GULF SHORES, AL - To members and visitors to Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church, February means the annual parish Mission. This year the three-day event will be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 17, 18 and 19 at the church located in Gulf Shores. The days begin at 8 a.m. with Mass. A mission talk, fellowship and question and answer period will follow.

Fr. David Carucci, the OLG recently appointed pastor, will conduct the Mission and has chosen "Hope: The Humble Virtue" as the theme for the event.

"Hope, along with Faith and Charity, constitute the theological virtues," he says. "These virtues, which are freely infused graces of the Holy Spirit, are essential to the Christian Life."

Pope Francis calls Hope the humble virtue because "it is hidden in life." Fr. Carucci says the goal of the Mission is to uncover this hidden gift in each of our lives and thereby maximizing its transformative power. The goal is to cultivate Hope for our nation, our Church, our children and for ourselves, he says.

Ordained in 1995, Fr. Carucci became a pastor and a member of the faculty at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School in 1996. While most of his priestly service has been in Montgomery, he has also served as a pastor in Mobile and Orange Beach.

"I'm glad to be back at the Beach and look forward to many years of service to this wonderful community of year-round residents, snowbird and summer visitors," Fr. Carucci says.

He grew up in an Air Force family and spent his high school years in nearby Northwest Florida. He holds Bachelors degrees in Biology and Philosophy from Florida State University, a Masters in Theology from St. Vincent de Paul Seminary, and a Masters in Educational Administration from the University of San Francisco.