Catholic school to hold cathedral Mass for patron

GOLDEN Jubilee celebrations at a Dover school will be concluded with a special Mass in honour of its patron St Edmund of Abingdon.

Seventeen coaches have been put on order to transport all students and staff from St Edmund’s Catholic School to one of the most famous places of worship in the world, Canterbury Cathedral.

The school and cathedral authorities say the Catholic Mass is being held at the cathedral because it is celebrating the Feast Day of St Edmund, a former Archbishop of Canterbury (1233-1240).

The Mass will be led by the Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark. He will be joined by the priests and deacons of the Dover deanery.

Other guests will include dignitaries from the church, parliament and local authorities, as well as friends and colleagues of the school from over the past 50 years.

An allocation of tickets will be made available to the public for past staff and students, and other members of the school’s wider community.

An online ticket ballot will run from September 24 until October 14. Applicants can apply for up to three tickets and, if applications are received for more than the allotted allocation, a random draw will take place.

The Mass will take place on Friday, November 16 at 11am. For more information or to apply for tickets visit the schools website at www.st-edmunds.com

Morning Catholic must-reads: 27/08/12

Judas betrayed Jesus because “he wanted a winning Messiah“, Benedict XVI said in his Angelus address yesterday.

Vatican Radio has confirmed that Pope Benedict’s visit to Lebanon will go ahead next month “despite the climate of growing tension” in the country.

Priests in Scotland read out a pastoral letter at Masses yesterday opposing the Scottish government’s plan to legalise same-sex marriage (full text).

Archbishop Charles Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, outlines his vision for the renewal of the Irish Church.

Menachem Gantz argues that the appointment of Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Israel is “an embarrassment and humiliation” for the nation.

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez considers whether Pope Benedict’s visit to the island helped advocates of democracy.

And a “beautiful reddish purple and gold coloured Citroën” driven by Pope Pius XI is to go on display at the Vatican.

For updates throughout the day follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen

Steady progress for St. Gabriel’s book

Posted Aug 23, 2012
By Carol McCuaig

To the editor:

Steady progress is being made on the St. Gabriel’s Memory Book, which is being prepared to honour the priests and people who were associated with the mission church of St. Gabriel the Archangel at Springtown.

The plan is to release the book in November, in time for Christmas gift-giving.

Photos are now being sought for possible inclusion in the book.

We hope to find snaps that show people taking part in events at the church, or in the graveyard. Baptisms, weddings, First Communion, Confirmation, funerals, work parties etc. Interior shots of the church and photos of the priests who attended there are also welcome.

Please contact Carol McCuaig before sending photos through the mail. She can be reached at 613-432-8992 or juniper2@nrtco.net/ Postal address: 127 McCuaig Rd, R.R. 2, Renfrew, ON, K7V 3Z5. Photos may also be submitted electronically (300 dpi, please) to Joel McCrea, joel@mccreas.net.

It will be greatly appreciated if people whose families have a connection with St. Gabriel’s church can hunt up suitable photos to help us make this book a success.

Carol McCuaig

Renfrew

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Learning my religion

On Wednesday The Times carried a piece on how parents would be able to choose ‘ethics’ over religion in draft proposals for a new national curriculum. I suppose one must be pro-choice in these matters. It’s also fashionable to root for ‘what really matters’ rather than for the mumbo-jumbo of saints, chérubins and eternal hellfire. Only fashion can be misleading.

There is much that I find detestable about Catholicism as we know it. For one, I find it hard to stomach the shameless sexism that dictates, prescriptively and institutionally, which gender is fit for which purpose. The consequences of this pig-headedness are both demonstrable and tragic.

There are many hundreds of nuns in Malta, for example, but not one enjoys a public profile. A number of priests are household names – they write columns in newspapers, spend a great deal of their time on television and so on.

Not so nuns, who by all impressions seem not to have an opinion on divorce, IVF, prison reform, or anything else really. Theirs is but to care, pray, and weep for humanity behind closed walls.

I also find it terribly irritating that on-the-ground-Catholicism should be so obsessed with matters to do with people’s sex and family lives (the sort of matters that bothered Jesus sufficiently for him to doodle in the sand, ironically enough).

I’m sure Catholic theology and official doctrine are infinitely varied and sophisticated. Fact is, however, that my main experience of Catholic ethics as an average Maltese child and teenager was that of an army of churchmen trying their best to keep us in the shadow of a celestial chaste tree. Much of it was patent nonsense too.

