Chapter 10 Team Ministry

On Friday, May 15, 1973, Bishop Flanagan announced a new team ministry to take charge of the pastoral responsibilities at Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish.  The new team would be comprised of Fr. Henry Bowen, then diocesan vice-officialis with his residence at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Fr. James Caldarella, who was the associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Worcester and Fr. Raymond Goodwin who was assistant pastor at the Cathedral parish.  On June 15th the new team would take over from Fr. George Holland who was acting administrator following the retirement of Fr. Francis Carroll and from Fr. Blaise Ciambelli who was the associate.  The weekend before, on Sunday June 10th, there was a parish reception in the school cafeteria to thank the departing priests for their presence and ministry to the parish during their tenure.  Over 300 people attended to show their appreciation and wish them well with new assignments. 

Fr. Bowen, a native of Fitchburg, had been ordained in Rome in 1959 and after his first assignment in Southbridge had studied canon law at Catholic University and been appointed to the Diocesan Tribunal.  Fr. Caldarella, a native of Hartford, had been ordained by Bishop Flanagan at the Cathedral in 1971.  Prior to the seminary, he had served as a LaSalette Missionary professed brother during which time he worked in the Diocese of Wheeling, WV, and in Port Tobacco, MD.  His only assignment to date as a priest in the Diocese of Worcester had been at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Worcester.  A native of Clinton, Fr. Goodwin had been ordained at his home church in 1969, and had served at Saint Rose of Lima in Northboro and at the Cathedral as Director of the Liturgical Apostolate. 

More than change a priest or pastor, this new assignment was a shifting of the pastoral experience for the 125 years of Saint Mary’s life as a parish.  For nearly a century, the pastor had been a man with decades of priestly experience in administration of a parish, caring for souls, celebrating sacraments and preaching.  These three new priests combined, did not have two decades of experience between them.  They would bring a new sense of leadership, a new perspective and energy to the pastoral care of the parish.  As the church was learning of the shift in practice and new horizons from the Second Vatican Council, these priests would be leaders to open new frontiers for the faithful in Milford. 

The first meeting of the new team of priests with the Parish Council took place at the Council meeting on June 6^th in the parish school.  The priests shared copies of their application to the diocese as a team to familiarize the Council with their individual history as well as the strengths and experiences that they were bringing to their new ministry.  After their first weekend in the parish, they met with the Council again on June 20^th in the convent.  The business of the meeting was concerned with the final details for the upcoming parish picnic at Hopkinton State Park the following Sunday. Another concern was organizing some lay members of the parish to assist in bringing communion to the elderly and ill in their homes.  A discussion followed on the encouragement by Bishop Flanagan to join the Ecumenical Council of Churches.  There was considerable discussion on the new plantings for the church, volunteers who had agreed to help with the work and others who were donating to fund the work. 

The new team shared how they planned to divide their pastoral responsibility in the parish.  Fr. Goodwin would be in charge of “the Liturgy, CYC, Elderly, Sick and Handicapped.”  Fr. Bowen “will supervise the Grammar School, CCD, Sacraments, Ecumenism & Human Services.”  Fr. Caldarella would handle “the High School, Adult Education, and the Cemetery.”  Other discussions at the meeting involved the parish’s possible membership in the Ecumenical Council of Churches, new plantings around the church, the need for a new secretary and custodian.  The last item raised without resolution was to consider the schedule of Masses for Sunday morning to alleviate the traffic congestion between Masses.  For the July meeting, there was a recommendation to consider a morning daily Mass and another round of “Share for Christ’ an offering incentive program to increase weekly donations.

That Sunday, when the gates opened at 10 am at Hopkinton State Park, it was hoped that parishioners would arrive with lunch and dinner prepared to enjoy a day of activities that would deepen the bonds of the parish members and help the new priests become familiar with the members of their new flock.  Mike and Maureen Touhey, members of the Parish Council in charge of Family Life, were in charge of the event. They had organized several parishioners to take responsibility for various parts of the day.  There were various races, along with baseball and volleyball for various age groups.  The Bee-Gee Candy Co. had donated their product to be used as prizes for the children who won in the competitions.  There were also attendance prizes:  John Roche won the prize at the age of 89 as the oldest present, while Erin Grady at two and a half months was the youngest.  Janet & Ted LeCompte were recognized as the newest family in the parish and the there was a tie between the Gleasons, the Gradys and the Nealons as the largest family, since they were all present with 7 children each.  At the meeting of the Parish Council on July 18^th, Mike and Maureen shared that given their first effort, it was judged a great success. Their next task was to welcome 10 Fresh Air families to be hosted by the parish over the summer.

