Diocese’s first new parish is 
75 years old next week

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

As the Worcester diocese celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, so too does St. Boniface Parish in Lunenburg.

It was the first new parish created by Bishop John J. Wright, first bishop of Worcester, says a July 6, 1984 Catholic Free Press supplement. The supplement was for the 150th anniversary of St. John Parish in Worcester, the mother church of the diocese, and it included other parishes’ histories.

On June 24, 1950, Bishop Wright announced his intention to create the first parish in Lunenburg, according to a history in the parish’s dedication booklet. Father John E. O’Toole, was named founding pastor, and officially started the parish on July 5, 1950.

Earlier in 1950, Bishop Wright had raised missions in other towns to the status of a parish. But in Lunenburg, where there was no mission, he just created a parish. Catholics there had previously worshipped in churches in Leominster or Fitchburg.

The supplement says the new parish’s name honored a connection between the English saint who was called the apostle of Germany, and the German town from which the town of Lunenburg got its name.

Mass was celebrated in Lunenburg for the first time on Sunday, July 9, at 8:30 a.m. at the town hall, and 10:30 a.m. at the Whalom Ballroom, a schedule that continued for the next two years, the parish history says. In the winter, the second Mass was at the Whalom Roller Skating Rink.

The diocese soon bought a house, which was turned into a rectory, with one room remodeled as a chapel for daily Mass. The first Mass was celebrated on Thanksgiving Day 1950.

Catechism classes were started, and the Men’s Club and St. Boniface Guild (women’s club) were organized to help raise funds for a church building.

On June 27, 1952, Bishop Wright separated the Whalom-North Leominster area from St. Boniface to create Our Lady of the Lake Parish.

In July that year, Father Peter B. Malloy succeeded Father O’Toole, and led the construction of St. Boniface Church.

Bishop Wright officiated at the groundbreaking on Aug. 16, 1953 and at the dedication on Oct. 9, 1954. The first Mass had been celebrated in the unfinished church on June 19, 1954 for a first Communion, and the first regular Masses started on Aug. 1.

Father Edward J. Moran, named fifth pastor in 1979, made religious education a priority, and the next year Sister Charlene A. O’Leary, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, became the first full-time Director of Religious Education, a parish history from 2015 says. Others from her congregation later served in that role or as pastoral associates.
The church was renovated, and rededicated in 1981.

In 2006 the parish opened St. Boniface Early Education School for childcare and pre-school. It serves children aged 2 years and nine months to 6, Monday through Friday, year-round, with part-time and full-time options, said the director, Nina Charpentier. She said it does not incorporate religion, but generates money for the parish. It is licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care for 30 children at a time and is usually full. Parishioners and others from the town and neighboring towns come.