We were always being told for example that masturbation is a heinous waste of seed, or that sleeping with a woman who is not one’s wife is tantamount to ‘using her’. The second assumes that the letter ‘o’ (let alone the word ‘multiple’) is missing from women’s dictionaries. I could go on but readers will get the picture.

The point is that these notions cause untold and unnecessary misery to millions. They also produce generations of twisted misogynists, and prudes. Not to mention the Leonardesque smiles on women’s faces.

I should be delighted to see such rough tomfoolery abjured and buried certain fathoms in the earth. Certainly, if this is the sort of ‘religion’ the curriculum has in mind, I wouldn’t wish to see it foisted on unsuspecting schoolchildren.

That I think is part of the argument for discarding religious education. Thing is, there’s so much more to the blessed business than priggery and impossible ideals.

For obvious reasons, I won’t be talking about the dividends of religion generally. In any case, I don’t think it can be boiled down to a vulgar cost-benefit analysis. I’ll therefore limit myself to arguing why it might make sense not to deprive children of it. By ‘religion’ I actually mean things like faith, stories of prophets and angels, and regular ritual practice. The rest (how to be decent to others, the difference between right and wrong, and so on) can actually exist quite happily, godlessly.

I’m afraid the first argument requires a grand word: Civilisation. On lucky days I bump into an ex-student of ours at University whose life seems to orbit his knowledge of and passion for Classics. He’s fluent in both (ancient) Greek and Latin and tends on particularly good days to lapse into descriptions of marriage in third-century Athens or somesuch.

I would never dare instrumentalise such an intellectual arsenal. But this young man’s knowledge really gives him the edge over mortals like myself. He can understand things like etymology, the frescoes of Carracci, and Handel operas much better than I can, simply because he is steeped in the classical roots of European civilisation.

One could plausibly apply the argument to a different (if certainly related) set of roots. Take say Poussin’s paintings or the art of Michelangelo. How would one go about making sense of them if one’s parents had decided that Catholic cosmology can be discarded for ‘ethics’? I’m saying we risk a generation of students who are all interactive whiteboards and nothing to write.

Be that as it may, one doesn’t need to believe in the Olympian pantheon in order to know one’s Homer. Which means we’re still stuck, because Catholicism in schools is not just about learning the Bible as a set of myths. I had to attend Mass daily at school, and we weren’t just told that bread and wine became flesh and blood. We were expected to believe and be moved by it. The second argument is somewhat more complicated and has to do with what one might call the ‘ability empathically to understand’. The best analogy I can think of is Ernest Gellner on nationalism: “I am deeply sensitive to the spell of nationalism… I do not think I could have written the book on nationalism I did write, were I not capable of crying, with the help of a little alcohol, over folk songs.”

Gellner wrote this as a response to critics who accused his work on nationalism as being soulless and cerebral. His defence was, first, that it is indeed the case that a proper understanding of nationalism requires being ‘sensitive to its spell’ and, second, that he was under such a spell himself. The reference to alcohol is just Gellner at his sardonic best.

I would argue that the surest way to understand what religion is about is to spend at least part of one’s life under its spell. A friend whose ambassadors have for many years been missing from God’s territory told me the other day that he can’t read the story of Lazarus without clearing his throat a few times.

He can go through the whole of the Ramayana quite academically. Even so, he perfectly understands why Hindus should feel about Lord Ram what he feels about Jesus.

My point is not that religion is necessarily the main source of emotionality in life. Many things can do that. But surely, given the persistence of religious belief and practice throughout history, one would be shortchanged to not be able to understand what motivates people to cultivate the sacred. In this sense, a religious education and the consequent ability empathically to understand make the world a more charming place to be.

Had my parents consulted me as a child, I would probably have chosen the ethics over the magical bits. I honestly believed at the time that the former were the more important. I now think the opposite. And unlike Gellner, I don’t need alcohol to find the story of Lazarus profoundly moving.

mafalzon@hotmail.com

New breed of Catholicism in alternative group

Father Greg Reynolds leads Mass at the Inclusive Catholics service in South Yarra, where one first-time visitor brought his dog along

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Fr Greg Reynolds wants his church of dissident Catholics to welcome all – ”every man and his dog”, one might say, risking the non-inclusive language he deplores – but even he was taken aback when that was put to the test during Mass yesterday, reports The Age.