The July meeting was a busy one as the new team set out with parish leaders to take charge of the parish and its many needs.  Fr. Goodwin had met with the lectors and they were looking to welcome women to that role in short order.  Marion Mairs was helping with altar servers and Elly Rockwood and Mary Sayles were busy sharing their sewing ability to create new vestments.  The CYC had been meeting regularly, helping with babysitting during Sunday morning Masses and riding the bus with the elderly from local housing sites to church.  A new meeting had been organized for those who had completed Cursillo to meet on Monday evenings.  Fr. Bowen had met with several groups and they were organizing efforts, especially catechetical details to start up in September.  Jack Sgammato shared that his committee was reviewing textbooks for the new year and getting teachers to attend the diocesan convention at the end of August.  Nick DeRuvo shared the hard details of the parish’s finances.  Weekly receipts were up in the first six months of 1973, averaging an increase of $500 a week.  The diocese was implementing a change for the dates of fiscal year, to begin on September 1^st to coincide with the school budgets and so they would be looking for budgets from committees for the new fiscal year in the near future.

The meeting continued with a discussion of the schedule of Masses for holydays, the idea to not accept intentions or stipends for Sunday Masses.  Mrs. Nancy Boskin had been hired as parish secretary and would start in her position the following Monday.  Discussion and a vote defeated the parish’s participation in the diocesan Share for Christ program.  Instead it was recommended that the new priests canvas the parish beginning September for a comprehensive census and that meeting them personally and learning firsthand the needs of the parish would be far more successful to increasing donations.  Fr. Caldarella shared the situation at the cemetery and shared that there was much work both financially and logistically to bring it up to par.  It was recommended that a cemetery committee be formed to include a priest, a local funeral director, a member of the Finance Committee, and two representatives from the parish.  Anna Shaughnessy made the motion, seconded by Fr. Bowen and passed by the Council unanimously. 

The August meeting kept this momentum going with discussion on needed repairs regarding the parish property and a vote that the priest prioritize the needs and address them accordingly.  There was a decision for the use of new missalettes, discussion on the budget as the parish approached the new fiscal year for the first time on September 1^st that year.  In addition, they agreed to review the Council Bylaws after five years of their initial implementation and voted to table any celebration for the 125^th anniversary of the parish given all the other changes and needs of the parish at the time.  The minutes of the September meeting would identify that William Finnegan had been hired as a custodian.  Consigli had completed repair work to the walkway and steps for the entrance to the Parish House as well as the Granite Street sidewalk.  Communion was starting with lay ministers to the homebound, slow but steady nonetheless; all local nursing homes were being visited monthly.  To the shut-ins, rather than restrict it to First Friday, it was distributed across the month given the number of calls needed exceeded the ability for the ministers for a single day of visits.  The new missalettes would arrive in October and news that Fr. Euaristo deVasconcelos would be helping Fr. Pedro with Masses on the weekends for the Portuguese community.  Attention for Family Life would be directed at a Baptismal preparation.  Altar servers would begin to wear a single-piece off-white robe, an alb in place of the familiar black cassock and surplice.  The priests would begin their census visitation in September and had decided to organize themselves by visiting houses by precinct.  Lastly, there was an initial discussion about the future of the school that was tabled for the time being.  In the coming months, this issue would loom larger than any other in the immediate life of the parish.

On Thursday, September 24, 1976, three youths who live around the church were playing in the church yard when they noticed smoke coming from the building.  They ran to the home of Mrs. Celia Abbiuso at the corner of Winter Street who telephoned the Milford Fire Department.  Fortunately, this call was placed before the detectors in the church were activated to notify anyone of the danger. For the second time in two decades, fire had caused significant damage to Saint Mary’s Church.  The last one had been in 1956 with a fire that started in the lower church near the confessionals.  In the article following this incident, Fr. Bowen identified that fire (in 1956) as having been caused by faulty electrical wires between the floors.

The damage was on the south side of the nave, under the window bay between the third and fourth Stations of the Cross.  Damage was extensive, estimated by initially at $8,000, and engaged both the upper and lower churches. Fortunately for the parish, the youth in the neighborhood’s quick response with Mrs. Abbiuso prevented more expensive or permanent damage to the church and the priceless window of the Annunciation. To this day, the lower portion of the valuable painting of the third Station of the Cross still has evidence of the incident.

While arson was suspected in this case as initially for the one in 1956, Fire Chief John DePaolo quickly ruled that out. During the day, workmen had been installing protective glass over the Mayer Munich windows in the upper church. To install this glass, they used a welding torch. They had worked until 3:30 pm, and the fire was noticed at 4 pm. It is surmised that the torch ignited a fire in the wood framing of the stained-glass window that was unseen and undetected before the workmen left for the day.  As a protocol, usually a contractor will set a fire watch for a period of time after the work is completed for a day to assure that this kind of incident does not take place. 

The damage was on the south side of the nave, under the window bay between the third and fourth Stations of the Cross.  Damage was extensive, estimated by initially at $8,000, and engaged both the upper and lower churches. Fortunately for the parish, the youth in the neighborhood’s quick response with Mrs. Abbiuso prevented more expensive or permanent damage to the church and the priceless window of the Annunciation. To this day, the lower portion of the valuable painting of the third Station of the Cross still has evidence of the incident.

