Bishop McManus makes ninth Jubilee pilgrimage – to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

“When you come into this church, you want to pray.”

That’s what Stigmatine Father Richard A. Scioli, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford, says visitors tell him.

He says he has been giving pilgrims tours of the church, one of the diocese’s 10 pilgrimage sites for this Jubilee Year of Hope, “because I want to pray with them too.”

About 500 pilgrims have visited Sacred Heart this year, and an estimated 160 people joined Bishop McManus there Sunday, All Souls’ Day, for vespers for the faithful departed, Father Scioli says.

“You could hear a lot of singing ... very uplifting,” he says, a good report for a parish long focused on music and other forms of art.

Father Scioli says he’s met most of this year’s pilgrims personally, including a group of at least 250 from the other Catholic parish in Milford, St. Mary of the Assumption. Some pilgrims were given their tour by Stigmatine Father Gregory J. Hoppough, who is in residence at Sacred Heart.  

“I grew up in the parish,” staffed by Stigmatines since 1913, says Father Scioli. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata, served at a Stigmatine parish in Springfield and Stigmatine retreat house in Waltham, and in 2003 returned to Sacred Heart as pastor.
Let’s tour of the church with him.  

Climbing several steps, we enter the upper church, which he describes as having a Romanesque design, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Stigmatine Father Raymond Dalla Porta, the pastor who had it built, was a composer and organist with a doctorate in sacred music, says Father Scioli, who received first Communion from him here. He envisioned this church, “built for the human voice,” for music “sung for the glory of God.”

Father Scioli says: “The art and architecture blend beautifully for worship. When the organist hits a note, it gets to the sanctuary and back to the organ [in the choir loft] in five seconds. You can hear the resonance.” He demonstrates by clapping his hands to send a sound flying through the church.  

When the upper church’s first organ was beyond repair, it was dismantled, Father Scioli says. In 1968 Stigmatine Father David Gallagher, an organist and composer who was Sacred Heart’s associate pastor at various times, got the present Austin pipe organ set up in the church. The upper church also has a Steinway baby grand piano and the lower church has a continuo pipe organ.

The parish has cantors, a small choir and Robert W. Blake Jr. as full-time organist and music director, who composed music for solemn vespers last Sunday and for the feast of Christ the King, Gaudete and Laetare Sundays, and Pentecost.  

On the upper church walls hang paintings, since Father Dalla Porta believed art is part of the treasury of the Church, Father Scioli says.  

Some of the stained-glass windows honor parishioners killed during World War II, as does the triptych of the Blessed Mother and angels. Because of the war, for which Father Dalla Porta’s predecessor became a chaplain, building of the upper church was delayed. When it was built, much marble was used.

Over the tabernacle, where the old altar stood, stands a baldachino with a dove on the inside of the dome. The Jewish artist who created the dove had asked to donate something to this church, where he was painting faux marble during the 2014 renovations, says Father Scioli, who recommended a dove to represent the Holy Spirit like the one in a window in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Behind the baldachino is a bas-relief of Jesus revealing his Sacred Heart to St. Magaret Mary Alacoque. Father Scioli says that during the 2014 renovations it was repainted by another Jewish man, who came to work in a suit and tie, replacing the suit jacket with a smock before painting.

“He called this a temple,” Father Scioli says. “He knew it was a holy space.”  

The bas-relief covered a stained-glass window that, when placed in the 1940s, was not properly centered, Father Scioil says.

“The window remained hidden for 70 years,” he says. “I saw that window” from outside. “I was always curious.” During the 2014 renovations, he had it removed and restored and found that it depicts Jesus’ Sacred Heart and was apparently donated by Sacred Heart School. It is now “showcased in our chapel,” the lower church.

Painted on the wall in the gathering space behind the chapel are depictions of the parish’s four church buildings.

The parish golden jubilee booklet gives the history of these buildings, and people who preceded them, starting with some who settled there in 1880.  

“A few years later a small group of Italian-speaking women … decided to call an Italian-speaking priest to Milford from Boston,” it says. The first Mass in Milford for the Italian people was celebrated in 1890 in the Stone Castle.  

In 1894 Italians discussed starting a church of their own.

In 1905 the parish was founded when Bishop Thomas D. Beaven of Springfield sent Father Rocco Petrarca to Milford to care for the Italians. He conducted services at St. Mary’s while seeking money for an Italian church.

The John Miller property on East Main Street was obtained and remodeled for services, and the church was dedicated on Aug. 13, 1905. The first organist, Minnie Murphy, presented the church with its first organ.

Later a tower was built in front of the church and the facade was covered with granite, and Father Petrarca held a blessing of this second church on May 16, 1910.  

In 1913 he was succeeded by Stigmatine Father Erminio Lona.  

Elizabeth C. Supple, who had a sister, and two brothers who were priests, died in 1923, leaving more property on East Main Street for erecting a Catholic Church or school.

Father Lona’s successor, Stigmatine Father Louis Fontana, finding the old church too small for the growing congregation, erected a new church, dedicated in 1927. It is now the lower church, called the Chapel of the Holy Spouses Mary and Joseph, the Stigmatines’ patrons.  
Father Fontana used the former church for a hall for a little theater. His successor, Stigmatine Father Raymond Dalla Porta, added bowling alleys there.

His successor, Stigmatine Father Julius Valentinelli, tried to build a new church. The project was delayed as materials were scarce during World War II and Father Valentinelli became a U.S. Army chaplain.

An administrator served the parish briefly, then in 1943 Father Dalla Porta returned as pastor and built the present main church on top of the previous one. It was dedicated in 1947, the history says,  adding that Father Dalla Porta played the organ for the “Bendicamus” Mass of Lorenzo Perosi.

To this day, the church is a place where music is appreciated.


Church open for pilgrims visiting Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, 7 East Main St., Milford:

Saturdays: Noon-6 p.m., with confessions at 3 p.m. and Mass at 4 p.m. in the upper church
Sundays: 8 a.m.-noon, with Mass at 8 and 10 a.m. in the upper church

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: Mass at 7 a.m. in the Chapel of the Holy Spouses (lower church)Bishop McManus makes ninth Jubilee pilgrimage –
to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford
Feast of Christ the King (Nov. 23) and Gaudete Sunday (Dec. 14): Solemn vespers with Benediction at 4 p.m. in the upper church

For guided tours and prayer at other times please call 508-634-5435.

Stamp available for “Jubilee 2025 Pilgrim’s Guide”

(Elevator available at back left of the church.)