Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke Parish Members Question Springfield Diocese Actions toward Their Vigil, by Jeanette DeForge, The Republican , July 12, 2011

Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke Parish Members Question Springfield Diocese Actions toward Their Vigil

By Jeanette DeForge
The Republican
July 12, 2011

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/mater_dolorosa_church_parish_m.html

[press release from the parishioners]

Staging has been erected in front of Mater Dolorosa Church while a 24-hour prayer vigil is being conducted inside.

Parishioners conducting a round-the-clock prayer vigil at Mater Dolorosa Church are accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield of harassing them in the church they are trying to keep open.

But diocesan officials said they are taking measures, some of which were planned before the vigil began, to ensure the church is safe.

“There are unidentified people coming around and they have the key and they put up ugly staging in front of the church,” said Victor Anop, of Chicopee, an area lawyer and long-term member of Mater Dolorosa Church who is helping to organize the vigil.

The church, on Lyman Street, was to close after the 8 a.m., June 30 Mass and to merge with Holy Cross on Sycamore Street to form a new parish, Our Lady of the Cross. After the mass, some members declined to leave and began the vigil.

Parish members later learned the unidentified people are from a security firm which has been hired to watch the church. In addition, signs written by parish members on poster board which read “Open for Prayer,” and “Join us for Prayer” have been removed by the security personnel, Anop said.

“It disrupts the people who are praying,” he said. “There is nothing going wrong here; they are protecting the church.”

Officials for the diocese said they hired the security firm because they found the group conducting the vigil to be lax in securing the church and cite one incident where two elderly women opened the doors and allowed a stranger in without requesting any identification or asking questions.

Staging has been placed in front of the Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke while some parishioners hold a prayer vigil inside.

“They have created a situation that the church is not secure,” Mark E. Dupont, spokesman for the diocese.

The vigil is being conducted on private church property and those who are occupying the church are doing so without permission, Dupont said.

The friars who operated the church have heard the bell rung at night, even though church officials are concerned the steeple is in poor shape and have asked that the bell not be used, he said.

Diocesan officials planned to begin repairs to the steeple before the vigil began and did announce those plans to the media. The scaffolding has been set up on the sidewalk in anticipation of the work being done, Dupont said.

A contractor has not yet been hired. Dupont said work cannot be done in the church until it is vacant.

The condition of the steeple remains a contention between the diocese and those who are conducting the vigil.

The diocese released a report from EDA Inc, a structural engineering firm hired to examine all church buildings, that recommended the steeple be removed.

“It is only a matter of time before there is either a partial or complete failure of the wood framed steeple structure. Even a partial collapse would...jeopardize the occupants and their immediate surroundings,” the report said.

But Anop has questioned the report and said the group has rung the bell and it caused no problems.

“We are getting an expert opinion on the steeple, as the diocese’s engineering firm stated that they needed a second opinion since they had no expertise on steeples,” said Peter Stasz, a member of Mater Dolorosa and a lawyer.

The group’s Boston lawyer, Peter Borre, an expert in cannon law, said Springfield Bishop Timothy A.