Bishop McManus makes seventh Jubilee pilgrimage – to St. John the Evangelist Church in Clinton

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By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

CLINTON – The hope of the harvest is in the seed.

Bishop McManus quoted that saying Sunday at St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish’s 175th anniversary celebration outside St. John’s gym. He had just made his seventh pilgrimage to one of the ten designated churches for the Jubilee Year of Hope. He mentioned the children playing and said, “This is my idea of a parish. … You should be very proud of the parish.”

Before the bishop spoke, Claire Raby, 93, a parishioner here ever since she made her first Communion, had said the parish “looks like it’s alive and well.”

What makes it alive?

“All those children running around.”

The Catholic Free Press also asked other people what makes St. John’s alive.
“I think the community;  it’s very strong and people are very connected,” replied Gabriela Barros, 13, of the Portuguese-speaking community.

Her mother, Izabel Pinto, added that Father Thiago Ibiapina, the associate pastor, is like a bridge connecting the Brazilians and Americans. (He speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish, facilitating communication with the different ethnic communities.)

A vibrant community is self-perpetuating, said Felipe Fernandez. When he and his wife and children moved from Chicago “there was no place to park” at St. John’s because of all the people attending Mass, he said. They come here from their home in Sterling because he gets the sense both priests are very holy. Of the pastor, Father James S. Mazzone, he said, “In the best way possible, he is all things to all people” – he has high Mass and Masses in Portuguese and Spanish.

“People really hunger for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” Father Mazzone said. Any church that has that “has no choice but to be alive. I think it’s been here for a long time in Clinton. It’s evidenced by the eucharistic adoration chapel – 58 hours a week we have eucharistic adoration.”

Pedro Urbina of Fitchburg, who called St. John’s his family’s “adopted parish,” praised the adoration with a large Host and the music, especially at English Masses. Father Mazzone is always available for the people and joins Father Ibiapina in distributing Communion at the Spanish Mass, he said. There are many events, even “something as basic as … coffee and donuts” after Mass.

“We drive from Maynard,” Molly Bergman said of herself, her husband, Philip, and their children. “We pass at least two Catholic churches. We specifically come [to St. John’s] for the community, the beauty, the truth, that is here, and the availability of the sacraments.” She said there the priests offer the opportunity for confession before and after the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass, and anointing of the sick afterwards, every Sunday.

“They’ve really tried to help the students” in religious education classes, who are expected to attend Mass with their families or sit with their classes, she said.

“There is a great deal of support for the homeschoolers,” she noted; she homeschooled her children.

The homeschool, parish and altar server communities were some reasons she gave for the parish being alive. She also mentioned Gregorian Chant, and occasionally some Latin, at Mass; large, like-minded families; the prayers of the community, the pastor’s support “when we struggle” and the great associate pastor.


A glimpse into the history of the church dedicated 175 years ago

CLINTON – A double celebration was held here on Sunday. Bishop McManus’ visit to the diocesan pilgrimage church named St. John the Evangelist, and the 175th anniversary of St. John’s first church building, were commemorated with vespers in the church and a picnic outside St. John’s gym.

The parish is now called St. John, Guardian of Our Lady. Created on July 1, 2010 from the merger of the three Catholic parishes in town – Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Jasna Gora and St. John the Evangelist – it uses St. John’s property.

The parish traces its history to 1845, when Father Matthew Gibson of Worcester celebrated outdoors the first Mass in Clintonville, a village in Lancaster, according to a history on the website stjohnsclinton.org/history. Other parish histories and “History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Springfield” by Father John J. McCoy, published in 1900, help tell the story.

Father Gibson later celebrated Masses about every six weeks in a house. In 1847, his assistant Father John Boyce took charge and celebrated Masses more frequently.
Father Boyce oversaw construction of the first Catholic church here, begun in 1849 on South Main Street. The church was dedicated on Oct. 4, 1850 in the newly established town of Clinton. It was the 175th anniversary of this dedication that the parish celebrated last Sunday.
St. John’s became a parish on Dec. 1, 1862.

In 1869, its first church was replaced by a church on Pleasant Street, when Father Richard J. Patterson was pastor.

A mission church named for the Immaculate Conception was established in Lancaster in 1873. It became a parish in 1915, and is now again served by the priests of St. John’s.

Father Patterson also oversaw the building of the present St. John’s church on Union Street in Clinton. On Aug. 8, 1875, Bishop Patrick T. O’Reilly, a former curate of St. John’s who had become head of the Springfield diocese, laid the cornerstone. He dedicated the church under the patronage of St. John the Evangelist in 1886.

Father Patterson had the Pleasant St. Church renovated into a school and in 1888 the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary came to run it.

In the early 1900s two more parishes were established in Clinton – Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and St. Mary Parish (later named Our Lady of Jasna Gora).

St. John’s received upgrades under Father Michael P. Kavanagh, who came in 1934. The sanctuary was enlarged. New stained glass windows and a copy of a painting of St. John the Evangelist, which had been in the parish’s previous churches, were installed. An electric organ was also installed and the mechanism by which the chimes were played was electrified.

There are “11 bells with a combined weight of nine tons, with notes ranging from low C to high D,” the parish’s Visitor’s Guide says. Available on the website stjohnsclinton.org and as a 175th Anniversary booklet in the church, the guide also identifies the holy people depicted by the multiple statues and in numerous stained glass windows, paintings and murals.

During Father Thomas V. Walsh’s pastorate, interior and exterior renovations were done at St. John’s, which was rededicated in 1998.

At the 175th anniversary celebration Sunday, Father James S. Mazzone, present pastor, had attendees applaud the late Fathers Walsh and Patterson.

In a homily at vespers Msgr. Francis D. Kelly, a priest of the Worcester diocese and canon of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, expressed appreciation for the parish’s forebears and solicited applause for those who continue their work – Father Mazzone and the associate pastor, Father Thiago Ibiapina.

Msgr. Kelly noted that this parish that originally had many Irish immigrants now includes parishioners from Brazil and Spanish-speaking countries.

“We are a Catholic Church,” he noted. “The word means universal.”

Preaching on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he concluded with thanksgiving for the Church that has come from Christ’s cross.