A first-time visitor arrived late at the Inclusive Catholics service in South Yarra with a large and well-trained German shepherd. When the consecrated bread and wine were passed around, the visitor took some bread and fed it to his dog.

Apart from one stifled gasp, those present showed admirable presence of mind – but the dog was not offered the cup!

Fr Reynolds, a Melbourne priest for 32 years, launched Inclusive Catholics earlier this year. He now ministers to up to 40 people at fortnightly services alternating between two inner-suburban Protestant churches.

The congregation includes gay men, former priests, abuse victims and many women who feel disenfranchised, but it is optimistic rather than bitter.

Yesterday a woman, Irene Wilson, led the liturgy and another, Emmy Silvius, preached the homily. Two more passed the bread and wine around.

Fr Reynolds – his only clerical adornment a green stole around his neck – played as small a role as he could.

FULL STORY Dissidents preach a new breed of Catholicism (Age)

RELEASE

Archbishop Hart protests Catholic ridicule

Korean Catholics find a home of their own

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The Catholic Mass is the same regardless of language, but it is conducted in Korean here.

But all visitors are welcome. After Mass, the group moved over to the parish hall next door, which the church has renovated, for a light afternoon meal of lemonade, tea and kimbap — a vegetable and rice roll. Adults and kids mingled and ate together.

The scene could be from any church, anywhere. The communal spirit is palpable.

Hae Lee has been in the U.S. for about 10 years, and lived much of that time in Michigan, where her family attended a Korean church that was very large. Church allows the foreign-born to maintain a tie to their heritage.

“Every week we come to feel the Korean culture,” Lee said.

St. Andrew Kim Taegon has about 180 members who are ministered to by the church pastor, Byeong Cheol Jang, who goes by “Father Paul” here. He arrived in Montgomery in January.

He understands some English, but for an interview, he’s helped by Jun Joo, who translates. Father Paul grew up in Cheong Ju diocese in Korea; he was baptized there and served as a pastor there. There are eight Korean priests from Cheong Ju diocese in the entire U.S., Father Paul said, and three of those eight are in Alabama — the other two are in Huntsville and Birmingham.

As the lone pastor at St. Andrew Kim Taegon, all of the pastoral and administrative responsibilities fall to Father Paul. He has help to learn the American way of life and with such matters as bookkeeping, but he is responsible for Bible studies, preparing for Mass and training lay people to help with services.

Like any pastor, he faces challenges. Perhaps the most difficult is the nature of this particular congregation. Many work for Hyundai or their suppliers, and are often sent to Montgomery for just a three-, four- or five-year period. Then they return to South Korea.

The constant turnover will be a hardship, Father Paul said. Every church loses and gains members, but Joo said only about half of this congregation is here permanently, and it can be difficult to build a new church with a membership that is often moving.

But Father Paul will work to make whoever is here feel comfortable, he said, and “feel the love of God.”

As they continue to settle into their new church home, the Koreans have plans for the future of their parish. Jeongyun Kim, Joo’s wife, said that they plan to start a Sunday school for the children in September. And Lucia Kim, who has lived here about a year and a half, talked about some of the outreach at the church — she volunteered to help feed the homeless recently, and had a good experience with that, she said.

“It’s very special for us here,” Jeongyun Kim said. “We have this beautiful, 100-year-old building. We have to be very grateful for that.”

Parish ‘deeply divided’ over indecent images row, say elders

Following Fr Martin McVeigh’s appearance at Masses in Pomeroy over the weekend of July 7 and 8, at which some members of the congregations showed their support of the Killyman born priest with “rapturous applause”, a group of people claiming to be the “elders of Pomeroy Parish” have released a statement describing the situation as “most disgusting”.

The group, who are also members of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, some for more than 60 years, says events in the Church of the Assumption in Pomeroy over that weekend have “really upset us”.

The statement continues: “Last Saturday night (sic) in Pomeroy church we witnessed something that was most disgusting. People had been returning to their own church for Mass in the belief that Fr McVeigh had taken sabbatical leave and was no longer celebrating Mass in the church.

“They had been hoodwinked by the statements of Fr McVeigh and Cardinal Brady who stated that Fr McVeigh was leaving the parish following the incident of inadvertently showing gay pornographic images to a group of parents of children preparing for their First Holy Communion.

