Church Move Saddens Many
By Mark Melady
Telegram & Gazette
May 19, 2008
http://telegram.com/article/20080519/NEWS/805190532/1116
WORCESTER— Parishioners at churches to be shuttered by the Diocese of Worcester expressed sadness, anger and nostalgia yesterday after hearing a letter from the Rev. Robert J. McManus detailing the closing of five city Catholic churches along with parish mergers the bishop said would create a more vibrant pastoral life.
It was difficult yesterday for parishioners, some whose families have been attending the church for generations, to reconcile future vibrancy with the present reality.
"This to me is a diocesan divorce," Frank Statkus, 66, of Shrewsbury said outside St. Casmir Church on Providence Street
as the 10 a.m. Lithuanian Mass was ending.
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| Jack Nicholson of Auburn talks about attending church at Notre Dame in Worcester yesterday. Photo by Rick Cinclair |
St. Casmir will close along with four other churches July 1. It has been the church of Mr. Stankus' grandparents, parents and children. He was baptized and confirmed in the church. His daughter was married there. He attended the parish school 10 years.
"This is home to me," Mr. Stankus said. "We don't have a home at this point. I really don't want to leave the church. We would love to keep it open."
St. Casmir, with about 360 parishioners, will be merged along with Ascension Church, 48 Vernon St., into St. John on Temple Street, described by Bishop McManus as the "mother church of our diocese."
Also closing July 1 are Notre Dame, already combined with St. Joseph, 5 Salem Square; Holy Name of Jesus, 55 Illinois St. and St. Margaret Mary, 77 Alvarado St.
The closings and mergers were recommended by the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee, which spent a year studying the viability of city parishes.
The Presbyteral Council, the canonical body of priests for the Worcester Diocese, reviewed and approved the changes.
The parishioners of St. Margaret Mary will be relocated to St. Anne parish in Shrewsbury. Notre Dame and Holy Name of Jesus will be melded with St. Joseph Church on Hamilton Street, where parishioners successfully fought off a threatened closing in the 1990s. The new parish will be called Holy Family.
"The new name was a natural," said the Rev. Richard G. Roger, pastor of the combined parish of Notre Dame and St. Joseph. "The official name of Notre Dame begins with Our Lady. We take Jesus from Holy Name of Jesus and add St. Joseph and we have Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family."
Notre Dame survived the building of what was then Worcester Center in the early 1970s and later plans for a high-rise apartment building, but declining attendance and high upkeep made the church a prominent candidate for closing.
"We've had fewer and fewer people for years," said Rev. Roger, who has been at the church since 1992, " and while there was much work done to the building over the years, there was always more to do beyond our resources to pay for it."
He said while the closing did not come as a surprise to parishioners, the announcement still stirred sadness.
"People's memories are tied up with the building," he said.
The new parish will be a welcoming one, Rev. Roger said. "St. Joseph's doesn't consider itself a receiving parish but a mixed parish."
St. Casmir, one of the oldest ethnic Lithuanian churches in the commonwealth, will continue to host the Lithuanian Mass for another year and will be available for occasional daily use for funerals but that was of little comfort to some parishioners yesterday.
Some said they will not go anywhere for Mass. Some worried about where those who speak Lithuanian only will go. Others said keeping the Lithuanian Mass going for another year was only an attempt to appease them.
"We're very upset," said Susan Jonielunas, who was baptized and confirmed in the church. "We have no debt. We take good care of our church. A lot of crying is going on in the church."
She wondered why Ascension parish couldn't merge with St. Casimir.
Many St. Casmir parishioners feel the church is being closed so the property can be sold to make money. The church has spent money over the past years to renovate the building and it has no debt.
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At St. Anne Church in Shrewsbury, which is absorbing the people from St. Margaret Mary Church in Worcester, some parishioners there said they didn't have a problem with adding another 100 people or so.
"It is an accepted thing to do it," said Leo Duchesneau, who was married in the Notre Dame church. "If I was told my church was closing I would cry."
Other parishioners, who filled their cars with family, said they don't have an issue with the absorption of new members. Church member numbers are dwindling in the city because more people are moving to the suburbs, they said.
"Times have changed," Paul Harris said. "There are not as many people in the city to fill the church. You can't operate a church on 100 people a week."
As he stood in front of the majestic facade of Notre Dame after the 11:30 Mass yesterday morning, Jack Nicholson of Auburn reflected on memories of his youth, when the church in Salem Square was part of a busy downtown.
It was a downtown that was dotted with Notre Dame parishioners, residents of apartments and houses within walking distance of the church.
Mr. Nicholson, who minutes earlier had attended Mass in which the closing of Notre Dame and other city churches was discussed, pondered whether the optimistic vision that city officials have for downtown Worcester might have provided a lifeline of sorts for Notre Dame.
"I thought CitySquare might prove to be a boon for the parish," said Mr. Nicholson, adding that the push for development in downtown Worcester might spark new housing in the area, thus creating potential parishioners.
Mr. Nicholson, like others who attended Mass at Notre Dame yesterday, understands the need for change and will look to other churches in the diocese.
He is a member at the St. Joseph Church in Auburn. He attends Mass at least twice at week — at his home church and at Notre Dame.
"I couldn't help wonder what will happen to this church," he said.
Whatever the future holds for the building is not for the parish to decide, Rev. Roger noted.
"The diocese will determine the future use," he said.
"There are limits on what consecrated liturgical buildings can be. It won't become a nightclub or anything like that."
Scott J. Croteau and Mike Elfland of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.
Contact: mmelady@telegram.com
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