, gutter replacement and exterior painting as well as the beginnings of interior refurbishment.
Built in 1921-1922, the impressive Beaux-Arts Style rectory passed through the hands of several owners over time. Today, the elegant building has returned to its original vocation and once more serves a community of Roman Catholics who worship in the stone church only an arm’s length away.
Many of the stained glass windows at Saint Anne are signed N.T. Lyon Co., Toronto, 1908, a Canadian art glass firm of the first order. Once the generous purchase of earlier parishioners, those of today have successfully undertaken the specialized work involved in restoring this precious heritage.
The first window to undergo restoration in 2016 was the one featuring the Visitation. Although some of the windows of Saint Anne still await attention, many have since then received careful, professional treatment. Much to everyone’s satisfaction, it was possible in 2020 to re-position the right way around the windows high on the sanctuary wall which, somehow and for unknown reasons, had been reversed. As a result, the four figures on either side of Our Lord are now shown facing Him as He raises His right hand in blessing.
One window that until August of this year very few really noticed and certainly never saw from the church’s interior, is the one dedicated to Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music. Installed in the church façade in 1908, it was hidden from interior view in 1917 when extensive work involving the organ pipe and wind system was undertaken. Today thanks to back-lighting, parishioners and passersby can once again admire the fine rose window image which becomes fully visible from the street after dark.
The church’s Casavant organ too has been enhanced. In 2014, after a hundred years of service, a new electric motor was installed on the air pump – the instrument’s “lungs” as it were; a necessary and not surprising thing given the instrument’s age. Recently, in 2022 it was outfitted with an enhanced level of 256 memory levels at the console making it possible for the organist to call upon an infinite variety of colours and sound changes. In short, the instrument was upgraded to the maximal potential use for our numerous, specific liturgies.
Immediately following the 2022 August Civic holiday, work began on repainting the cross, bell tower and small side turrets that adorn Saint Anne. The result of the much needed restoration work is that today, they look as bright and beautiful as they must have done immediately after their installation in 1908.
If passersby will certainly notice the new look of the steeple and turrets, they will also immediately notice that the three statues set into the façade – in the centre that of the church’s patron, Saint Anne with the Virgin as a young girl flanked by those of Saints Peter and Paul – having received a fresh bronze-coloured coat, now show to greater advantage. Watching over the church as they have always done, they will now be seen at night in the reflected light from Saint Cecilia’s window and the illuminated cross high on the steeple.
As we very rightly give thanks to God for what is without a doubt an impressive list of blessings bestowed on parish initiatives over the last ten years, it will be especially important to give Him thanks for what is unquestionably the most important and precious one of all: parish growth.
When Saint Clement Parish assumed stewardship of Saint Anne Church in 2012, a count of the number of people in attendance at the three Sunday Masses stood at 450 on average. Today, the number of faithful regularly reaches around 750. That number includes many young families and an important contingent of youth, all of whom bring to the church new life and energy which has greatly enriched the parish, breathed new life into its organizations and in some cases, been responsible for their rebirth. When next year the parish marks the 150th anniversary of the construction of Saint Anne, it will do so as a growing, dynamic parish of fervent Roman Catholics whose trust in God has been richly rewarded and who in faith, can look to the future and its challenges with confidence.
Deo Gratias!
For the most recent information on our Bookstore and Gift Shop, please refer to the link below:
St. Clements has several hand missals for the Traditional Mass available in our bookstore, in English-Latin and in French-Latin. These may be purchased in our bookstore on Sundays before & after Masses. We also have smaller missals for children and several used missals at reduced prices .
In English:
The Roman Catholic Daily Missal (Angelus Press)
Features include: 1,980 pages, all liturgical texts in Latin and English, all readings both in Latin & English (Douay-Rheims), music of the Ordinary in Gregorian notation, gilt edges, five liturgically-coloured ribbons, sewn binding, rounded back with durable, and leather-like gold embossed flexible cover.
In French:
Missel Quotidien Complet (Éditions Ste-Madeleine)
Entièrement recomposé et conforme au code des rubriques du bienheureux Jean XXIII, ce missel latin-français comprend, avec l’Imprimatur de l’archevêque d’Avignon, Mgr Jean-Pierre Cattenoz, l’année liturgique au complet.
https://www.fssp.org/en/official-communique-of-the-priestly-fraternity-of-st-peter/
Grateful to the Holy Father, the members of the Fraternity of St. Peter are in thanksgiving for this confirmation of their mission. They invite all the faithful who feel close to them as a spiritual family to attend or join them in prayer, and to pray especially for Pope Francis.
In 2020, restorers working on the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph made an unexpected discovery. Removing the fabric lining the tabernacle in order that it might be cleaned, they found the early votive offering pictured here.
