8 FROM PAGE ONE
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS DECEMBER 31, 2021
FROM PAGE ONE
t
A ceremonial ground-breaking for the Grace Rett Athletic Complex and Education (GRACE) Center was held at St. Mary Parishs center. The GRACE Center is being built behind Our Lady of the Valley Regional School in Uxbridge. The building is named for an OLV graduate who died in a motor vehicle crash while on a training trip in 2020 with the Holy Cross Womens rowing team, a day after her 20th birthday. The project will fulfill her dream for her school to have its own indoor athletic space. Construction on the building continued throughout the year. And a fundraiser in December brought in an additional $400,00 for the building project, leaving it about $150,000 short of its total goal. The Diocese released a pastoral letter, Coming Home to Mass, inviting people who have been away from church during the pandemic to come back. Physical restrictions caused by the pandemic were lifted and full occupancy of churches was allowed. As a community of faith we have been praying for this moment during these many long months of the pandemic. Now our ability to be present personally at Mass is a blessed reality, the bishop said in his letter. The bishop also restored the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
JUNE
A 95-year-old football game tradition ended with St. Peter/St. John high schools. St. Paul Diocesan Junior-Senior High School of Worcester and St. Bernard High School of Fitchburg announced plans to begin a Thanksgiving football rivalry next fall replacing the former Thanksgiving Day rivalry. St. Peter-Marian High School and Holy Name High School merged to form St. Pauls, which opened in the fall of 2020 on Holy Names renovated campus. St. Bernards won the inaugural Bishops Cup Thanksgiving game with a score of 48-14. St. Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School held its first graduation with a baccalaureate Mass on the schools football ield. Bishop McManus and Michael Clark, head of school, presented diplomas to St. Pauls irst graduating class. There were 158 diplomas awarded.
s
About 200 people attended an ordination at St. Paul Cathedral. Fathers Lucas M. LaRoche and John L. Larochelle grew up in the Worcester Diocese. Bishop McManus gave the new priests the traditional instruction about being holy, administering the sacraments, and following the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve, and to seek and save the lost.
t
Later in the month Bishop McManus ordained permanent Deacons John William Ladroga, Donald John Pegg and Scott Joseph Camilleri at a Mass in St. Paul Cathedral in Worcester. Their wives, children, grand- children and other supporters participated
Senior Fraud
HELPLINE
THE
Frauds
Recognize Resist Report
F il
800.297.9760
JULY
Bishop McManus issued a statement regarding Pope Francis apostolic letter on the traditional Latin Mass in which he reinforced the theological principle that the bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome constitute the visible principle and foundation of the unity of their particular Churches. The bishop promised to serve the spiritual well-being of all.
AUGUST
t
News of a destructive earthquake in Haiti saddened the faithful in the Diocese, many of whom have supported their Haitian brothers and sisters in the faith. Father William C. Konicki, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Hopedale learned that the parishs twin parish, St. Gerard Church, was demolished by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake. For 20 years, the parish has twinned with the Pont Salmon parish, erecting schools, chapels and other buildings, and providing $900 a month for support. Father Claude Renel Elysee, St. Gerard pastor, emailed Sacred Heart photos of the church and parish center, both of which had collapsed. Sacred Heart helped to build the parish center. Other parishes in the Diocese also received bad news from their twinning parishes in Haiti. Parish communities supported by St. Roch Parish in Oxford and St. Gabriel the Archangel in Upton were also devastated. The pandemic was bad, but it was good for enrollment at Catholic schools in the diocese. Enrollment increased from the 2020-2021 school year in most of the Catholic schools. Data showed that schools had more students enrolled in 2021 than the previous year. Superintendent David Perda said, Most of those gains are double digit gains.
