June 29, 2008

Final chimes

St. Casimir closes despite protests

WORCESTER PARISHES CLOSING: AN EMOTIONAL TOLL

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER—About 80 members of St. Casimir Church - some wearing colorful native garb, some waving yellow, green and red Lithuanian flags - prayed, sang, and offered words of encouragement to each other during a somber vigil held yesterday afternoon to protest the Diocese of Worcester's decision to close the 114-year-old parish.

St. Casimir, which was founded by Lithuanian immigrants and still largely caters to those of Lithuanian descent, is one of five city parishes that will be officially closed Tuesday because of a number of factors including a shortage of diocesan priests, the flight of Central Massachusetts Roman Catholics to the suburbs and dwindling financial resources.

Some parishioners, many of them members of Friends of St. Casimir, have vowed to fight the church closing.

David M. Moulton, the church's music director and a committee member, said parishioners formally sent Bishop Robert J. McManus an appeal letter on Tuesday.

Friends' members said they expect the Worcester prelate to turn down their request and added they plan to make a further appeal to Vatican authorities.

In a closed meeting with parishioners on June 15, Bishop McManus said he would not reconsider his decision.

Yesterday, church members gathered together in a show of solidarity, with the vigil starting about an hour before the 4 p.m. Mass.

More than a dozen handmade wooden crosses of various sizes were placed on the small front lawn of the Providence Street church in opposition to what many parishioners viewed as "an authoritarian decision" by the bishop.

Similar crosses were placed for decades on a hill in Saulai, Lithuania, to protest Soviet oppression. The crosses would be cleared by troops, only to be put up again by resisters.

Many openly wept as the rosary was recited in both English and Lithuanian and as the vigil closed with participants singing "Amazing Grace."

At least six members of St. Casimir Church in Brockton showed up at the protest. That church will be closed tomorrow by the Archdiocese of Boston.

"We're going to be sending some people down to Brockton to show our appreciation for their visit to Worcester," said Frank Statkus, a Shrewsbury resident who is chairman of the Friends Committee.

Many residents said they were upset with the bishop's decision because the parish is financially viable. They said they were willing to work with the diocese to recruit younger families to the aging congregation.

"We're still hoping for some compromise," said Lorraine Dailida Starr.

She said that, at the least, the diocese should consider converting the parish's old school into housing for the elderly and that a chapel should be constructed in the building where St. Casimir parishioners could worship regularly.

Mrs. Starr noted that the lives of many parishioners deeply revolve around the church.

For example, she said her daughter, Elektra Halasz, thought the church was so significant in her life that she had her 2-year-old son, Dylan, baptized at St. Casimir.

Mrs. Halasz and her husband, Les, live in Singapore.

Asta Grigalauskas, who lives in Marlboro, said St. Casimir's Parish helped acclimate her to American ways.

"I'm not sure I would not have done as well as I have, if it were not for this church," said Ms. Grigalauskas.

Arvydas Klimas of Oxford, who graduated from the parish's elementary school in 1967, said people are upset because the church holds so many memories for them.

Mr. Klimas, who served as an altar boy, said that he fondly remembers his school days.

"The nuns were tough on us, but I believe they helped us make it in society," he said.

After the vigil, many participants took part in the Mass, which, according to diocesan officials, served as the official closing service for the parish.

The Rev. Richard A. Jakubauskas, the church's pastor, said during the homily that he and congregants were grieving over the passing of their parish.

"Right now you may feel that you're on the cross and that you've been betrayed," said Rev. Jakubauskas, pointing to the large crucifix at the altar area. "But remember there is glory in resurrection and that things will work out."

He said parishioners had built up the parish over the years "for God, with no strings attached.

"We can't hang onto things, even the church," he said. "We don't want to be materialistic. That's not discipleship."

He said that it was pointless to criticize Bishop McManus, noting it was just time for St. Casimir to pass into history.

There will be Masses this morning at the church and the bishop will allow St. Casimir to be opened for funerals and special services for another year.

Diocesan officials have suggested that parishioners join St. John Church on Temple Street.

Contact Bronislaus B. Kush by e-mail at bkush@telegram.com.

May 19, 2008

Losing a home parish

Church move saddens many

By Mark Melady TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mmelady@telegram.com

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.

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. .

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.  

May 18, 2008  

Diocese to close five churches

Parishes were facing ‘serious decline’

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jreis@telegram.com

WORCESTER—Five Worcester churches will close July 1, the Diocese of Worcester announced in a letter read at afternoon Masses yesterday.

Notre Dame des Canadiens and Holy Name of Jesus churches will close and merge with St. Joseph Church to form Holy Family Parish located at St. Joseph’s; St. Casimir and Ascension parishes will be folded into the St. John Church parish, the mother church of the diocese; and St. Margaret Mary Church will close and its parish will be merged with St. Anne Church in Shrewsbury.

