Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Central City will conclude its celebration of the time-honored Polish devotion known as Gorzkie Zale or Bitter Lamentations on April 13, Palm Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
These devotions, sung in English, are composed of a three-week cycle reflecting on the Passion of Christ and form a rich part of the Polish liturgical tradition.
As part of the April 13 celebration, the parish will welcome Deacon J. Travis Moger, a married husband and father who was an ordained Baptist minister and converted to Catholicism in 2018. He is a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and will be ordained a priest in May of this year.
Deacon Moger received a master’s in theology from Christendom College Graduate School of Theology in 2024; and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2011. He was a Fulbright Scholar, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Germany in 2005-2006; received his Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1993; and received a Bachelor of Arts from Dallas Baptist University (summa cum laude) in 1988.
Deacon Moger also has extensive military service. He has a 26-year military career as a U.S. Navy chaplain and retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve with the rank of captain in 2018.