That discovery immediately caught the interest of many and the wish for some knowledge about both the votive donor and the owner of the engraved heart-shaped silver medal.
The powerful protection of the saint in whose care it was originally confided has ensured that even after research, the ex voto offering signed L. Joseph Fauteux, today continues to benefit from the discretion its donor sought for it when many years ago it was carefully hidden out of sight in the tabernacle.
The donor is most likely to have been Louis Joseph Fauteux, born in 1853 near Mirabel in Saint-Benoît, Quebec. A builder of churches, monasteries and other buildings in Quebec and Ontario, he passed away in 1941. The identification of Sister Anne Marie whose name is engraved on the medal however, remains hidden.
Entrusted to the safekeeping of Saint Joseph, the votive offering has been placed in a specially created reliquary and affixed to the wall very near the saint’s altar, beneath the statue of Saint Anne and the Virgin to allow those who so wish to view it.
Copies of Faithful in All Generations, A history of Saint Clement Parish, 1968-2018, published to mark the parish’s 50th anniversary, are available in both English and French for $45 in the parish bookstore. A book review can be found here:
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/02/faithful-in-all-generations-history-of.html
Faithful in All Generations chronicles the story of the birth and development of Saint Clement Parish from its uncertain beginnings in the late 1960s up until recent events of the past year.
In addition to being generously illustrated by photos, the history is supplemented by notes to accompany the texts and copies of important documents relating to critical periods in the parish’s establishment, including one long feared lost.
The work of volunteer contributors, many of whom are parishioners of Saint Clement, the history has received the endorsement of high-profile Roman Catholic leaders: Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Prefect Emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura; Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a founding faculty member of Wyoming Catholic College, a prolific writer and composer of sacred music and Leo Darroch, President of Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce from 2007 to 2013.
Newly restored, Our Lady’s Altar was returned to its place in the sanctuary last week.
Having all three of its altars restored to their former state has been the fervent desire of many of the faithful and their priests ever since the nascent parish of Saint Clement acquired them in 1984 and thus saved them from certain destruction.
Parishioner generosity has made possible the realization of many prayers by ensuring a very successful Side Altar Restoration Campaign. As of the end of December 2020, parishioners had contributed $29,345.00 to the project involving this second side altar which was budgeted at $24,800 (plus applicable taxes). The additional funds received will be directed to other sanctuary restoration work.
The work to restore the side altars was undertaken by Atelier Plantagenêt who in 2019, carried out the restorative treatment of the high altar.
Thank you for your generosity!
When the current provincially-imposed lockdown in response to COVID-19 is lifted and all Saint Clement parishioners are once again able to return to a normal worship schedule, they will be able to fully appreciate the talents of those who have worked on their behalf to restore both the side altars and church statuary.
Two days before Christmas, thanks to parishioner-generosity, volunteers ensured the return to its place in the sanctuary of the restored altar dedicated to Saint Joseph: a fitting response to the proclamation made a few days before by Pope Francis of the Year of Saint Joseph, Patron Saint of the Universal Church to run from 8 December 8th 2020 to December 8th 2021.
The same papal proclamation reminded the world of the feast of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady celebrated on the 8th of December. While restoration work on Our Lady’s altar is still ongoing, Saint Clement parish was able to respond with the installation high on the West transept wall of the newly restored statue of Our Lady.
Overpainted white in the 1960’s like all other statues in the church, the one of Our Lady was skillfully and beautifully painted by Brushworks a parishioner-owned company specializing in the restoration of church statuary.
The treatment of Our Lady’s statue as well as that of the one of Saint Joseph completed earlier in the year by Brushworks was made possible by generous parishioner donations.
The work to restore the side altars is being undertaken by Atelier Plantagenêt who carried out the restorative treatment of the high altar.
It is parishioner support that has made such restorations possible. The cost of restoring the side altars was budgeted at $24, 800 (plus applicable taxes). As of the end of December, parishioner response to the project appeal had raised $29,345.00 thereby exceeding the goal.
Thank you for your generosity!
Restoration of the sanctuary windows is completed ! The exterior glass and wooden frames also needed repair. We discovered that they had been installed backwards at some point in their history, perhaps when the exterior windows were replaced at some point.
The photo above shows the previous arrangement (in black and white); the colour photos show how they are now arranged. The PDF file here can show you in more detail on your computer: Sanctuary Windows
This means we have restored them to their proper orientation, having the faces of the saints facing Our Lord, and Our Lord blessing us with his right hand, as is proper:
Before: 
Restored: 
We thank you for your donations which helped pay for this restoration work. May God reward you for your generosity !