“This Mass was a complete contradiction of the closing Mass at the Eucharistic Congress. This was not a Mass of the communion of the people. This was a Mass to cause division. It was for the small number of his followers who clapped and sang at their loudest to show their triumphalism over the rest of the parishioners who believe that the incident that Fr McVeigh was involved in has never really been investigated and too many questions remain unanswered.

“Two statements were read and we think these statements should not have been read from the altar of God. Did those priests who read the statements not show respect for the loving Body of Christ behind them in the tabernacle. What did Jesus do when he found these same people in the temple?”

Speaking to the Times, a representative of the group of elders explained the “shock” felt by them when Fr McVeigh appeared at the Mass, and believes the entire incident – which began with the offending imagery on March 26 – could have been handled much differently by the church authorities and their Parish Priest himself.

“As soon as it happened, there should have been a proper investigation or a suspension”, the spokesperson continued.

“What happened in the aftermath of this incident has lent so much frustration to people in Pomeroy.

“If you look at Cardinal Brady’s statement in April, that concluded by saying Fr McVeigh would sometime be returning to the Diocese, but not to the Parish.

“The situation since has been very divisive in the area. There are fears that the Parish could be torn apart. There are friends and even family members falling out because of their opinions on the issue.”

The elders’ statement concluded by saying:

“When we returned from church on Saturday night no one could say they had even attended Mass. We couldn’t even pray when we looked at the brazen acts on the altar and what was coming from those scattered around the church after all the lies and deceit of the past four months.

“It was sad to see two other priests who had a lot of respect among us who on Saturday night were up there on the altar giving support to Fr McVeigh. Who can we now trust to give spiritual guidance to our young people when we have become so disillusioned ourselves.

“What he did inadvertently on the 26th March 2012 and how that incident has been handled has raised a lot of questions. All we have been told are lies and more lies.

“What really happened to the memory stick? Next day he (Fr McVeigh) said that the memory stick was with the Ara Coeli in Armagh. Incidentally the delegation from Armagh did not begin any investigation until Friday 30th March. That was four days later.

“What other images were there on that memory stick? Why did an innocent man destroy the only evidence that could have proved his innocence?

“Did the police examine all the computers on the church property? When the parents questioned the investigator about the computers he examined he said he was shown three and they were all clear. He was surprised when he was asked about the other three as he was only aware of three computers.

“He was even more surprised to be told that a laptop had supposedly been stolen…Why on the day of the conclusion of the Ara Coeli investigation did the investigator seek to find out from two parents of P4 if they knew who could have tampered with the CCTV security at the church?

“Will Ara Coeli tell us how much the investigation cost? Or will it be the same as before when all dealings in our parish are secret.

“Attending Sunday Mass has always been very important to us but we will find it difficult to partake in the Mass for we do not know when or what type of stunt Fr McVeigh will pull.”

In his formal declaration of innocence to the congregations in Pomeroy, Fr McVeigh acknowledged that the past three months had been a “very difficult time” for the Parish.

He went on to say he deeply regretted his failure to check, in advance, the presentation to First Communion parents.

According to Fr McVeigh his decision to destroy the offending imagery was in reaction to his “shock, anger and disgust” and a “poor attempt”, on his part, to ensure they would never be shown again.

Stating that a further independent expert forensic examination of all parish computer equipment had established that none of the computer systems examined contained any inappropriate imagery, Fr McVeigh concluded by saying:

“As you may know, the company who installed the CCTV system confirmed to the police that this specialised equipment had, in fact, been tampered with two weeks after the incident in the school and some back-up footage had been deleted – the PSNI investigation into both this and the subsequent theft of the parish laptop is still in progress.

“The parish is now reviewing its policies and procedures in relation to all parish computers and related equipment to minimise the risk of this type of incident happening again.

“Fr. David Moore will take up the role of Administrator in my absence from Monday 2nd July and I invite you all to give him a warm welcome.”

From SSPX: “We reaffirm our faith in the Roman Catholic Church, outside of …

At the conclusion of the General Chapter of the Society of St. Pius X, gathered together at the tomb of its venerated founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and united with its Superior General, the participants, bishops, superiors, and most senior members of the Society elevate to Heaven our heartfelt thanksgiving, grateful for the 42 years of marvelous Divine protection over our work, amidst a Church in crisis and a world which distances itself farther from God and His law with each passing day.

