St. Thomas parishioners visit Catholicism's overseas roots
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| Nicole Koetting, right, directs members of Amarillo’s St. Thomas Catholic Church at Santa Maria della Mercede Church in Rome. |
By Mike Haynes
It’s one thing to celebrate Mass in the spacious, 30-year-old, St. Thomas the Apostle Church on Amarillo’s South Coulter Street.
It’s one thing to celebrate Mass in the spacious, 30-year-old, St. Thomas the Apostle Church on Amarillo’s South Coulter Street.
It’s quite
another for St. Thomas members to sing and receive the Holy Eucharist amid
ancient vaulted ceilings built a thousand years before Amarillo existed, just a
few feet from the tomb that many believe contains the remains of Mark, author
of the first gospel.
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| The Rev. Scott Raef, pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Amarillo, officiates at a private Mass in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. |
For many, the
intimate service was the highlight of an Italian trip that began the day after
Christmas and ended Jan. 3.
Koetting
said members of the St. Thomas adult choir told her “it was so special to
celebrate Mass where the grave of one of the gospel writers was actually behind
the altar.”
The private Mass began a tour that included
children’s, youth and adult choirs and musicians from St. Thomas plus family
members and friends. “It was a great way to start,” Koetting said.
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| Jim Gardner, music director at Amarillo’s St. Thomas Catholic Church, visits La Pieta church in Venice, where composer Antonio Vivaldi planned the acoustics. |
The group
joined the throng outside in the square as Pope Benedict appeared in a window
to give Jan. 1 greetings in multiple tongues. Koetting, who has been the St.
Thomas assistant music director for almost 15 years, was accompanied by her
husband, Dan, and three of their four children.
“We stayed for at least seven
languages,” Koetting said. “But the kids were there with us, so we left after English.”
In addition to the Vatican and
Venice, the group provided music at a public Mass in St. Croce Basilica in
Florence and for another private Mass in Santa Maria della Mercedes in Rome, a
modern church.
They also visited Padua and Assisi.
“We were able to see the St. Francis cross in a side chapel of the church in
Assisi,” Koetting said. “It’s from the late 1200s. It was pretty moving.”
The Amarillo church has sponsored
several such trips, usually at five-year intervals. In addition to the late Rev.
Joseph Tash, a key figure on the trips has been Gardner, music director since
1993.
“Jim is an amazing musician,”
Koetting said. “He arranged all the music done on the trip. The music that we
did at the private masses in Italy, he wrote.”
Brittney Richerson, a violinist on
the trip, agreed that Amarillo is blessed to have Gardner. When not wearing his
St. Thomas robes, he is active directing music at Amarillo Little Theatre as
well as playing piano for the Polk Street Jazz ensemble.
“Too few in the Panhandle realize
what a blessing a man with his unique gifts and incredible experience is to the
community,” said Richerson, a former Amarillo College student now studying in
Corpus Christi and who also has played with Gardner in ALT productions.
Indeed, it also is true that too
few know about the quality of music and the arts radiating from the church on
Coulter, a little of which was put on display this winter in the pope’s back
yard.
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Mike Haynes teaches journalism at Amarillo
College. He can be reached at AC, the Amarillo Globe-News or haynescolumn@hotmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.