SEPTEMBER
After a mandate from the Worcester Health Department, that included all schools in the city, Catholic schools were required to implement mask-wearing indoors. Later in the fall the city required masks in all public buildings, including churches. As the year ended, the mask mandate was still in place. (Photo on Page One.) The Worcester Catholic Womens Conference returned in 2021 and focused on evil in society. The conference drew about 360 women from the Diocese and beyond to St. Joseph Basilica and School in Webster. In his homily at the closing Mass of the conference at St. Joseph Basilica, Bishop McManus noted that attempts to curtail the Catholic Church are prevalent in the United States. The country is filled with institutions and social movements - such as the political left, cultural and academic elites and media - that have an agenda to curtail the Catholic Church, he said. We are the last institution in American society that will not bend the knee to their radically secular social and political agenda, and this infuriates them. Maintenance work got under way on the bell tower of St. Paul Cathedral, thanks in part to the Legacy of Hope capital campaign. Repairs included repointing of the tower. After a pause because of the pandemic, Legacy of Hope resumed in-parish visits and fund raising and concluded at the end of 2021 on the way to its $32 million goal. (Pledge payments will continue through 2025, in some cases.) Nativity School of Worcester received a $1.8 million gift from the late Catherine Butler. The school is funded by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. Ms. Butlers estate gift is the largest gift in the school's 18-year history. The donation will significantly increase the schools endowment and advance its mission to provide a tuition-free Jesuit education for middle school boys.
OCTOBER
St. Johns High School in Shrewsbury named a mak- erspace after an alumnus, who is also the parent of a former student, from whose estate the school is to receive $1 million. The Thomas J. Kelley Makerspace for Robotics & Engineering is a 2,400-square-foot lab which is home to St. Johns engineering program and robotics team. The gift will be used to create an endowed fund to support the operation of the makerspace, which opened in 2017, and to provide professional development for faculty. The Serra Club of Northern Worcester County held its 70th anniversary/priest appreciation celebration on Oct. 7. The club promotes vocations. Bishop McManus celebrated Mass in St. Leo Church in Leominster. About 250 people attended the 8th annual Celebrate Priesthood! Gala, held at St. Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School. The in-person gala returned after a virtual event in 2020 and raised more than $200,000 for the care of retired priests.
NOVEMBER
Thirty-four couples, with 1,371 years of marriage, registered for the Mass to celebrate marriage in the diocese. God and faith are important for a lasting marriage was one message the participants heard. The messages came from those involved in the dioceses annual wedding anniversary Mass, held at St. Paul Cathedral.
t
A shrine that has drawn parishioners and neighbors to prayer was blessed by Bishop McManus. Parishioners started building the shrine of the Blessed Mother of Grace at Our Lady of Vilna Church on July 5, 2019, Father Tam M. Bui, pastor, told The Catholic Free Press. But the pandemic hit, delaying the bishops blessing of the shrine. The statue of Mary, which stands atop large boulders, was made in Vietnam and donated by a family in the parish, Father Bui said. (The former Lithuanian parish now serves primarily Vietnamese Catholics.)
t
The U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly voted to approve a new document on the Eucharist that highlights the sacraments indispensable role in the life of the Church. The vote, coming during the annual fall assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was 222 to 8, with three abstentions. Bishop McManus, a member of the Committee on Doctrine which worked on the document, said, This document is fundamentally important to who we are as Catholics. We are a eucharistic community. In an interview, Bishop McManus said the overwhelming success of the vote had a lot to do with the fact that the bishops spent the entire opening day of the fall assembly in prayer together. The speaking program for the 21st annual Mens Conference, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, 2022, at Assumption University was announced. In 2020 we were all disappointed when the conference had to be cancelled two weeks before it was to take place because of the pandemic. This past year we had a virtual conference for the same reason. But now we are so delighted to go forward with an in-person conference again, Msgr. Thomas Sullivan said.
DECEMBER
A pilgrimage organized by Father Juan Escudero, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish, in Northborough, closed out the Year of St Joseph. Parishioners visited St. Joseph Church in Worcester to hear about the saint and the church from Msgr. Robert K. Johnson, pastor of Holy Family Parish. The diocesan Office of Fiscal Affairs hired a financial consultant to be a liaison between the office and parishes. Stephen Sycks, with experience in banking and non-profit fund raising, is to help parishes with administrative issues. Priests in the Diocese who died in 2021 March 3: Father Dennis Timothy OMara, 69 May 25: Father Andre M. Gariepy, 90 July 17: Father Dennis J. OBrien, 70 Oct. 14: Father Joseph M. Nally, 77 Oct. 16: Father Laurie L. Leger, MS, 93 Nov. 1: Father Thomas B. Fleming, 71 Dec. 5: Father John F. Gee, 94 Dec. 21: Father George J. Ridick, 76
REVIEW YEARIN
2021
LOCAL
I M o d t e f t f
Previous Page