St. Casimir will continue to hold a Sunday Mass in Lithuanian for another year and will be available for occasional daily use for funerals.

The changes were the recommendation of the Pastoral Planning Committee that visited every parish and conducted focus groups, according to the letter from Bishop Robert J. McManus. Their goal was to determine which parishes were “pastorally vibrant, which were struggling with the full breadth of parish life,” and which “were facing a serious decline in population and sacramental activity, particularly if they no longer had a distinct ethnic population to serve.”

The parishioners at Notre Dame des Canadiens’ 4 p.m. Mass yesterday seemed to know they were in the last category. Although several said they were disappointed by the announcement, no one seemed surprised. They said it had been years since the church had a Mass in French, and only about 35 people were in the pews yesterday.

“It was inevitable that it was going to happen,” said Robert Randell, who has belonged to the church for 30 years. It’s sad, he said, but he also saw a silver lining: People won’t be struggling to keep declining churches going, and those churches that remain will be more vibrant, he said.

Sun streamed through the Notre Dame’s beautiful stained-glass windows yesterday, but those windows are in walls with peeling paint and with plaster missing in sections.

In 1993, Notre Dame was supposed to absorb the members of St. Joseph Church, which was to close. Members of St. Joseph’s occupied the church until a court ordered them evicted; in 1996, the diocese reopened the church. The two churches merged into a single parish and share a pastor, the Rev. Richard G. Roger. Now it is Notre Dame that will close, but no one mentioned any resistance yesterday.

Rev. Roger will be the pastor at Holy Family under the reorganization. Some priests will have new assignments, although the Rev. Richard A. Jakubauskas will stay with St. Casimir for the year, according to Raymond L. Delisle, vice chancellor of operations for the diocese. The diocese traditionally gives priests their assignments in June.

The Rev. Patrick J. Hawthorne, pastor of St. Margaret Mary, told his congregation that he will be going to a much larger church, but he could not announce it yet. He praised the process the bishop used to arrive at the closings.

“The bishop is not the villain here. He took two or three years to make these decisions from the bottom up, rather than from the top down,” Rev. Hawthorne said.

Breaking the news about the closure was the second most difficult thing he had ever done, Rev. Hawthorne said yesterday. The first was burying his mother.

The city has 29 churches that together seat more than 14,000 people. There are 21,960 registered Catholic households, about a third of which provide regular financial support, according to the bishop’s letter.

What happens to the church buildings will be up to the parishes, Mr. Delisle said. Holy Family, for instance, will have all the assets and liabilities of Notre Dame des Canadiens and Holy Name of Jesus. St. John will assume the same for St. Casimir and Ascension.

Some of the changes announced yesterday have more to do with administration than buildings. Our Lady of Fatima and St. Bernard parishes will merge on July 1, sharing both a pastor and parish staff. St. Catherine of Sweden and Sacred Heart of Jesus parishes, which have shared a pastor for a year, will work to merge their staff by 2010.

St. Joan of Arc Parish, on the other hand, will have its own pastor again after sharing one with St. Bernard Parish.

The changes are part of a “first phase of parish reconfiguration.”

“I anticipate that after due consultation, additional announcements will be made this fall,” Bishop McManus wrote. “Other urban areas of the Diocese will be addressed in the coming year,” he wrote.

Those areas will likely include Southbridge and Fitchburg, Mr. Delisle said.

Bud Barth of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this article.

Contact Jacqueline Reis by e-mail at jreis@telegram.com.

May 17, 2008

Diocese closing/merging five city parishes on July 1

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jreis@telegram.com

WORCESTER— Five Worcester churches will close on July 1, the Catholic Diocese of Worcester announced a letter read at Masses this afternoon.

Notre Dame des Canadiens, 5 Salem Square in downtown Worcester, and Holy Name of Jesus, 55 Illinois St., churches will close and merge with St. Joseph Church to form Holy Family Parish located at St. Joseph’s at 35 Hamilton St. In addition, St. Casimir, 41 Providence St., and Ascension, 48 Vernon Terrace, churches will be folded into St. John Church, 44 Temple St., the mother church of the diocese.

St. Casmir's will continue a Sunday Mass in Lithuanian for another year.

Also, St. Margaret Mary, 77 Alvarado St., will close and its parishioners have been invited to worship at St. Anne Church, 130 Boston Turnpike, in Shrewsbury.

The changes were the recommendation of a Pastoral Planning Committee that visited every parish and conducted focus groups, according to the letter written by Bishop Robert J. McManus.

Those changes and others are part of a “first phase of parish reconfiguration” in the city. “I anticipate that after due consultation, additional announcements will be made this fall,” Bishop McManus said in his letter to the Diocese.

Pastoral Planning Committee
Rev. Micael F. Rose
Rev. Michael G. Foley
James Fraser
Frank Kartheiser
Elizabeth A. Marcil
Lori Pandisco
Rev. Rocco Piccolomini
Deacon Anthony Srozenski