We wish to express our gratitude to each and every member of our Society: priests, brothers, sisters, third order members; to the religious communities close to us and also to our dear faithful, for their constant dedication and for their fervent prayers on the occasion of this Chapter, marked by frank exchanges of views and by a very fruitful common work. Every sacrifice and pain accepted with generosity has contributed to overcome the difficulties which the Society has encountered in recent times. We have recovered our profound unity in its essential mission: to preserve and defend the Catholic Faith, to form good priests, and to strive towards the restoration of Christendom. We have determined and approved the necessary conditions for an eventual canonical normalization. We have decided that, in that case, an extraordinary Chapter with deliberative vote will be convened beforehand.

We must never forget that the sanctification of the souls always starts within ourselves. It is the fruit of a faith which becomes vivifying and operating by the work of charity, according to the words of St. Paul: “For we can do nothing against the truth: but for the truth” (cf. II Cor., XIII, 8), and “as Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it… that it should be holy and without blemish” (cf. Eph. V, 25 s.).

The Chapter believes that the paramount duty of the Society, in the service which it intends to offer to the Church, is to continue, with God’s help, to profess the Catholic Faith in all its purity and integrity, with a determination matching the intensity of the constant attacks to which this very Faith is subjected nowadays.

For this reason it seems opportune that we reaffirm our faith in the Roman Catholic Church, the unique Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, outside of which there is no salvation nor possibility to find the means leading to salvation; our faith in its monarchical constitution, desired by Our Lord himself, by which the supreme power of government over the universal Church belongs only to the Pope, Vicar of Christ on earth; our faith in the universal Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of both the natural and the supernatural orders, to Whom every man and every society must submit.

The Society continues to uphold the declarations and the teachings of the constant Magisterium of the Church in regard to all the novelties of the Second Vatican Council which remain tainted with errors, and also in regard to the reforms issued from it. We find our sure guide in this uninterrupted Magisterium which, by its teaching authority, transmits the revealed Deposit of Faith in perfect harmony with the truths that the entire Church has professed, always and everywhere.

The Society finds its guide as well in the constant Tradition of the Church, which transmits and will transmit until the end of times the teachings required to preserve the Faith and the salvation of souls, while waiting for the day when an open and serious debate will be possible which may allow the return to Tradition of the ecclesiastical authorities.

We wish to unite ourselves to the others Christians persecuted in different countries of the world who are now suffering for the Catholic Faith, some even to the extent of martyrdom. Their blood, shed in union with the Victim of our altars, is the pledge for a true renewal of the Church in capite et membris, according to the old saying sanguis martyrum semen christianorum.

“Finally, we turn our eyes to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is also jealous of the privileges of her Divine Son, jealous of His glory, of His Kingdom on earth as in Heaven. How often has she intervened for the defense, even the armed defense, of Christendom against the enemies of the Kingdom of Our Lord! We entreat her to intervene today to chase the enemies out from inside the Church who are trying to destroy it more radically than its enemies from outside. May she deign to keep in the integrity of the Faith, in the love of the Church, in devotion to the Successor of Peter, all the members of the Society of St. Pius X and all the priests and faithful who labor alongside the Society, in order that she may both keep us from schism and preserve us from heresy.

“May St. Michael the Archangel inspire us with his zeal for the glory of God and with his strength to fight the devil.

“May St. Pius X share with us a part of his wisdom, of his learning, of his sanctity, to discern the true from the false and the good from the evil in these times of confusion and lies.” (Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre; Albano, October 19, 1983).

Given at Ecône, on the 14th of July of the Year of the Lord 2012.