On Thursday, September 24, 1976, three youths who live around the church were playing in the church yard when they noticed smoke coming from the building.  They ran to the home of Mrs. Celia Abbiuso at the corner of Winter Street who telephoned the Milford Fire Department.  Fortunately, this call was placed before the detectors in the church were activated to notify anyone of the danger. For the second time in two decades, fire had caused significant damage to Saint Mary’s Church.  The last one had been in 1956 with a fire that started in the lower church near the confessionals.  In the article following this incident, Fr. Bowen identified that fire (in 1956) as having been caused by faulty electrical wires between the floors.

While arson was suspected in this case as initially for the one in 1956, Fire Chief John DePaolo quickly ruled that out. During the day, workmen had been installing protective glass over the Mayer Munich windows in the upper church. To install this glass, they used a welding torch. They had worked until 3:30 pm, and the fire was noticed at 4 pm. It is surmised that the torch ignited a fire in the wood framing of the stained-glass window that was unseen and undetected before the workmen left for the day.  As a protocol, usually a contractor will set a fire watch for a period of time after the work is completed for a day to assure that this kind of incident does not take place. 

The damage was on the south side of the nave, under the window bay between the third and fourth Stations of the Cross.  Damage was extensive, estimated by initially at $8,000, and engaged both the upper and lower churches. Fortunately for the parish, the youth in the neighborhood’s quick response with Mrs. Abbiuso prevented more expensive or permanent damage to the church and the priceless window of the Annunciation. To this day, the lower portion of the valuable painting of the third Station of the Cross still has evidence of the incident.
 

On Thursday, September 24, 1976, three youths who live around the church were playing in the church yard when they noticed smoke coming from the building.  They ran to the home of Mrs. Celia Abbiuso at the corner of Winter Street who telephoned the Milford Fire Department.  Fortunately, this call was placed before the detectors in the church were activated to notify anyone of the danger. For the second time in two decades, fire had caused significant damage to Saint Mary’s Church.  The last one had been in 1956 with a fire that started in the lower church near the confessionals.  In the article following this incident, Fr. Bowen identified that fire (in 1956) as having been caused by faulty electrical wires between the floors.

While arson was suspected in this case as initially for the one in 1956, Fire Chief John DePaolo quickly ruled that out. During the day, workmen had been installing protective glass over the Mayer Munich windows in the upper church. To install this glass, they used a welding torch. They had worked until 3:30 pm, and the fire was noticed at 4 pm. It is surmised that the torch ignited a fire in the wood framing of the stained-glass window that was unseen and undetected before the workmen left for the day.  As a protocol, usually a contractor will set a fire watch for a period of time after the work is completed for a day to assure that this kind of incident does not take place. 

With the sale of the school, the parish finances were now at an even balance.  There was no additional income for any parish projects, but the parish wasn’t in debt to the diocese or anyone else at this point in her history.  The Pastoral Team now turned its energy to the updating of the church which had not seen a significant renovation or update, apart from some minor repairs after a couple of fires, since the 1950s. The ornate decoration of many Catholic churches that had served as a living catechism for the uneducated through the centuries was now in question. Saint Mary’s would face the fate of many other churches renovated following the Second Vatican Council.

New directives in the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy from Vatican II recognized the Eucharist as the ‘source and summit’ of our Catholic faith, also demanded the ‘full and active participation’ of the laity.  Centuries of liturgical practice were now to be changed as the reforms of the Council reached back to the first centuries of the Church’s life to stipulate that the Mass be offered facing the people, in their vernacular language, and that the focus be on Christ in the sacrament and not on other devotions that many people busied themselves with during Mass since they didn’t understand the Latin ritual.

Mr. Blaise Drayton, a former Trappist monk, with an extensive background in liturgical design and practice, was chosen to be the architect for the changes to take place.  The renovation would be radical, changing the experience of more than a century of Catholic sacramental life in the church.  The tabernacle, always the central focus resting on the altar of sacrifice against the far eastern wall, was to be placed in a separate chapel on its own pedestal.  There was to be only one altar. The side altar installed by Fr. Foran with the triptych housing the painting of the Crucifixion would be removed and the former arch behind reinstated as it was originally in the church.

A new altar would be fashioned that would be freestanding on a new step of marble and behind it would be presider’s chair, with his assistants on either side.  This altar and its matching pulpit would repurpose some of the marble from the former altars and the altar railing.  The holy water font in the base of the bell tower would be installed as the baptismal font in the sanctuary and the statues in the sanctuary would find their new home in the corners of the base of the bell tower.  The step to the pews would be removed with new pews fabricated and installed at the same level as the aisles which would be carpeted and a vinyl covering placed on the floor under the pews.  The side door to the sacristy would be closed to become an arched background for the patronal statue of Our Lady which was taken from over the doorway of the granite school building.  The altar rail would be used as marble accents for some of the new liturgical appointments since people would not be kneeling for communion, but standing and moving in a processional line. Lastly, the entire church would be painted a neutral color.  The ornate stencils and gold leaf that accented various architectural details would be painted the same color so that one’s eye would focus on the action of the Mass and not the distracting decorations.  The initial budget estimated these changes to cost the parish $300,000.  A fundraiser would be needed.