Featured Speaker
Father Isaac Mary
Relyea
Ordained August 14, 1999, Father Relyea is a traditional Franciscan priest from New York who will be traveling across the country in order to talk to us about the Assumption of Mary on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of his ordination.
Fr. Relyea is the founder and primary contributor to the Soldiers of the Immaculate (SOTI) blog. His work on the blog focuses on various topics related to the Catholic Faith, especially the importance of devotion to Mary, aiming to assist listeners in their spiritual growth and understanding in order to help them deepen their faith and become more active members of the Church.
He is well-known as a powerful speaker who has traveled internationally since his ordination to preach traditional missions and speak at conferences, particularly on the "Four Last Things" — Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.
We are honored to welcome Father Isaac Mary Relyea as our featured speaker at the Golden Jubilee & Feast of the Assumption Celebration, where he will address our community on Sunday, August 16th.
Farewell Honoree
Father Trevor
Burfitt
Father Trevor Burfitt was born in 1975 and raised in Seattle, Washington. He pursued his priestly formation at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota, and was ordained a priest of the Society of St. Pius X on June 22, 2002.
Following his ordination, Father Burfitt served at St. Ignatius Retreat House in Ridgefield, Connecticut, before being appointed Prior of Our Lady of Sorrows in Phoenix, Arizona in 2005. He was subsequently transferred to Veneta, Oregon in 2012, and then to Our Lady of the Angels in Arcadia, California in August of 2016.
As Prior of Our Lady of the Angels, Father Burfitt assumed responsibility as pastor of both that priory and six Southern California Mass centers, including St. Joseph's and Immaculate Heart in Colton, Our Lady Help of Christians in Garden Grove, Mission Maria Stella Maris in San Pedro, St. Michael's Chapel in Bakersfield, and our own St. John Bosco Mission in San Diego.
Father Burfitt's decade of service to St. John Bosco Mission was marked by steadfast pastoral care through times of significant trial. The Mission lost its place of worship twice under his watch — first in 2018 due to a change in property management at the North Chapel at Liberty Station, and again in April of 2020 when California's Covid-19 lockdown closed houses of worship across the state. Each time, Father Burfitt guided the community through the uncertainty and helped the Mission find its way forward.
In September of 2020, Father Burfitt took a courageous stand on behalf of all California houses of worship, filing suit against Governor Gavin Newsom and the State of California for violations of the California Constitution's guarantees of free exercise and enjoyment of religion without discrimination or preference. On June 1, 2021, the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Kern ruled decisively in his favor, imposing permanent injunctions prohibiting the state from ever again imposing such restrictions on houses of worship statewide — a landmark victory for religious liberty in California.
Father Burfitt has now been reassigned to St. Vincent's in Kansas City, Missouri. After ten years of dedicated service, we bid him a warm and grateful farewell, and pray that God rewards him abundantly for all he has given to this community.
Former Mission Coordinator
Rosalie
Paraiso
Mrs. Rosalie Paraiso, together with her late husband Lito, served as the St. John Bosco Mission coordinator for thirteen years, from 2001 to 2014.
Born in the Philippines, Rosalie has called San Diego home for eighty years. Raised in the pre-Vatican II Church, she attended St. Jude Academy in San Diego's Southcrest neighborhood, taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, before continuing her studies at Regina Coeli Academy for girls, taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
She is the mother of five daughters. Believing for a time that the Mass of All Time no longer existed, she had no choice but to raise her daughters in the Novus Ordo Mass. Through prayer and patience, she brought all five back to the practice of the Faith as she had known it growing up, instilling in them a love for the True Immemorial Mass of All Time. She is also the proud grandmother of Joseph Crivello, one of the Mission's altar servers.
Upon discovering that the Tridentine Latin Mass was still alive and well, Rosalie became a member of St. John Bosco Mission in 1996 and has remained a faithful supporter of the SSPX and its priests ever since. Together with her late husband, she helped sustain the presence of St. John Bosco Mission in San Diego through prayer and sacrifice, protecting the Mission and defending the Society of St. Pius X.
Former Mission Coordinator
Arlene
Paraiso
Arlene T. Paraiso served as the St. John Bosco Mission chapel coordinator from 2014 to 2021, following in the footsteps of her parents, Angelito M. Paraiso and Rosalie V. Paraiso, who served as coordinators for the thirteen years prior. Together, the Paraiso family served St. John Bosco Mission as coordinators for twenty years.
Though it is not common for the coordinator of an FSSPX chapel to be a "Blessed Single" woman, Ms. Paraiso was recommended for the role by then-pastor Fr. Hufford and the Prior of Our Lady of Sorrows in Phoenix, Arizona, with the approval of the U.S. District. As demanding, exhausting, and thankless as the unpaid, volunteer work of an FSSPX Mass center coordinator can be, she would not trade those years for anything — her life would be incomplete without them.
Arlene was born a cradle Novus Ordo Catholic and spent the first twenty-some years of her life in that world, even serving for a time as a lector and director of Confirmation retreats at her parish. Her mother's tireless efforts — sharing prayers, stories, books, cassette tapes, and VHS videos about the True Mass and the Faith — planted seeds that took years to bear fruit. It was a chaotic "Life Teen" Steubenville West conference she chaperoned, and the frenzied "rock and roll Mass" she witnessed there, that finally moved Arlene to commit fully to the FSSPX and to reclaim the Faith and traditions she felt had been taken from her.
She left the Novus Ordo cold turkey and has spent the more than twenty years since as a registered member of St. John Bosco Mission in San Diego. She has faithfully supported the priests and religious of the Society of St. Pius X — attending, praying with, protecting, defending, and documenting their work to expand the Kingdom of God and win souls for Christ. Over the years she has served in nearly every capacity, from one of the Mission's first two choir members to working alongside the sacristan and hosting visiting priests.
Immersing herself in the Faith she felt deprived of in her youth, Arlene has taken part in the North American Auriesville pilgrimage, ordinations at the seminary in Winona, five-day Ignatian retreats, three-day Marian, vocation, and virtues retreats, Angelus Press events, and women's days of recollection, among many other journeys. She is a strong advocate for keeping All Saints' Day at the center of the Halloween season and believes every Catholic should experience the Sacred Triduum and a Midnight Mass offered by the FSSPX. She also helped bring the 40 Days for Life vigil to St. John Bosco Mission. She has attended the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by the FSSPX across the United States and on every continent but two, and has visited the Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery, the Consecration of the New Immaculata, and — most recently — the Episcopal Consecrations in Écône, Switzerland.
For our event, Arlene will present on the quiet but effective role St. John Bosco Mission and its faithful have played in glorifying God and expanding the Kingdom of His Sacred Heart through the years. She will also share, with deep gratitude, the honor of having witnessed decades of Father Burfitt's priestly vocation lived out in sacrifice and service.
A fierce defender of reverence for God and a hopeful voice for greater piety among the faithful, Ms. Paraiso shares her love of the Faith with others through her YouTube channel, under the pseudonym "A Universal Woman" — a fitting name, as the word Catholic comes from the Greek katholikos, meaning universal.