Requiem Mass for Fr. Frank Parrinello: Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7pm—Fr. Frank Parrinello, the first chaplain of the Mater Dei Latin Mass Community, died on Jan. 7, 2023, in Sioux City, Iowa. He was 55. The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Omaha, of which he was a priest, reported heart attack as the cause of death. St. Lawrence will offer a Sung Requiem Mass for him, with blessing at the catafalque, Wednesday night.
As the first chaplain of the Mater Dei Community, beginning Dec. 2, 2007, shortly after the issuance of Pope Benedict’s Moto proprio Summorum Pontificum, which expanded access to the Traditional Latin Mass, Fr. Parinello made a lasting impact, initiating many devotions and activities still practiced at St. Lawrence. Fr. Parrinello “brought a deep sense of community” to the newly established Mater Dei, said Mary Ann Vigilante, who began working for Mater Dei under his leadership.
“Scrolling through my old emails, he initiated the Holy Name Society, the Knights of the Altar, Junior Sodality, Women’s Sodality, Pro-Life Committee, Sunday socials, picnics, gatherings,” Mary Ann said.
Then a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), Fr. Parrinello was also the first chaplain of the Lancaster Latin Mass Community, beginning May 2008.
The obituary published by the Archdiocese of Omaha noted that his funeral had been scheduled for Jan. 14 at St. Michael Church in South Sioux City. Burial was to be at Calvary Cemetery in Sioux City, Iowa.
More from the same obituary:
[Fr. Parrinello] grew up in Sioux City and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and psychology from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City in 1989. As a young man, though, he felt a deeper calling into his faith and toward the priesthood, Father Cook said. The two became friends as archdiocese seminarians studying at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Father Parrinello was ordained in 2000 and was associate pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Norfolk from 2000 to 2003 and pastor of St. Leonard Parish in Madison from 2003 to 2005. Then he felt called to enter the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Father Cook said. With permission from the archdiocese, Father Parrinello served with the Fraternity in Rapid City, South Dakota; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
In 2015 he completed a master’s degree in social work from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. He had a mental health practice with Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma.
A few years ago, Father Parrinello returned to the Archdiocese of Omaha to be closer to his parents and work for the Lord through mental health care, said his sister, Gina Rosenbaum of North Sioux City, South Dakota.
He established Our Lady of Good Counsel Apostolate for Psychotherapy and Counseling, with an office in downtown Omaha. He served as a volunteer chaplain for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and consultant to the archdiocese’s Metropolitan Tribunal, a Church court….
Father Parrinello was preceded in death by his mother, who died in October. Survivors include his father; his sister and her husband, Paul Rosenbaum; four nieces and two great-nieces.