Being small is good for some things, but not others

By Tanya Connor

“I think we liked the smallness of the parish, just a very sacred worshipping atmosphere. … For years we did foster care for Catholic Charities. If the baby cried, people would turn and smile. You can go to a large parish and you kind of get lost.”
Phyllis Charpentier was speaking of her parish of about 20 years – St. Anne’s in the Manchaug section of Sutton.
The “smallness” had its down side, however. St. Anne’s will merge with St. Mark Parish in Sutton on June 30, Bishop McManus announced in a decree dated June 11. Priests and parishioners of both parishes had already been informed and prepared for the change.
“You try to leave the people as positive as you can in a difficult situation,” said Father Patrick J. Hawthorne, St. Anne’s pastor. So June 10 he celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving to recall the good done in the parish, he said. Since St. Anne’s is to remain open as a chapel, he said, he altered prayers for a parish closing Mass, thanking God at various sites around the church for what happened there, such as baptisms at the baptismal font. A cookout and games followed Mass.
“I think it helped to ease some of the pain, and maybe the anger,” Father Hawthorne said.
He said he will celebrate his last Lord’s Day Masses there at 4 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and the last weekday Masses there at 8:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday, before moving on to his new assignment, Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Worcester.
Father Michael A. DiGeronimo, St. Mark’s pastor, said after that there will be one Mass a week at St. Anne’s: at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. He will celebrate it July 1, and after that Father Thomas B. Fleming, assigned to emergency response ministry, will be the scheduled celebrant, he said.
Father DiGeronimo said he and about seven St. Mark’s parishioners went to St. Anne’s for a “meet and greet” June 13, taking St. Mark’s Sunday bulletin and a parish ministries list. He said about 20 St. Anne’s parishioners came.
“We just extended a hand of friendship to them,” introducing them to the parish, inviting them to be part of it, he said. “It was a friendly evening. I think they’re still kind of in shock,” and thinking about what comes next, which is natural in such a situation.
“We were very touched by the meeting,” Mrs. Charpentier said. “They were welcoming and sincere. Father DiGeronimo shared with us about his life and his experience as a priest.” She and a St. Mark’s parishioner she sat next to hugged, cried and smiled, she said.
“We do live closer to St. Denis,” she said of the Catholic parish in Douglas. “But we’re thinking we will look at St. Mark’s.”
“I’m going where they’re going until I’m 16 and I can drive myself,” Mrs. Charpentier’s 15-year-old, Rose, said of her parents and her plans. Of the news about St. Anne’s she said, “It kind of stinks that it’s closing.”
“It’s been difficult for me,” said David J. Picard, baptized at St. Anne’s nearly 80 years ago and a member ever since. “It’s one of those things that comes and goes. It’s sad to see it go. It’s probably the shortage of priests. I think it’s been pretty active; they did a lot, for a limited number of people.”
He said he enjoyed talking with Father DiGeronimo, who “seemed to be a fine priest,” but he and his wife will go to St. Denis.
“Often through the years you hear rumors – you think you could be closing,” Mrs. Charpentier said. She said parishioners took pride in the fact that they had built the church and rectory after a fire destroyed the previous ones, and they had no debt. But she said their numbers and were dwindling and there is a priest shortage.
“Why send a healthy priest here if you need one at a parish with 1,000 families?” she asked.
Father Hawthorne said there were very few people at St. Anne’s for many years; in his one year there he baptized two babies and celebrated two funerals, and about 120 people total attended the three Lord’s Day Masses.
“The ones who came were generous, but there wasn’t enough,” he said; the collection brought in about $1,100 a week, and repairs are needed. It was unfair that the same people were always pressed into service, “but even with their small numbers they did great things,” he said.
“Some people thought that, with Father Pat, they were giving us a chance to build, build families, because he’s so lively,” Mrs. Charpentier said of Father Hawthorne being assigned pastor there last year. “So we didn’t know if he was closing us or if he was going to build us. But he said, ‘Let’s try,’” and let them try new things.
“He’s the funnest priest I ever met,” Rose said.
Her mother said she thought it would have been very difficult for Father Stanley F. Krutcik, their previous pastor, to close St. Anne’s, as he’d been there so long.
Father Hawthorne said he, Father DiGeronimo and St. Denis’ retiring pastor, Father William N. Cormier, met with the diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee, which then sent representatives to get input from St. Anne’s parishioners to share with Bishop McManus, who made the final decision.
“I think that process was to show us how small we were,” Mrs. Charpentier said of committee members’ first visit. They asked parishioners where they wanted to go, and told them St. Anne’s is the smallest of three area parishes, the others being St. Mark’s and St. Denis, she said. And, unlike them, St. Anne’s is not handicapped accessible. Later parishioners were told St. Anne’s  would merge with St. Mark’s, she said.
“That was a shock,” she said. “We were originally a mission of St. Denis,” and many older parishioners have plots in St. Denis’ cemetery.
Father Hawthorne said there were good arguments on both sides, for merging St. Anne’s with St. Mark or St. Denis. He said he thought both parishes would welcome St. Anne’s parishioners, whose sacramental records will be kept safely at St. Mark’s.
He said he told his parishioners: “You’re not refugees. Don’t settle for sitting in the back with the rest of the Catholics. Sit up front and get involved.”

St. Anne’s grew from St. Denis   

SUTTON – St. Anne’s Parish in  Manchaug began as mission of St. Denis in Douglas.
It served a growing Catholic population in the area, most of them French-Canadian families. They brought their language and their faith to the small mill and farming village. First they walked the two miles to St. Denis for Mass and the sacraments.
According to Father John J. McCoy, in his “History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Springfield,” published in 1900, a Father Noiseux celebrated the first Mass in Manchaug in 1859 in a brick house owned by the Mumford Manufacturing Co. Later Father Napoleon Meigneault came from St. Louis Parish in Webster to celebrate Mass in a barn, the only building big enough to hold the 120 Catholics in town.
In 1864 the Mumford company granted Father Edward Sheridan, St. Denis’ pastor, permission to celebrate Mass in the Baptist church. That, said Father McCoy, upset the Baptist community. So Mass subsequently was celebrated in a private home. In 1883, Father Alexis Delphos built a church, dedicated “to God under the patronage of St. Anne” on Thanksgiving Day.
Father Delphos, who helped care for the sick and aged, according to Father McCoy, gathered a group of women to help with that work. They formed the Little Franciscan Sisters, an order who eventually cared for sick and elderly at the St. Francis Home in Worcester.
By the end of the 1800s the Catholic population of Manchaug  had grown to about 1,600, almost all of them of French-Canadian heritage. In January 1900, Bishop Thomas Beaven of Springfield established St. Anne’s as a parish, with Father J. Victor Campeau as its first  pastor.
In 1924 the church, which Father Campeau previously had expanded to accommodate 700 people, burned, along with the rectory, convent, the school and several homes. St. Anne’s parishioners attended Mass for the next 29 years on the second floor of the Manchaug store.
In 1951 parishioners broke ground for a new church. Bishop Wright dedicated it on June 21, 1953. People raised money to pay for it through monthly ham and bean suppers, food and rummage sales, bazaars, raffles, whist parties, auctions and Sunday socials. The mortgage was paid off by 1965. A new rectory was built in 1970 and the parishioners used their time-tested method of fund-raising to pay that mortgage, too.

New abuse claims filed against NJ Catholic school

MORRISTOWN — Two former students at a prominent New Jersey Catholic school added their names Tuesday to a lawsuit that claims they and two others suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of clerics in the 1970s and ’80s.

Steve Badt, who runs a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., said at a news conference Tuesday that he carried memories of the abuse for decades but was spurred to action by news of a lawsuit brought by brothers Bill and Tom Crane in March. The lawsuit names Delbarton, a private college prep school for boys in grades seven through 12, and St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the school.

Joining the Cranes and Badt in the amended complaint was an unidentified fourth plaintiff who said he suffered abuse at the school during the 1980s. The Associated Press normally doesn’t identify people who say they are sexual abuse victims, but Badt wanted his name public.

The 44-year-old Badt identified his abuser as the Rev. Timothy Brennan and said he clearly remembered four incidents in which Brennan molested him starting when he was in 7th grade.

The first occurred in a classroom after classes had let out and before the school buses arrived, Badt said.

“I was embarrassed, and I blamed myself,” Badt said. “I didn’t really realize the extent of what had happened to me.”

According to the school, Brennan pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual contact with a minor in 1987 and has not been a part of the monastic community since then and is “resident at a secure facility where he has no contact with the general public.”

A phone number for Brennan wasn’t available Tuesday.

The unidentified plaintiff claims that he was abused by a different priest and that other school officials knew about the misconduct but failed to take action.

The Cranes’ portion of the complaint alleges they were abused by two priests including the Rev. Luke Travers. In January, Travers was removed from his position as head of an abbey in Richmond, Va., over allegations of sexual misconduct at Delbarton. He didn’t respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday.

“Sexual abuse and exploitation of any kind, whether toward an adult or a child, is inconsistent with the beliefs and values of St. Mary’s Abbey,” the school said in an emailed statement. “The program of education, monitoring and prevention has now been in place for a decade. Unfortunately, abuse allegations continue to be disclosed through internet blogs and in the media, sometimes before they are reported to competent authorities. This limits the ability to investigate thoroughly or respond fairly, particularly when misconduct is alleged to have taken place years ago.”